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Maybe I shouldn’t have read this alongside a book by Elif Shafak…a writer who brilliantly evoke multiple cultures and cities populating them with vastly differentiating, and realistic, people. Although in The Stationary Shop there are glimpses of a talented writer, the writing was incredibly repetitive with an abundance of clichéd phrases and observations. The few scenes which managed not to make me roll my eyes were the ones which revolved around cooking.
Perhaps I was hoping for a story with a greater focus on the political conflict in 1950s Tehran but The Stationary Shop is first and foremost a love story. This love story features many clichés and banalities which seem more fitting of a soap opera.
Many of the ‘key’ plot points were predictable and demanded a huge suspense of disbelief, such as (view spoiler).
The story follows as Roya spends most of her life pining away for Bahman, and that’s about it. The revolutions, wars, and marriages that occur are merely a prop to this lacklustre love story which was filled by saccharine declarations and obstacles that were frankly laughable.
And I am sick of reading of ‘evil’ mother-in-laws. That the story then tries to use mental illness as the instigator for this character’s evil actions was little more than a cheap trick.
Kamali should have trusted her readers more rather than reiterating the same things time and again. A lot of pages repeat the same information using exactly the same words, and I was frustrated by this constant ‘spoon-feeding’. We get it! There are paragraphs and paragraphs that are just useless or poorly phrased and add little to the narrative.
The story makes completely avoidable, and unnecessary, things happen to its characters as a way of making readers ‘feel bad’ or sympathize with them..which didn’t really work for me. Roya was a boring character whose main characteristic is that she loves Bahman. Bahman is a poorly rendered character whose spotty characterization makes for a really unbelievable love interest. The characters rotating around Roya alternate between being bland and cartoonish.
Overall, this books was frustrating. Not only is everything that happens in this story is predictable but the way in which the narrative reveals major plot points is incredibly grating. I probably won’t be trying other novels by Kamali anytime soon…
My rating: ★★✰✰✰ 2.5 stars
luce [is reading] 