Tender Hooks by Moni Mohsin
by Poonam Pattni
Tender Hooks, Moni Mohsin’s latest novel, comes at a time when real questions are being asked about the social and political fibres of Pakistan. With its simple characters and even simpler plot, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s just another chick-lit blockbuster; however, Mohsin manages to deliver a hard hitting critique of day to day living in a city battling with the oppressive weight of religious fanaticism.
The plot is less than complicated; our socialite is manipulated by her Aunty Pussy into finding a wife for her hapless cousin, Jonkers. Embarking on this task is by no means easy, as Jonkers isn’t exactly a catch. With his thirty-seventh birthday just gone and his recent “die-vorce” from the lower class, meaty, furry smelling Shumaila (who made off with Aunty Pussy’s jewellery and Jonkers’ brand new Toyota Corolla), his marriage prospects are somewhere between low and desperate.
Taking all this in her stride, our socialite clambers her way (flapping her “Prada–wallah shoe” in front of her friend, Sunny’s nose as she goes) through Lahore’s high society explaining to her unsuspecting reader the importance of “baggrounds” in selecting an ideal marriage partner and of course the social imperative behind kitty parties.
Mohsin’s representation of “marriage mentality” is played out through a series of potential suitors for Jonkers. Without giving too much away, they range from the daughter of a drug smuggling family to an oversized lesbian, both of whom Aunty Pussy is quick to approve. Whilst empathising with Aunty Pussy’s thinking, our narrow minded socialite starts to question the undue emphasis placed on suitability and even thinks about the foundations of her own marriage to Janoo, the “Oxen graduate”; with one partner a liberal free thinking socialist and the other a materialistic airheaded socialite, there is almost a sense of tragedy in their awkward set up.
The most enjoyable part of this novel is undoubtedly the narration: our socialite’s first hand narration is, borrowing Salman Rushdie’s term, a “chutneyfication” – a mix of subcontinental English and colloquial Urdu. The entertaining style of commentary almost disguises the harsh criticisms that are made of Pakistan’s society as Mohsin allows the socialite’s narrow minded observations to explore much bigger issues, such as the use of foreign aid in Pakistan and the rising influence of the “beardo-weirdos”. This juxtaposition is all the more emphasised by Mohsin’s use of Lahore’s breaking news headlines throughout the story.
Moni Mohsin’s Tender Hooks is a narration of fashionable misdemeanours through Lahore’s high society, and this book is social satire at its finest.
Share this article
