A prized compendium of Javed Amir’s writings
By Syed Afsar Sajid
‘From Lahore to Washington Via Brussels’ by Javed Amir
Javed Amir, an old Ravian and a retired diplomat, is a veteran globetrotter, poet,
essayist, novelist, editor, and an author of six literary books including a novel and a
travelogue. He has been living in Maryland (US) with his Colombian spouse Clemencia
since 1978. As a multilingual writer (English, French, and Spanish), he is known to the
intellectual circles on all five continents (which virtually encircle the whole world)
through his articles, essays, reviews, and other writings.
The author has dedicated this book to his late Uncle and mentor Munir Hussain (1925-
2000), a distinguished Pakistani civil servant and diplomat of yore, with an enviable
trilingual (English, Urdu, and Bengali) academic background besides a good grasp of the
world affairs, economics, music and the arts.
The contents of the book enclose an introduction by the author; his published book
reviews; his lecture on ‘Islam and Modernity’ at the historic Library of Congress;
published reviews of his four books; four short stories, three by the author and one by
his spouse Clemencia Amir; three op-eds; a few memorable photos; and finally author’s
book review of Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s (1927-2014) novel ‘Until August’,
published posthumously in 2024.
As an international writer, Javed Amir’s viewpoint, as reflected in his writings, is catholic
yet altruistic. His essays, poems, novels, and travelogues seem to configure an
autodidact, deeply engrossed in the introversive world of illusions, reveries, and make-
believe. But that should not suggest that he is evasive of the harsh existentialistic
realities of life.
It would be pertinent here to quote him, though obliquely, on the dynamics of his creativity when he says that “This reaching out to lost time, this inner probe into our essences is not mere nostalgia. It is in fact an effort to recover and reveal what Freud called the ‘soul’ or locating what is repressed, implicit, mediated.”
Critics and reviewers around the world have lavished unstinted praise on Javed Amir for
his multi-disciplinary excellence in the disparate domains of fiction, travelogue, and
criticism. Dr. Sayed Amjad Hussain, a famed medico-literary figure belonging to the
Pakistani diaspora and a Professor Emeritus at University of Ohio (US), terms Javed
Amir’s premier publication ‘A Wanderer Between The Worlds’ as “a fragrant collage of
music and poetry rendered in vibrant colors. It is in a true sense Javed Amir’s tour de force”.
Commenting on the author’s illustrious work ‘Thought Never Dies’, Khaled Ahmad, an illustrious Pakistani journalist and Consulting Editor, Newsweek Pakistan, affirms that “it encapsulates his search for a worldview” which originates from his “exploration of deep thought in human experience”.
In the same context, while reviewing the afore-mentioned work, this scribe observed: “As
a literary artist he (Javed Amir) feigns no delusion about scholasticism; there is a marked
perspicacity in his diction which embraces a variety of topics ranging from the palpable
aura of the material world to the impalpable mystique of a philosophical world of ideas,
abstractions and apperceptions.”
Furthermore, writers, scholars, and literary observers speak very high of Javed Amir’s
versatile genius in the backdrop of his literary output comprising ‘A Wanderer Between
The Worlds’, ‘Thought Never Dies’, ‘The Mask’, ‘Writing Across Boundaries’, ‘Modern
Soap’ et al.
Renowned Pakistan-born American academic and fiction writer Sara Suleri Goodyear
(1953-2022) observed (cf. ‘Writing Across Boundaries’) that “Readers have in their hands
a work that is both eclectic and moving at the same time. This collection of essays draws
on the tradition of Francis Bacon and Montaigne yet remains resolutely historical in its
impetus. Its anti-chronological independence confirms the resolution of text that has
neither an agenda nor an ideology to preach, but offers instead a handful of stories,
artfully rendering acts of cultural translation”.
Shashi Tharoor, a veteran author and MP from India, views this publication as “an
original, versatile and attractive work on multiculturalism”.
Ejaz Rahim, a world-acclaimed Pakistani writer and poet of English, reviewing Javed
Amir’s novel ‘Modern Soap’, holds that “The most important aspect of course, is what
lies at the heart of the novel —- the probing into of human relationships —- parent-son,
brother-brother, husband-wife, rural and urban cousins, and families with such similar
and dissimilar backgrounds. The strains in the chain of human relationships throw up
configurations, which reflect psychological, cultural and social realities, which makes us
see beyond what meets the eye.”
Karl Hille of ‘Washington Post’ pronounces that “Amir’s insight is enlightening,
sympathetic and full of appeal. Unlike other Pakistani intellectuals, working in the
universities of the United States, he has rationalized the situation of a Pakistani
immigrant against the amorphous state of cultural adjustment in the host country”.
Ace fiction writer and critic Muneeza Shamsie views ‘Modern Soap’ as “a literary novel of
idea-driven fiction which blends the mythic and the mundane. It is a saga of wealth, love
and greed in Pakistan”.
Ambassador Riaz Mohammad Khan, himself an esteemed author, says that “Javed’s
canvass is realistic, his narrative simple but elegant, the pace is moderate and in that he
captures the broad sweep of societal evolution and the minutia of individual
tribulations”.
Late Professor Emeritus Gilani Kamran asserted in his estimation of ‘Writing Across
Boundaries’ that “He (Javed Amir) is perhaps the first Pakistani intellectual and writer
who has formulated the question about the dilemma of becoming an American. His
insight is enlightening, sympathetic and full of appeal.”
“Literature is that ordering of the expression which expands the meaning to the point
where it produces cumulatively the maximum amount of insight into man’s fate.” This
statement by (David) Daiches could be conveniently applied to define and elaborate
Javed Amir’s multi-dimensional creativity of which his present work ‘From Lahore to
Washington Via Brussels’ is a classic manifestation.
