In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

In Daniyal Mueenuddin's short story cycle, "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders," we encounter many structural forces that serve as unifying factors in this collection. Like many in our class, I also realized that many of the stories centered around affairs between lonely older men and younger women who are at a sort of class disadvantage and are scorned due to their lower class standing. I noticed that in stories like the titular story, these class differences became most stark in the dismissive manner that Sarwat treats Husna. I also noticed, as a connective thread, in "Our Lady of Paris" and "Lily" the two women who eventually become disgruntled with the cultural divides between life as an American and life in Pakistan and are forced to compromise in ways which will ultimately be detrimental to their well-being. However, the problem of difference seems to be both class and sex - the women are subject to criticisms both of propriety, reputation, and social standing. And, of course, there is sex - as I got further through the collection, it was hard not to think, somewhat cynically, "Okay, who's going to have sex now?"

For me, I am interested in the cultural divides suggested by these two stories because they most acutely address/speak to the author's subject position - as someone who has occupied both places. In America, at least, one is forced to compromise or squelch one part of the identity in favor of the prevailing identity (usually, the one that aligns most closely with whiteness). In "Lily," the titular character eventually becomes frustrated by her cravings for impulsiveness and city life; she cannot adapt to the overcoming of will she must allow her husband to do if she is to adapt in this society. I am not sure if this is a tension Mueenuddin also feels (in that his identity is split between Pakistani and American culture; as he's spent an equal amount of time in both countries - does one identity ever supersede or subsume another?), but it is one that is interesting to me as a writer. How do characters deal with the question of identity?

In my stories thus far, identities have centered around the bildungsroman structure presenting the central conflict, but I wonder how does the expatriate or the immigrant discover their identity? Redefine it? How does one mitigate this psychic tension? I'm sure I have a story to tell, but whether or not that can portray itself as a fiction narrative is something I am still grappling with. I also suspect the reason why Mueenuddin leaves these stories/these characters' decisions "open" is because these questions are, by their nature, unanswerable.