Customer comments on this selection.
 The Perfect Book
Why do I call this 'the perfect book'? Because it is well written, original, wise, amusing, interesting, witty, friendly, endearing, meaningful, important, reasoned, considerate, topical, and refreshing. We are allowed into the head of a man we might otherwise treat with suspicion in different circumstances, and then we are enlightened, and delighted. It is a lovely suprise, and all the more enjoyable for being able to read about so much life in a brief but rich synopsis.
I'm not sure about the tag, because this contains various threads. You can enjoy it from different angles, and approach it with different attitudes.
Most Enjoyable!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Unimagined! I thought the book was very well written, funny and extremely interesting. I loved the short chapters and the stories. Imran has a great sense of humor and I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend this book!
Big Smiles & Crocodile Tears
Funny, engaging, funny, tear telling, funny, informing, funny, and above all, glued together with a sweet childlike perspective that ignores many of the adult psychological speed bumps. I thoroughly enjoyed it with big smiles, as well as, crocodile tears and have recommended it to several friends, particularly, as we try to understand a tolerance beyond our western culture. I live much of the time in Bali, engaged in conflict resolution and mediation - and though the culture is Hindu, it resides within Indonesia - a very large Muslim country. Imran's story gently carried me over the threshold of exploring the understanding of a people, a culture, and several sects of a religion that I very much want to engage and touch heart to heart. This friendly and comical familiarity has encouraged me to read more about Islam - a culture so very different from mine. Thank you, Imran for making this 1st step easy, fun, and absolutely a joy.
An Excellent Memoir
Imran has a big subject to discuss: if you move from one culture to another and try to blend in while holding to your roots, what sort of person do you become?
In Imran's case, you become a wryly amused and amusing spectator of the absurdities and stupidities of either side, without ever losing your love for both. Through the gloom of bigotry and racism, you find like-minded friends, share the same trials and tribulations, and make your way as best you can. Anything is possible, even obtaining the car of your dreams. But then nothing is ever as you expect, including the car of your dreams.
The book poses big questions: how come someone acts in a way I cannot imagine, yet claims to believe the same things I do? Yet it does so in such a gentle way that you might mistake his outrage as bemusement, or his humor as luck. That is clearly his charm, and it adds hugely to the enjoyment of this book.
America needs to read this book!
This highly readable book has already been greeted with praise and enthusiasm in the UK, where it has been compared by many reviewers to the ever-popular diaries of Adrian Mole. However, although Unimagined uses an engaging and hilarious innocence to describe the confusions of adolescence and early adulthood, that's about where the similarity ends.
Because the author shows us what it was like to grow up as a Pakistani Muslim in London in the 1960s and '70s, the book has also been described as a touching account of overcoming racism. Yet, although social injustice is inevitably an occasional theme, the focus really isn't on personal hardship. Indeed, there are plenty of jokes at Imran's own expense as we see his own assumptions constantly overturned. Far from being an angry victim, he pokes fun at our common tendency to jostle for social acceptance by looking down at others, and to deny other beliefs as a way of cementing our own insecure understanding of life.
The real story of this book is a search for the truth about what it means to be human: our relationship with ourselves, with each other, and with God. Struggling to answer such questions logically, as would befit his scientific training, is a source of endless (and amusing) frustration: no sooner does Imran reach a conclusion than it is undermined by some new and unexpected piece of information. He finds that it is only through personal, direct experience that the answers to the Big Questions start to piece together - and these are revealed gradually, as surprising conclusions that the author can no longer avoid, even if they make him feel foolish for his earlier stance.
Many books describe a vision of unified humanity, but present this as an ideal concept without showing how we might ever reach such a goal. For hatred and war to be overcome in our world, we must first overcome fear and anger; and we cannot expect this of society without first achieving it within ourselves - which is not as easy as it sounds, as it requires a demanding honesty with ourselves and a readiness to examine our own egotism without flinching.
Imran Ahmad has made this journey, and in this book he has the courage, humility and insight to share it with us - presumably in the hope that if he can manage it, then so can we. With the media constantly fanning tension between Islam and the West, this book could not have come at a more crucial time. It may help to mediate for peace in ways that politicians seem unable to achieve - not least because peace is not a political issue but a spiritual one, for which we each share equal responsibility... starting right now.
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