Good Intentions - Kasim Ali [Review]

Good Intentions is a story about Nur, a young British Pakistani Muslim, and his British Sudanese Muslim girlfriend Yasmina. Throughout the book, Nur is navigating his way between his girlfriend’s desire to meet his parents and take their relationship to the next level, and the fear that his parents will not approve of his black girlfriend, leaving him with no choice but to choose between his family and Yasmina.

From a religious perspective, at least, if two Muslims wish to marry it should be encouraged, and their nationalities, race, and origin are irrelevant. It is a cultural issue that has concluded, in places like Pakistan, that white is right and black is not. I think this is an important topic to discuss, and the subtle point the book makes is a pertinent one; throughout his parents are the racist ones, while Nur is British born, cosmopolitan and open minded. This comes across in the contrived dialogue he has with his friends. Yet it is Nur who has been preventing Yasmina from seeing his parents, it is Nur who doesn’t want to be seen with her because someone might spot them and tell his parents. All the while he is hiding her from his parents, he is revealing to Yasmina that he too has an element of racism that he can’t or doesn’t want to accept. 

However, I think it is pretty common for people to conclude that a book is good because it shares a good message. I found it dialogue heavy, some of which felt quite forced as though the author wanted to shoehorn in political commentary that didn’t otherwise fit naturally. There is also a side story of his gay Muslim friend, Imran, and his relationship with his family. This never really got much attention, and therefore felt a bit unnecessary. Again, it is as though the author wanted to have more conversations than the word count allowed. 

I also don’t really know who this book is for. There is some dialogue that is not in English, and also not translated. There is food mentioned that you wouldn’t get from your local takeaway, that only a mother could cook. They are not detrimental to the wider story, but ultimately most people won’t understand these aspects of the book. It is true that a book that is published in the western world will have to cater to non-Muslim white audiences, but what bothers me about a lot of books about race and religion is that they sit in a middle ground with an intended audience for all. Are you hoping to tell other South Asian Muslims to reflect on this and make change in their lives, or are you telling people how racist and hypocritical South Asian Muslims are? If you aim to do both you will be successful in neither.

The book is dialogue heavy, sometimes agonisingly so. At times it felt like nothing was happening, and even when it was I just wanted to know a bit about what Nur and Yasmina were thinking and feeling, not just saying. I found Nur to be hollow and constantly apologetic without any intention, and Yasmina was secretive and indecisive. She understood Nur found it difficult to be honest with his parents but still used it against him. When he did tell his family she decided that it wasn’t enough even though she already knew all this. Whenever Yasmina confronted Nur about her feelings he apologised, but didn’t seem to do anything (or even want to do anything) about it. The book had an interesting message but could have executed this better.