Slum Child is the story of nine- year-old Laila, a Christian girl living in the slums of Issa Colony, a poverty-ridden Christian settlement in Karachi, Pakistan. This first person narrative, in parts tries to portray the world from the innocent eyes of a child, and then in other, more insightful bursts, gives perfectly mature analysis of situations, which frankly beats logic. It tries to also describe the wide socio-economic gap in urban Pakistan, between the have-nots and those who have a little too much, which has been quite a trend with the newer crop of fiction authors from Pakistan lately.
The narrative revolves around Laila’s household, which faces difficulties in coping with Laila’s older sister Jumana’s agonising death at the hands of tuberculosis and her mother losing her balance of mind thereafter. Laila is forced to escape once she learns that her stepfather is planning to push her into the filthy world of prostitution to pay off his gambling debts. Petrified, yet quick on her feet, Laila escapes to the affluent and wealthy family which her mother served as maid earlier, and the family takes her in as a maid too. But the past comes to haunt her and she has to escape again, which finally leads to a predictable, yet somewhat moving conclusion, at least in terms of expression.
Shah tries to evoke imagery of what life in a slum and around it is like. One has to concede that she is successful in painting pictures in the reader?s head. But what might be disturbing for the readers is not the vivid detailing in description of manifestations of destitution and dogmas, but the sense of detachment in the narrative from the very environs it wishes to describe. At such instances in the book, the first person narrative becomes ineffective, as Laila seems to look at her life and Issa Colony with what can be best described as detached scorn. Quite uncharacteristic of a character that is shown to have lived a better part of her life still in that very slum. The narrative seems not as much of an expression of reality, but as a retrospective judgment, that, too, by someone who has a distant outside view of poverty. However, when Laila escapes to the affluent household, the narrative seems far more comfortable in describing the luxurious and elite lifestyle in this household. The characters throughout the book are somewhat obvious and predictable, probably an attempt to keep it real.
The story is told through simple words and expressions, without much layering, which helps in forming a connect with the book, and with Laila for sure. However, attempts at oversimplification render the narrative without much depth, which frankly loses the reader somewhere in the middle. Yes, the last couple of chapters really rev up the speed and the story becomes exciting, but for most part before that, one is left wondering as to whether it is heading anywhere or not.
All in all, the book is good enough for a one-time breezy read. But only good enough.