American Dervish

“I lifted the sausage to my mouth, closed my eyes, and took a bite. My heart raced as I chewed, my mouth filling with a sweet and smoky, lightly pungent taste that seemed utterly remarkable—perhaps all the more so for having been so long forbidden. [...] I looked up at the ceiling. It was still there. Not an inch closer to falling in.” 

Although the reader has just met narrator Hayat Shah, the focused, sensory language of this passage conveys its importance to the character. Namely, Hayat eats pork, the meat forbidden in Muslim tradition, and realizes God is not punishing him for this act. 

“Even the confession I had made to Mina while she lay on what turned out to be her deathbed, even that hadn’t been enough to assuage the guilt I’d been carrying since I was twelve. If I was reluctant to share how aggrieved I was with my mother, it was because my grief was not only for Mina, but for myself as well.” 

At the beginning of the novel, Hayat mourns his mother’s late best friend Mina. While he initially withholds the source of his guilt, it is clear that Mina played a significant role in his development from childhood until early adulthood. He feels sorrow for the sins of his youth, as well as the loss of this integral person in his family. 

“‘You’re going to break some hearts, aren’t you, behta?’ She was looking right at me. Again, I felt that surprise. There was something intense and alive about her gaze that the picture had only hinted at. She was dazzling.” 

Hayat meets Mina for the first time at the airport and is surprised at her exceptional beauty. He has seen her photograph on his refrigerator and felt attracted to her mysterious gaze, but this meeting reveals a more powerful magnetism in person. Hayat will go on to develop sexual feelings for Mina that propel several key events in the novel.