Mohsin Hamid Remembers Intizar Hussain
"He Was a Great Writer, and Looked It"
Every so often, from time to time, I would see Intizar Hussain around in Lahore. It might be at a literary festival, it might be at a university. He would be coming, or going, and in any case usually about to speak, or speaking, or having just spoken. There was a knowingness in his eyes, and a sense of dark humor, as though he had seen this place since well before it became Pakistan, and in all the years since, which of course he had, and that he had concluded there was nothing for it but to float through, perplexed and amused, and perhaps a bit sad, and always observing, observing, and readying his mind to put the shambles around him into words. He was a great writer, and looked it, as great writers don’t always do.
Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid is the author of three novels, Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, and a book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations. His writing has been featured on bestseller lists, adapted for the cinema, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, selected as winner or finalist of twenty awards, and translated into thirty-five languages. Born in Lahore, he has spent about half his life there and much of the rest in London, New York, and California.
