View source for Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif

{{infobox1
|title=Our Lady of Alice Bhatti
|author=Mohammed Hanif
|reviewer=Louise Laurie
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=A charming account of a young woman called Alice.  Although she's had a bad start in life she intends to improve her lot and even finds love in an unexpected place.
|rating=4
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|pages=240
|publisher=Jonathan Cape 
|date=October 2011
|isbn=978-0224082051
|cover=0099516756
|aznuk=0099516756
|aznus=B00563M1HG
}}

Alice is nervous.  She's being interviewed for a job at the local hospital.  Even although her nursing skills are far from ideal, she believes she's in with a shout.  She presents herself at her charming best and it seems to work.  She's now employed and earning some much-needed money.  She knows she'll have to work really hard and probably long hours too.  The hospital in question is in downtown Karachi:  a seething mass of patients many of whom have no choice but to lie in corridors etc.
 
And straight away I see Hanif's 'light' narrative touch.  We can't get away from the dreadful poverty of most of the patients, their pitiful lives etc but Hanif chooses to focus on Alice.  Most situations, be they good, bad or plain ugly are seen through the eyes of Alice.  And she shows a gentle, rather unquestioning nature.  She seems to accept the awful sights, sounds and smells she now has to deal with in a nursing capacity on a daily basis.  Is she downhearted?  Not especially.  And here I'm struck by a passing resemblance to the novels based in Africa of [[:Category:Alexander McCall Smith|Alexander McCall Smith]] in both the writing style and also the tone and theme.
 
There's plenty of rather innocent and innocuous questions asked by various characters throughout the book most of which are answered at length or at a charming (there's that word again) tangent - or both.  For example Alice is asking one of the interviewing panel about the apparently important subject of ahem, sweeping the hospital floors.  And the reply?  ''Dr Pereira, a third-generation physician, shakes his head, not in denial but in despair.  He is too polite to point out that not all Christians are sweepers.  He also fears the retort:  'But all sweepers are Christians.'''
 
The book overall has a slow, methodic, almost soporific feel about it which is worlds away from the noise and bustle and anguished cries of a busy hospital.  While it's a style I enjoyed as far as this book is concerned I wouldn't rush to read a similar book straight after it. 
 
As Alice gets stuck into her new job, she encounters a man called Teddy.  He seems to have his head permanently in the clouds telling everyone who will listen that his job is very important.  It isn't.  You get a sense of the charm offensive yet again when we learn that Teddy has been indoctrinated into some sort of club to do with the local police.  It's called The Gentlemen's Squad.  Basically, self-important individuals who bump up the truth, big-time.  I didn't really connect with Teddy on any level, maybe because he was such a slippery customer.
 
There's another character in the book called Noor who also works at the hospital.  He's young and has had a hard life.  ''When people see Noor, their first reaction is, look at that poor little boy, what a pity, working when he should be playing ...''  I found Noor's character to be far more interesting than Teddy's but that's my personal opinion.
 
There are some lovely lines throughout which gives the book a nice lift.  Lines such as ''Alice Bhatti carries her handcuffs lightly, as if she is wearing glass bangles''.  The terrific title has an equally terrific explanation which is given towards the end of the novel.  A charming story, set in Karachi.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
 
If this book appeals then you might like to try [[The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall]].

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