The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi || Emotionally Moving Exploration of Trauma

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon

Zohaib, Misha and Nadia believed they would be in each other's lives forever. As children they played, argued, teased and loved one another. Yet nothing could have prepared them for the tragic turn of events one fateful afternoon in Karachi, Pakistan, when the divisions and differences between them are revealed.

Years later and they are still trying to piece their lives back together, still trying to make sense of what happened. Zohaib is living in London, haunted by the ghosts of the past. Nadia has escaped the household where she first met Misha and Zohaib but finds fate delivering her back to their door…

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon is a beautifully rendered portrait of love, healing, and long-buried pain, digging deep into the nature of trauma and class division.

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Perfect for readers who want:

• Pakistani culture and representation
• Slow build literary fiction filled with struggle and healing
• An emotional exploration of grief, healing, and forgiveness
• Commentary on the struggles of poverty and sexism

I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I have to admit that the title of this book caught my attention right away! In this world of very formulaic titles, it was a breath of fresh air and immediately made me want to know more. I’m a sucker for trauma. One might assume that I’ve had my fill of it, but you know what? Trauma is much more entertaining when it’s someone’s else’s trauma. Who knew that was the key?!

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon is a contemplative, thoughtful exploration of trauma and healing, where the only way to ensure a future is to get over the past. Filled with strong characters and Pakistani culture.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this book going in, but this book is a whirlwind of emotions. While the beginning is very slow, things smooth out as it goes on, and at just 250 pages, it’s a really quick read. There’s a lot of perspective switching, which threw me off from time to time, but Elahi’s writing is so pretty and strikes right to the heart of things.

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon is the sort of book that is good for a patient reader who is willing to wait for the payoff.

The beginning starts very slow, and just throws the reader in, introducing character after character without really doing a good job of grounding the story, so it can be a little confusing and daunting at first. Once it gets going, though, it’s hard not to find yourself swept away with the mystery of what these characters have been through together and rooting for them to heal. After all, everyone deserves the chance to overcome their trauma.

This book is very different from most that I read in that it isn’t linear and it can almost feel like a lucid dream. The parts don’t always fit neatly together at first, but once it starts going, everything falls into place and the payoff is worth it!

None of the characters in this book have particularly great lives, and Elahi doesn’t shy away from being honest about the situations they find themselves in.

There’s a lot of hurt and pain in these characters. Everyone has their own sort of trauma that they’re grappling with, and while it’s all somewhat tied together by one event from the past that they share, they’re all uniquely their own. If you’re looking for an uplifting read that paints the world in rainbows and sunshine, this ain’t it. It’s a realistic, gritty, honest look at how life can wear away at anyone, in a myriad of ways.

Fret not, though! It isn’t nearly as dark and gloomy as I make it sound. While there are definitely some very tough moments emotionally, this isn’t one big Debbie Downer of a book. Elahi does a fantastic job of balancing things out and showing resilience. These characters have the strength to overcome their traumas. They just need to find it.

Elahi’s writing is fairly straightforward on the surface and can be worded awkwardly at times, but there are so many really gorgeous zingers that jump off the page and demand you pay attention to them!

And of course I’m happy to oblige, because why else would I be reading a book if not to have the opportunity to re-read some really freaking awesome phrases?! There were definitely times that I had to read a part two or three times because Elahi nailed the emotions so perfectly. The book isn’t for the faint of heart, as it deals with many heavy themes, but the writing is just striking!

There a lot of really heavy themes in this book, done thoughtfully and carefully, but the one that stands out the most is the treatment of women.

It may not come as much of a surprise, with this book being set partly in Pakistan, that women aren’t always treated well. (Although, to be fair, that is also true in many other areas of the world.) This narrative is where Elahi especially shines. She pulls no punches when it comes to showing the considerations that women have to go through over what may be simple things, and the ever-present concern about the risk of assault. This book takes a scathing look at a society that devalues women and pushes back against the assumption that all a woman is good for are these things that they’ve been prescribed by society.

Nadia’s journey is especially poignant. She isn’t just a woman in a male-driven society; she’s a poor woman, which is a uniquely difficult situation to be in. Little by little, she’s clawed her way out of the abject poverty she grew up in, but that doesn’t mean she’s safe. Far from it. Out of all the characters, I appreciate her strength and resiliency the most.

It isn’t just the women, either. Elahi also dives into the ways society can fail men.

Zohaib, in particular, suffers from severe PTSD due to an event from his childhood. He’s mostly estranged from his parents, who sent him away to London. There, he finds solace in a therapist that works with him regularly, and a best friend who is patient, considerate, and understanding of his needs (sometimes even when he isn’t himself). While I would not consider Zohaib a victim in this story, he is definitely suffering, even as his trauma is dismissed by those around him. But all he’s doing is modeling the examples he’s had from others in his life, who are similarly ignoring their trauma, which becomes almost a self-perpetuating cycle.

At times, this book is very hard to follow, with sudden perspective shifts and jumps in the timeline.

Especially if you’re like me and have trouble keeping track of a lot of different characters. It isn’t always obvious who the character is at first, or when in the timeline things are taking place. There’s a stream of “now” and “then,” without there always being a clear delineation. Probably about a third of the way in, I was comfortable enough with the characters and understood enough about the story that I didn’t struggle with it anymore, but it made for a very slow, challenging beginning to start with.

There are a lot of time skips and fast-forwards that I felt it, in some ways, undermined the full impact of the character growth and struggles.

At around 250 pages, the book definitely could’ve handled a little more length to help round things out. As I’ve said, this isn’t at all an easy book for the characters, who have a lot of healing to do and many realizations that need to be made. And they do. But not all of them are exactly hard-won. Sometimes, there are very convenient time skips where characters have the realization that they need to do this hard thing and, boom, it’s done and has been done and they’re on the other side.

Elahi’s story is otherwise very emotionally charged, and it would’ve been so much more rewarding to spend more time with the characters during the meat of their struggles to really see their healing. In this way, the book has a lot of telling rather than showing. In some ways, it creates a bit of a distance between the reader and the characters which I think undermines the overall emotional impact of what is an otherwise deeply moving book. There are many times that we’re told a character does or feels XYZ, but we aren’t shown it, which is sometimes frustrating.

About Safinah Danish Elahi

Safinah Danish Elahi is a lawyer, poet, writer, and the founder of an independent publishing house based in Pakistan. Her poetry collection has been critically acclaimed and one of her novels has been commissioned for television. Safinah was selected for the Iowa Writer’s Workshop 2022 Fall Residency and is often on the judging panel for writing competitions across Pakistan.

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