The Partition Project - Saadia Faruqi - ★★★.½

AUTHOR: Saadia Faruqi

GENRE: Middle-Grade Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: February 27, 2024

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade novel about a young Pakistani-American girl who learns about the traumatic Partition days from her grandmother. Liked the partition-related segments – some of the scenes were heartbreaking. But the writing was somewhat mixed. Regardless, I appreciate the effort of bringing this part of Indo-Pak history to a new audience.

Plot Preview:

Twelve-year-old Mahnoor has wanted to become a journalist for as long as she can remember. She loves facts and research, and can’t stand anything that stems from opinion instead of reality.

When she hears that her paternal grandmother – her ‘Dadi’ – is coming over from Pakistan to stay with them, she is not happy about having to give up her room and become Dadi’s “babysitter.” But once they begin talking, Mahnoor realises that Dadi’s memories of the Partition would be the perfect subject for the documentary she has to make for her media studies class. Thus begins the ‘Partition Project.’

The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Mahnoor, with some content written in interview script.

Few children’s novels focus on traumatic historical events, and even when they do, the topics are usually restricted to those that have had an impact on the Western world. However, the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 into two countries – India and Pakistan, which was further split many years later and the Eastern chunk became Bangladesh – by the Brit colonists forever changed the history, the geography, and the politics of this part of the world. The event is a shared trauma for all the three nations and its citizens, whether we were alive in 1947 or not. Till date, we feel the repercussions of this heinous split. So I am glad to see a middle-grade novel take up this part of history as its central focus, even if the execution of the plot was a mixed bag to me.

Bookish Yays:

💐 The intent: Thank you to the author for choosing this topic! The world needs to know what happens when such selfish actions were taken by the colonists without any concern for the local citizens. The ego of the politicians was the only winner.

💐 Dadi’s character: A typical South Asian grandma, she is stern yet loving. And an expert cook! Through her behaviour, she offers a genuine and positive glimpse of a traditional Muslim woman. The bond between her and Mahnoor, once it develops, is touching.

💐 Mahnoor’s friends: Kim – a Vietnamese American – and Ahmed – a newly-emigrated Pakistani, both add much to the story. Ahmed’s portrayal in particular has a great deal of authenticity to it. I also liked Mahnoor’s elder brother Talha, who had no qualms entering the kitchen and cooking – not something we see desi boys do often in fiction. (Or in real life!)

💐 The Pakistani-American representation: Not that I have first-hand knowledge of this, but the desi rep felt very accurate. The kids especially were a nice amalgamation of South Asian and American cultures.

💐 The Islamic representation: Again, I am an outsider, but based on what I know, the depiction of the Muslim people felt very genuine. There is too much explanation at times about their rituals and preferences, but I guess this is fine as the book is aimed at a crowd that knows barely anything about Islam except what they hear in the media, which is rarely complimentary.

💐 The food: What yummy delicacies! When I read books with desi food, I simply can’t stop salivating! In this one, Mahnoor’s Dadi is constantly cooking some scrumptious Pakistani dishes. Islamic food is among my favourite options here for nonveg cuisine, so this book created an urge to go to the nearest Muslim restaurant and binge!

💐 The author’s note: Succinct, yet impactful. I loved learning about the 1947 repository.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🌹 The Partition Project: As most of the partition details come through Mahnoor’s interviews with Dadi and the other seniors she meets, we get a first-person rendition of the painful events resulting from the country’s split. Many scenes left me teary-eyed, though I already knew what happened during the partition. These stories are never easy to read. However, the book doesn’t go in detail into the why’s of the partition. Yes, the country was split, but merely offering a one-sentence reason isn’t fair or accurate. The partition was a direct outcome of the colonial powers’ decision, so why not clarify that part of history as well? It’s like telling a child about the events of the Holocaust without informing them what led to it. The cause is as important as the effect.

🌹 Mahnoor’s character: Mahnoor is tough to like for most of the book. While she is clever and ambitious, she is also judgemental, entitled, and selfish. She begins as the typical girl who thinks old people know nothing. It was nice to see her improve in behaviour and acknowledge her mistakes towards the end, but it took her way too long to reach that point.

🌹 The subplots: The story should have primarily handled the partition, but there are too many unnecessary subplots, such as the presence of a typical “Mean Girl” kind of classmate in Tiffany, Mahnoor’s abhorrence for all things fiction, the friendship struggles with Kim, and Mahnoor’s obsession with journalism. Some of these are handled well, but some were just annoying. The book also feels somewhat unstructured because of the superfluous topics.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 Character inconsistencies: Mahnoor loves facts, yet she takes ages to go to Google to learn more about the Indo-Pak partition. She doesn’t know Urdu basics such as the meaning of her name or of phrases such as ‘Inshaallah’, but she has read the whole Quran in Urdu! She claims to love research, but she has never bothered to research her own family history. Mahnoor’s parents are constantly shown as being too busy and uninvolved in their children’s lives, but they are also shown as taking out time whenever needed by their children – so are they uninterested parents or involved ones?

🌵 Plot gaps: The book raises many topics that aren’t addressed properly. Why did Dadi come over from Pakistan? When and why was Mahnoor’s dad adopted? (You can’t bring up a character’s adoption status thrice and not give any further details of it!) The definition of halal was also incomplete, even though the word comes up multiple times in the book.

🌵 At 400+ pages, this is way too long for a middle-grade novel. The middle section of the book is somewhat tiresome and could have been trimmed. The scenes about Mahnoor’s parents forgetting about the documentary and her grandmother not realising that she was being recorded for an interview felt repetitive.

🌵 Mahnoor’s Ammi (mother) is an accomplished dietitician, yet she is shamed for not being able to cook at the same skill level as her mother-in-law. Why was this necessary? There are many scenes where Ammi is teased or insulted by the other family members, and she just grins and bears it. Comments about her shortcomings are passed even when she isn’t around to defend herself. Never right to do this, especially in a children’s book!

Despite my mixed feelings, I am still going to recommend this novel, and not just to people of Indian/Pakistani origin. Everyone needs to learn about the Partition. For the same reason that we need to learn about the Holocaust and the Vietnam War and the Holodomor and the ‘Black Death’ plague and the Depression and myriad other horrifying events of history. To learn from the errors of the past, to avoid the same mistakes in the present and to safeguard the future of the planet and our children.

This is my second book by this author, having earlier read and enjoyed her chapter book titled ‘Yasmin the Detective’. And because of how authentic she keeps the rep, I will continue reading her despite this mixed experience.

Recommended to middle-graders interested in learning about a not-so-known part of history, and to MG classrooms looking for a culturally inclusive, discussion-worthy book.

3.5 stars, rounding up wherever applicable because… you know… the desi heart cannot round it down.

My thanks to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Partition Project”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.