Jasmine Days (Benyamin) - Not GOAT Days, not bad either

Sameera is feisty, articulate, independent. She has respect for her family especially her Taya for what he has done for everyone but is also totally her own person. She comes from Pakistan to make her life in an unknown city in the Middle East and finds her job and passion becoming one, when she becomes an RJ in Orange Radio (Red FM, anyone?). The story easily flows as we come to know of her background, her complicated yet innocent relationship with her father, the other members of Taya ghar and the colleagues at the radio station. She rediscovers her passion for music and life goes on .... until it doesn't any more. The choices she faces are stark and simple but the consequences are not.

The simplicity of the narration is endearing. The small everyday rituals at home, the banter at work, the relationship with her cousins and the unlikely friends she makes. It keeps the momentum while one knows that lurking underneath all this, things are heading for a boil. However, the story looses its interwovenness (if that is even a word) as it meanders through protests, discussions between Shia and Sunni politics, a benevolent dictator with an iron hand, a patriarch who feels responsible for everyone and a young girl who loses a father and a friend at the same moment. Details that are interesting to read and add flavours to the various characters - the chachis, the cousins, the visitors to Taya ghar and their back stories, the colleagues and their individual struggles and dilemmas, seem meaningless as they don't tie in at the end. The trouble with too many characters and descriptions is just that, they occupy the mindspace of the reader but don't contribute to the story.   

Overall a decent one-time read. Don't go looking for layers - things are what they are. If you have a lazy afternoon and want a quick read that is not set in a US city (oh-so-boring), it about simple joys and sins, then Jasmine Days is for you.