It has been a while since I've read Austen's Persuasion, and I should probably remedy that, but alas, here I am reviewing another adult, Desi-fied, Muslim tinged retelling, and am embarrassed to admit I was absorbed and invested, as if I had no idea how it would play out. Sure there were author liberties, but the heart of the story hits the same beats (that I recall) and works so well when adapted for our faith and culture. It isn't halal halal, nor is it Muslim focused, the culture and cultural expectations are definitely more centered for the Pakistani American Muslim cast. The characters are all Muslim, a few wear hijab, they abstain from alcohol, date with intent to marry, attend Bismillahs, but they aren't shown praying, or viewing life through an Islamic lens, or Muslim conscience. There are a few kisses and hand holds, and male/female close friendships, but for an adult read, the Muslim authored 400 page novel is pretty notably clean.

SYNOPSIS:
Asma is in her final year of Emergency Medicine residency and the pressure to get married is ever mounting. With her father making poor financial choices, he and Asma's oldest sister Iman, are moving out of their Palo Alto mansion and heading back to Sacramento. Culture won't let Asma live alone, so she is forced to crash on an air mattress at her youngest sister, Maryam's house in the room of her three year old twin nephews. Asma feels it is her responsibility to take care of everyone since her mother passed away, but with the family splitting up, she has to decide for once, what she wants. Eight years ago she did what she was told and broke off her engagement with Farook. Unfortunately, she has regretted it every day since and never moved on. When of all people, Farook's sister moves into Asma's old house, a chance encounter brings the two face to face. When Farook starts courting Maryam's sister in law, things get particularly tense. Throw in a dozen or more side characters, amp up the drama, and settle in to see how it all unfolds.

WHY I LIKE IT:

If my recollection of the original source material holds, it takes a while to get all the characters in their desired place and position for the story to sweep the reader away, and this version does the same. At times I worried that threads and characters were being overlooked, but by the end, most everything felt resolved. I did feel Fatima's story was underdeveloped and showed Asma as being a bit of a bad friend, and there is no way three year olds would recognize someone from a picture taken 8 years earlier, but I know, romance books require some suspension of reality to work. The premise of the plot is even a bit shaky, but once you are rooting for the characters you aren't too worried about why they need a second chance. For the most part the writing is fairly smooth, a fair amount of characters the author managed to keep annoying, but not completely unredeemable, and I appreciated the restraint. The pacing at times was a little sluggish, with a lot of characters that the reader needed to connect with resulting in telling and not showing, so I was a bit disappointed that end felt rushed. I wanted to bask in the resolution of all that angst, longing looks, and obstacles being overcome.

There is quite a bit of commentary about pushing back on stereotypes, expectations, and cultural weight. There are aunties doing the match making and gossiping, and plenty of folks chasing wealth above all else, it doesn't weigh down the storyline, but it at times does get a bit repetitive and shallow.

FLAGS:

Romance, kissing, hugging, holding hands, lying, death, pyramid scheme, alcohol, consumerism,

TOOLS FOR LEADING THE DISCUSSION:
I might let this be in a school library, it is clearly adult with the characters nearly 30 years old, but high school romance lovers will enjoy this, and it isn't overly mature for ages 16 and up.

A desi version of Persuasion - that's all I heard before I knew I had to have this book! I enjoyed following Asma and her pursuits for happiness, even if she didn't know what she wanted at the start. I liked her male interest Farooq, with the two of them having evident chemistry together when they interacted. I did feel the ending was a little rushed and would have liked it played out a bit more but that's just for my own satisfaction. This was a fun read and I'd be keen to try more by this author.

This retelling is AMAZING. One of the best reimaginings of Persuasion I've ever read. I cried basically the whole time from the longing and angst. Every change and wink to the original really made sense and this is a seamless story on its own.

As much as I love OG Persuasion I will admit the whole bodily harm part of the storyline is the one I like the least when it has to be included in a retelling. If you haven't read the original (which you don't need to to enjoy this book) there is an important catalyst when one of the characters has an accident that is severe enough to require pretty extensive recovery from. Nura did such a good job bringing that to contemporary times I was so impressed. It made so much sense for the FMC to be an ER doctor and it all felt very real. I genuinely appreciate and approve of it in this version.

The traditional Pakistani family structure I think was also very important to the story and a great edition. Some of the conversations with family members felt painfully real, no matter what background you come from you have heard people say these flippant but biting remarks about others.

Many thanks to Dutton for the eARC! I only have good things to say.

Persuasion is my favorite Austen novel and my record for re-imaginings is probably 50/50. I think I would've preferred this one to be more original. It's a fairly straightforward adaptation, but I thought the writing was too expository and none of the characters really stood out on their own merit.

A retelling of Jane Austen's classic 'Persuasion' with Asma, an American-Pakistani Muslim, having 8 years ago broken off her engagement with Farooq because he wasn't considered a suitable match by her wealthy father or her aunt. Farooq comes back into her life when their fortunes are reversed and Farooq is successful and Asma's family are facing ruin.

I think Austen novels adapt well to Desi Muslim romances and I enjoyed this one. Asma is a likeable heroine, she's not as much of a pushover as Anne in the original novel and the beats in the story are hit well with smooth story telling. Some adaptations seem to hit beats almost out of necessity to related to the original but Maznavi seems to have thought through the story and made adjustments where needed.

I will say some of the writing choices were slightly jarring to me. Our heroine seemed to have a habit of food and drink spilling as a sign of shock or indecision which was used enough to seem repetitive but not enough to seem intentional. I also didn't like the conclusion of the book as much as the original. I think there the character adjustments seemed at odds with the rest of the book. For that to be the conclusion I feel like more should have been adjusted throughout the story to make the change hit differently. I do appreciate when people try to put their own spin on things, but for me this was one that to me was not for the better.

Overall, however, I liked the book and found it well adapted and relatable (as a desi Muslim in a Western country) and the little details were very well done, down to societal reactions and the way societal gatherings can feel like inquisitions for unmarried women.

I've been in a ginormous reading slump lately so I really just couldn't get into this one. Nothing against the book, it just didn't have that spark that made me want to continue reading.

Persuasion is one of my favorite Jane Austen books and in Yours, Eventually Nura Maznavi does a wonderful job of translating the story and the emotion to the modern world and a different culture. Perhaps because the Pakistani culture can have a strong family influence on children and a chance to change more easily to a “higher social class” than some other cultures, the story of Anne and Frederick makes sense as the story of Asma and Farooq. It was especially gratifying that Maznavi provides redemption for Asma's sisters. In Austen's work they come across as stereotypes (though perhaps she is the source of the original type.)
I also enjoyed that the story didn’t become a more typical “romance” novel with sex becoming a chapter of its own. I recommend it to all readers of contemporary Austen homages.

Yours, Eventually is a second chance love story set in a wealthy Pakistani-American community in Bay Area. A debut novel by author Nura Maznavi, it is modeled on Austen’s Persuasion. Austen is a fiction magnet for south-Asian writers (mainly because most south-Asians would have experienced a version of Austen’s fictional world in their personal life), and there are several ‘desi’ versions of Persuasion out there. So, in some ways Maznavi is treading an old ground here but I was interested in finding out if she makes something new out of a familiar classical story and how the plot lines and characters are updated in a twenty-first century setting.

Asma Ibrahim is an unmarried twenty something muslim-American woman completing her final year of medical residency. She is a talented physician and loves her job in the emergency department—the adrenaline rush of treating sudden and unexpected medical emergencies, solving medical problems and the easy camaraderie of fellow residents. Great though her professional life is, she is deeply unhappy in her personal life. Years ago, during her freshman year she fell in love with Farooq, another freshman. They wanted to marry but Asma was persuaded by her father and aunt to give him up because he was considered not suitable (as being not wealthy enough). Over the years, Asma has come to realize that he is the love of her life and angry at herself for dumping him.

Asma is the middle of three daughters of a wealthy businessman and lives with her father and unmarried elder sister Iman in a posh neighborhood in Palo Alto. They are part of a tightly knit affluent Muslim community—conservative, status conscious, snobbish and brutally competitive. Membership in the community requires being born into wealth, marrying into wealth, having Ivy League degrees and prestigious jobs. Both Iman and Asma have careers but are slighted a lot because of their unmarried status and, the ‘aunties’ of their community are constantly trying to fix them with ‘eligible’ men.

The novel begins at a lavish party thrown by Mr. Ibrahim, to celebrate his retirement from his import business, attended by all the movers and shakers of the Palo Alto Muslim community. It is not exactly retirement because Ibrahim has lost a great deal of money in bad investments and the business has gone under. He and Iman are moving into their smaller home in Sacramento while their Palo Alto McMansion is rented out. Her home situation is a sore point with Asma because she has assumed the role of responsible family caretaker since her mother died and feels trapped by the practicalities of living with her father and her elder sister. During the party, Asma finds out, along with every other member of their community, that her former boyfriend Farooq has sold his start-up company for 500 million dollars.

As if that is not enough, it turns out that the new tenants for their McMansion are Farooq’s sister and her husband. Suddenly, after eight years of total absence, he is back in her life. Farooq is also now a hot marriage prospect for every unmarried Muslim woman. Isma tries to let him know that she still loves him, but Farooq still hurt and angry wants nothing to do with her. Though sad, his rejection gives her the time and space to think about how she wants to live her life and where she wants to go with it. When her supervisor at the hospital mentions that Asma is the top candidate for a job opening coming up, Asma decides that she will accept it and continue to live in Palo Alto even though her father expects her to move back to Sacramento. Alas, all her plans are undone when her father gets a massive heart attack on her graduation day. She lets go of the exciting job opportunity and moves to Sacramento to take care of him.

What Asma finds at home is that though her father is ill, socially he and Iman have found their groove, networked to the haughty, wealthy Muslim community. Iman, to the surprise of many, has gotten engaged to a wealthy man. When Asma speaks disparagingly about her engagement, long simmering resentments between siblings bubble to the surface and some home truths are exchanged. After much soul-searching, Asma decides to move back to Palo Alto with her father’s blessing.

In reworking Austen’s novel into a contemporary south Asian Muslim American community, the author includes every character, every plot line from the original. Some work well, some not so well. She does a terrific job of portraying the community with all its snobbery, backbiting, hypocrisy and shallow sensibilities. The cultural setting is authentic and she captures the absurdities of conventional matchmaking with tart humor. The conversational tic of prefacing achievement of every status marker with ‘MashAllah (god has willed it) “MashAllah, my eldest grandson made it to Dartmouth”! “MashAllah, my grandson is pre-med at Cornell-that’s an Ivy Leagueschool, MashAllah”! is priceless.

Asma is well drawn. She is passive, angry and not at all saintly, but is given an interiority that makes her a sympathetic character and, eventually she stops being passive and finds her way to happiness.The story is told from Asma’s POV which means that we know very little about Farooq’s, his thoughts or his feelings. There don’t seem to be much chemistry between them when they initially fall in love and later he is mostly absent from the story.They barely talk to each other except when they are in company and one wonders, why in this age of communicating in so many ways, they don’t pour their heart out in an email or a text message (like Captain Wentworth). Their coming together in the end felt totally passionless. The novel also has characters plucked straight from the original (for example, the heir to the baronetcy), but they do not add to the story in any meaningful way.

Though the romance is weak, I would recommend this version of Persuasion to anyone who is interested in knowing how love and marriage play out in a very conventional south Asian immigrant community.

I am a sucker for a Jane Austen adaptation and this book did not disappoint. This is an adaptation of Persuasion, set within the Pakistani culture, and I think this story lent itself to this setting in particular. Jane Austen is noted for her irreverent wit and commentary about the inequity in class and culture. Still, I think people also fail to note her love of family and how family is so essential. This book portrays the best of those aspects of Jane Austen's Persuasion. We see how the love of family created heartbreak; however, that same love of family helped Asma to rediscover herself and come into her own. This was such a clever adaption of a story fraught with so many emotions. I was so engaged with this book that I could not put it down, I was sad when it ended, but glad I had read this lovely story. Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.