Good Intentions: ‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist

Product Information

Ever fallen in love with messy, confusing consequences for everyone involved? Then Good Intentions is for you' Stylist Imran’s relationship with his parents by turn helps Nur consider his own parents, his expectations of them. “It’s fascinating to me as the author that I sat down and subconsciously created a mirror narrative to Nur’s relationship with Yasmina through Imran. And his relationship with his parents and his family,” he says, adding that alongside questions of masculinity, parents show up again and again in his writing. Parental guidance

Megan Nolan, whose debut novel, Acts of Desperation, is one of this year’s biggest literary hits. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian But I think we should be wary of shaming the women whose enthusiasm, passion and investment keeps the whole industry afloat. And there is also the question of whether for all their visibility, women are yet afforded the same cultural respect as the male novelist. There’s a danger that the novel gets dismissed as a feminised form, especially since the history of the novel, from its 18th-century origins, was rooted in the idea of it as frivolous literature for leisured women who didn’t receive a formal education in science or politics. It was male writers such as Samuel Richardson, as well as a generation of male critics, who were seen to professionalise fiction writing. Kasim Ali: This might sound rehearsed but I want South Asian boys to be able to read a book about people who look and behave like them. We need to do away with the narrative given to South Asian men which is that they’re super aggressive and violent, or very withholding and closed off. Also the terrorist angle, which is frustrating to say the least. I want to show that you can be a South Asian softboi, and that you can be the kind of person who falls in love with someone and expresses that emotion. The guys in my book seem like softbois, right?There were some times of southasian Pakistani, get togethers on eid and stuff. And those were the times I really enjoyed in this book. All the food talk was also comforting. The points of struggle with parents and their expectations how ever indirect was very relatable. I miss having you here,” his mother says, and a sharp guilt pierces Nur. Even now, after all these years living apart from his family, he still feels it. It’s impossible not to. Nolan agrees that this cultural shift has coincided with “a momentous, dramatic influx of young women”. But that’s because “it’s only relatively recent that you could have fiction written by a woman about intimate subjects like sex – and for it to be classed as literary fiction”. He does this with many topics, one being race, and the abhorrences People of Color and non-whites have to go through in this crude world. This was a common thread throughout the book but wasn't something that felt overly redundant. Alluring . . . [A] thoughtful portrait of young people weighing the bonds of tradition with personal identity. Readers will root for this imperfect love until the end."

Nur wants to be the good son his parents ask him to be, and the good boyfriend Yasmina needs him to be. But as everything he holds dear is challenged, he is forced to ask, is love really a choice for a second-generation immigrant son like him? Good Intentions" follows the story of the relationship between Nur, a young British-Pakistani man, and Yasmin, a young British-Sudanese woman. Nur and Yasmina are in love. They've been together for four happy years. But Nur's parents don't know that Yasmina exists. It delves into their relationship, racism in the community and the familial ties. Nagging parents who believe marriage is the most important thing in the world; a disillusioned South Asian Muslim man who wants to escape his culture; a white love interest who represents Western freedom. Nur is nonetheless a sympathetic protagonist and Ali sensitively explores racial tension and filial guilt.' The Guardian I am fascinated by parents,” Ali explains. “Along with the whole masculinity thing, those are the two things I’m completely fascinated by. What I’m really interested in is the question of: do we give our parents a chance to evolve with us? Or do we just accept that they are who they are?”You should have taken some more time off,” his father says. “It’s nice having you home, makes it feel like it used to.” That male publisher is at pains to point out that, yes, “the exciting writing is coming from women right now” and that he himself publishes more women. But this is “because there aren’t that many men around. Men aren’t coming through.” It’s only relatively recently that fiction written by a woman about intimate subjects like sex has been classed as literary fiction Megan Nolan

REP: previously suicidal Pakistani MC with anxiety, Sudanese SC's, gay Pakistani SC, and other Pakistani SC's. But no relationship is perfect. For Yasmina, the complexities of family and cultural expectation are something she wants to navigate with Nur by her side. For Nur, the pressures of being the ‘good son’ are suffocating, and soon threaten everything he wants for his future with Yasmina. Can he find a way to offer her everything she deserves?

Kasim Ali Press Reviews

He sympathises with readers who are turning away from fiction by men, partly because “the whole 20th century was a pretty close examination of male sexual desire”, but mainly because he believes that today’s male writers are “running scared” and “pandering” to what they think women want. “They think that to be allowed a place at the table, they need to have the right views and be these nice guys. They’re in danger of rendering themselves even less worth reading than they are already.” A sensitive, smooth-toned and absorbingly honest novel that makes us question our inner worlds, at a time when this kind of self-examination might be the thing that saves us' Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People When Zauner’s mother dies, she feels she’s losing ties to her parent’s Korean heritage. In an endeavour both to reconnect to that heritage and to honour her mother, she remembers the Korean food of her childhood. Through memories of her sometimes troubled relationship with her mother, including a sustained period of estrangement, Zauner explores themes of cultural dissonance and diaspora, producing a raw and tender portrayal of grief. There are many thought provoking nuances to this book, the author explores the complexities of cultural racism, lifestyle expectations, family, friendship, mental health struggles, self-harm, anxiety, religion, homosexuality and colourism. Karolina Sutton, an agent at Curtis Brown, is surprised that men are feeling excluded from fiction. She stresses that it has taken women centuries to find their voice and be confident within publishing: “Why wasn’t there uproar in the media when women were excluded?” she asks. “It’s happened for the first time ever and we know very little about what this means in the long term.”

There’s no ironic distance between the author and the protagonists, and the lengthy passages of dialogue feel like eavesdropping on a low-level argument between a couple at the next restaurant table. The general impression is that, with solid jobs and homes out of reach, these earnest millennials have vastly over-invested in relationships, and that carries its own poignancy.' The Financial Times Not because it’s a bad book — on the contrary, it’s an excellent one, earnestly depicting the nuances of South Asian culture and the prejudices and customs deeply engrained in it, even in the UK. But what Ali frustratingly uncovers in his story is the fact that these prejudices continue to impact young South Asians, and can threaten to drive a thriving relationship to its tragic breaking point. Why is this? That same male publisher points to the Vintage promotion in particular, noting that almost all the editors in that division are female. (Of 19 editors commissioning fiction at Vintage, only four are men.) And this isn’t just one team in one company, he argues – it’s a gender balance replicated across the industry. (A diversity survey, released in February by the UK Publishers Association, had 64% of the publishing workforce as female with women making up 78% of editorial, 83% of marketing and 92% of publicity.) When I was writing it, it started with the very simple idea of an interracial relationship without a white person. Then all of these complexities arose through the writing itself.” Out of the writing came Imran, “one of my favourite things about Good Intentions”, Ali says. “Like, I love him. I think he is fascinating and really cool and really funny. And I didn’t plan for him. I truly love him so much because he goes through this journey in the book that I did not plan. All I knew was that Nur needed a friend. And then he became this complex character. I didn’t plan for him to be a gay Muslim. When I was writing, it just happened. It just felt right that he was [a gay Muslim].” What I’m really interested in is the question of: do we give our parents a chance to evolve with us? Or do we just accept that they are who they are? I related to Nur at some parts but was also so frustrated with him... Because we focus on Nur's pov, I found myself failing to see how self-absorbed he was until he was called out for it by the other characters in the story.Feeling the family pressures on choosing the right woman and keeping up family traditions of letting his parents be involved in who he chooses to marry, Nur keeps Yasmina a secret for 4 years, not even telling his parents they are living together. This ultimately has its repercussions on both Yasmina and his family. I was really interested to see how this would unfold. Honesty makes us trust the story, trust the characters and form a bond. We adore Nur like we might a younger brother: at times we empathise, want to take him in a warm embrace, and at other times we would rather give him a damn good throttle. The talk of racism and prejudice in Asian community, specially South Asians, Pakistanis in this book is refreshing, this issue is rarely seen. But again most of the conversation about race was mostly in protagonists head not with actual people. Dont even get me started on that ending.