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The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
A luminous meditation on sons and fathers, ghosts of war, and living history that moves between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora.
Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, exploring heritage and memory from the homeland to the diaspora in the United States, in the spiritual and physical lands these unforgettable characters inhabit.
In playing "Metal Gear Solid V," a young man's video game experience turns into a surreal exploration on his own father's memories of war and occupation. A college student in "Hungry Ricky Daddy" starves himself in protest of Israeli violence against Palestine. Set in Kabul, "Return to Sender" follows a doctor couple who must deal with the harsh realities of their decision to stay as the violence grows and their son disappears. And in the title story, "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," we learn the story of a man codenamed Hajji, from the perspective of a government surveillance worker, who becomes entrenched in the immigrant family's life.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving, exploration and narrative of heritage, the ghosts of war, and home--and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.
Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, exploring heritage and memory from the homeland to the diaspora in the United States, in the spiritual and physical lands these unforgettable characters inhabit.
In playing "Metal Gear Solid V," a young man's video game experience turns into a surreal exploration on his own father's memories of war and occupation. A college student in "Hungry Ricky Daddy" starves himself in protest of Israeli violence against Palestine. Set in Kabul, "Return to Sender" follows a doctor couple who must deal with the harsh realities of their decision to stay as the violence grows and their son disappears. And in the title story, "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak," we learn the story of a man codenamed Hajji, from the perspective of a government surveillance worker, who becomes entrenched in the immigrant family's life.
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving, exploration and narrative of heritage, the ghosts of war, and home--and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2021
About the author
Jamil Jan Kochai
5 books105 followersJamil Jan Kochai is the author of 99 Nights in Logar (Viking, 2019), a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. He was born in an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, but he originally hails from Logar, Afghanistan. His short stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018. Currently, he is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
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July 25, 2022reviewed for the Chicago Review of Books:
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2022/07/...
The feeling of being haunted has a way of collapsing one’s sense of direction and space. The presence of something blankets the world like mist, lingering, but impossible to locate. The feeling is inevitably followed by the question, “is it all in my head?” Maybe I’m projecting the rumblings of my psyche out into the world. Or maybe there was a glitch in the realm of the unseen, and maybe I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the ineffable. (Or maybe I’m not being haunted, but the FBI agent assigned to watch my every move isn’t as discreet as he thinks he is.)
The lines between what is and is not real blur often in the brilliant new short story collection The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Afghan-American writer Jamil Jan Kochai. In the opening story, “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,” a young boy scrapes up the money to buy a newly released first-person shooter video game which happens to be set in 1980s Afghanistan, the same time and place where his father and uncle fought among the mujahideen against Soviet forces. The boy detours his character from the game’s mission to wander the digital landscape. When his character reaches Logar, the village where his father was stationed, the virtual becomes personal: inside the game, he finds his father’s old home and sees his father and uncle nearby. And just like that, the game is no longer a game, but a chance at familial salvation and redemption.
War and its discontents permeate the collection. Some stories are situated directly in the horrors of wartime itself; in others, the contours of lives are shaped by a multitude of things, war being just one, humming in the background. In “Return to Sender,” an Afghan-American couple’s desire to “repay their debts to the land from which they had descended” brings them back to Kabul on a medical mission, where they plan to stay for only a year. Six months into their stay, their son goes missing, and pieces of the abducted boy’s body arrive in small increments at the door of his parents’ apartment. One could say the couple suffers from survivor’s guilt, but what does it mean to survive when your desire to settle emotional debts further entrenches your suffering? In “Saba’s Story,” an elderly father living in Sacramento asks his sons to buy him a metal detector so he can go back to Logar to find some gold he believes is buried in his land, dating back to the British’s 1888 military campaign in the Black Mountains. But what initially seems like a story about escaping poverty, appeasing your father, and the aftermath of war is actually a story about love and destiny, leaving us to ponder the question: “why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
Kochai seamlessly weaves in and out of war, and back and forth between Afghanistan and Northern California, crafting stories that are sometimes folkloric and other times distinctly contemporary. An armed insurrection of monkeys taking over Afghanistan, and an FBI agent spying on, and developing an emotional attachment to, an unsuspecting suburban Afghan-American family both feel completely inevitable and unextraordinary because of the measured, almost casual prose with which the stories are crafted. The result is a collection that has the aura of an oral tradition of storytelling; as if you’re hearing them directly from an elder or cousin who has lived these stories and feels no need to sensationalize the details, no matter how sensational they are.
The stories traverse emotionally complex terrain, introducing readers to places and peoples that are routinely demonized and dehumanized in contemporary America. It’s not often you read stories featuring former mujahideen, a college student willing to die for love and Palestinian liberation, or even sympathetic FBI agents for that matter. And that’s what makes Kochai’s masterful collection so refreshing and riveting. We’ve been told such boring, distorted, and harmful stories about Afghans, Muslims, and the War on Terror. It would be easy for a writer to fall into the trap of taking those lazy, bad-faith stories seriously and to try to write against their current, attempting to offer a correction of sorts.
But Kochai doesn’t fall for it. The imperialist narrative of helpless Afghan women who need to be liberated by benevolent American forces, which was happily peddled by American media and politicians throughout the War on Terror and after the US withdrawal, isn’t counteracted by Kochai with stories of morally perfect and valiant Afghan men. Nowhere in this collection do we find oafish Muslims who blindly follow a faith perceived by some Americans to teach violence, but neither do we find Muslims who are more angelic than they are human. Even members of the Taliban are simply referred to as “Ts,” which subverts the view of them as hellish warmongerers and forces readers to see them from the vantage point of the everyday people who have to deal with Taliban members living in their neighborhood. Kochai penned a collection of highly original, enchanting stories on his own terms, decentering the narrative debris of the War on Terror, and opting to create his own spectacular worlds instead. He honors the multifaceted and rich cultural, familial, and spiritual lives of Afghans and Afghan-Americans without robbing them of moral complexity, reducing their lives to how they interact with bland, vicious stereotypes, or casting them as a monolith.
The epigraph of the collection quotes a verse from the Qur’an where God asks: “So where are you going?” The question isn’t necessarily about one’s outward direction on this earth, as elsewhere the Qur’an proclaims: “To God belongs the east and the west, so wherever you turn you are facing towards God.” Thus, the verse in the epigraph calls attention to the inward orientation of one’s heart while journeying through life. In other words, the question is not directional, but existential, whose presence demands a heightened sense of awareness that follows you wherever you go—like a ghost, perhaps. This verse is the perfect first impression for a collection of stories featuring dead children and grieving parents, lost love and blossoming romances, faith and martyrdom, and homeland and diaspora. Lighthearted yet powerful and oftentimes funny, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is an incredible work of deep empathy and care, with witty writing and sharp stories that take unpredictable turns. And while reading, you may–alongside the characters be confronted by the question: Where are you going?
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2022/07/...
The feeling of being haunted has a way of collapsing one’s sense of direction and space. The presence of something blankets the world like mist, lingering, but impossible to locate. The feeling is inevitably followed by the question, “is it all in my head?” Maybe I’m projecting the rumblings of my psyche out into the world. Or maybe there was a glitch in the realm of the unseen, and maybe I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the ineffable. (Or maybe I’m not being haunted, but the FBI agent assigned to watch my every move isn’t as discreet as he thinks he is.)
The lines between what is and is not real blur often in the brilliant new short story collection The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Afghan-American writer Jamil Jan Kochai. In the opening story, “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,” a young boy scrapes up the money to buy a newly released first-person shooter video game which happens to be set in 1980s Afghanistan, the same time and place where his father and uncle fought among the mujahideen against Soviet forces. The boy detours his character from the game’s mission to wander the digital landscape. When his character reaches Logar, the village where his father was stationed, the virtual becomes personal: inside the game, he finds his father’s old home and sees his father and uncle nearby. And just like that, the game is no longer a game, but a chance at familial salvation and redemption.
War and its discontents permeate the collection. Some stories are situated directly in the horrors of wartime itself; in others, the contours of lives are shaped by a multitude of things, war being just one, humming in the background. In “Return to Sender,” an Afghan-American couple’s desire to “repay their debts to the land from which they had descended” brings them back to Kabul on a medical mission, where they plan to stay for only a year. Six months into their stay, their son goes missing, and pieces of the abducted boy’s body arrive in small increments at the door of his parents’ apartment. One could say the couple suffers from survivor’s guilt, but what does it mean to survive when your desire to settle emotional debts further entrenches your suffering? In “Saba’s Story,” an elderly father living in Sacramento asks his sons to buy him a metal detector so he can go back to Logar to find some gold he believes is buried in his land, dating back to the British’s 1888 military campaign in the Black Mountains. But what initially seems like a story about escaping poverty, appeasing your father, and the aftermath of war is actually a story about love and destiny, leaving us to ponder the question: “why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
Kochai seamlessly weaves in and out of war, and back and forth between Afghanistan and Northern California, crafting stories that are sometimes folkloric and other times distinctly contemporary. An armed insurrection of monkeys taking over Afghanistan, and an FBI agent spying on, and developing an emotional attachment to, an unsuspecting suburban Afghan-American family both feel completely inevitable and unextraordinary because of the measured, almost casual prose with which the stories are crafted. The result is a collection that has the aura of an oral tradition of storytelling; as if you’re hearing them directly from an elder or cousin who has lived these stories and feels no need to sensationalize the details, no matter how sensational they are.
The stories traverse emotionally complex terrain, introducing readers to places and peoples that are routinely demonized and dehumanized in contemporary America. It’s not often you read stories featuring former mujahideen, a college student willing to die for love and Palestinian liberation, or even sympathetic FBI agents for that matter. And that’s what makes Kochai’s masterful collection so refreshing and riveting. We’ve been told such boring, distorted, and harmful stories about Afghans, Muslims, and the War on Terror. It would be easy for a writer to fall into the trap of taking those lazy, bad-faith stories seriously and to try to write against their current, attempting to offer a correction of sorts.
But Kochai doesn’t fall for it. The imperialist narrative of helpless Afghan women who need to be liberated by benevolent American forces, which was happily peddled by American media and politicians throughout the War on Terror and after the US withdrawal, isn’t counteracted by Kochai with stories of morally perfect and valiant Afghan men. Nowhere in this collection do we find oafish Muslims who blindly follow a faith perceived by some Americans to teach violence, but neither do we find Muslims who are more angelic than they are human. Even members of the Taliban are simply referred to as “Ts,” which subverts the view of them as hellish warmongerers and forces readers to see them from the vantage point of the everyday people who have to deal with Taliban members living in their neighborhood. Kochai penned a collection of highly original, enchanting stories on his own terms, decentering the narrative debris of the War on Terror, and opting to create his own spectacular worlds instead. He honors the multifaceted and rich cultural, familial, and spiritual lives of Afghans and Afghan-Americans without robbing them of moral complexity, reducing their lives to how they interact with bland, vicious stereotypes, or casting them as a monolith.
The epigraph of the collection quotes a verse from the Qur’an where God asks: “So where are you going?” The question isn’t necessarily about one’s outward direction on this earth, as elsewhere the Qur’an proclaims: “To God belongs the east and the west, so wherever you turn you are facing towards God.” Thus, the verse in the epigraph calls attention to the inward orientation of one’s heart while journeying through life. In other words, the question is not directional, but existential, whose presence demands a heightened sense of awareness that follows you wherever you go—like a ghost, perhaps. This verse is the perfect first impression for a collection of stories featuring dead children and grieving parents, lost love and blossoming romances, faith and martyrdom, and homeland and diaspora. Lighthearted yet powerful and oftentimes funny, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is an incredible work of deep empathy and care, with witty writing and sharp stories that take unpredictable turns. And while reading, you may–alongside the characters be confronted by the question: Where are you going?
January 31, 2023
A compelling collection of short stories focusing on the Aghan diaspora, particularly through the lens of a family who has relocated to Sacramento, California. The reckoning of past trauma, how it lingers and 'haunts' a family, as well as the haunting presence of the U.S. military in Afghanistan are themes that resonate throughout these stories. Many stories take place in or reference Logar, Afghanistan and Sacramento, California—two places very close to the author's own family. There's also the sort of haunting of a character named Watak whose untimely death at a young age seems to permeate the family's legacy (an interview with Kochai reveals Watak is based on his own father's younger brother who also died young).
These stories range from short and powerful to long and historical. It's quite diverse collection with some intriguing story structures, yet manages to feel cohesive with the various threads of family ties and historical references that run throughout.
Favorite stories include:
- "Enough!" (extremely visceral, like being inside the mind of a matriarch who has slowly lost control over her family and her own life choices)
- "Return to Sender" (two parents reckon with their guilt of 'getting out' of their wartorn country, only to return as a sort of penance and suffer the consequences of the war)
- "Occupational Hazards" (written like a résumé; so clever; very powerful)
- "Bakhtawana and Miriam" (a beautiful and complicated story of clandestine friendship)
- "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak" (a government agent begins to fall in love with the immigrant family he is assigned to watch for terrorist activity)
- "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" (a new video game seems to mirror the true history of a boy's family in Afghanistan down to the very last detail)
These stories range from short and powerful to long and historical. It's quite diverse collection with some intriguing story structures, yet manages to feel cohesive with the various threads of family ties and historical references that run throughout.
Favorite stories include:
- "Enough!" (extremely visceral, like being inside the mind of a matriarch who has slowly lost control over her family and her own life choices)
- "Return to Sender" (two parents reckon with their guilt of 'getting out' of their wartorn country, only to return as a sort of penance and suffer the consequences of the war)
- "Occupational Hazards" (written like a résumé; so clever; very powerful)
- "Bakhtawana and Miriam" (a beautiful and complicated story of clandestine friendship)
- "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak" (a government agent begins to fall in love with the immigrant family he is assigned to watch for terrorist activity)
- "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" (a new video game seems to mirror the true history of a boy's family in Afghanistan down to the very last detail)
March 30, 2023
A powerful and resonating collection that illuminates the voices of Afghans, throughout years and countries, but united in their hope and hurt. Mixing the rich history, folklore, culture, and landscape of Afghanistan, the Haunting of Hajji Hotak is an expert balance of heartbreak and humor, of hope and despair. Using the compelling themes of political unrest, occupation, violence, and love of homeland, this collection showcases the mirrors of trauma and bravery crafted over generations, the strength of young voices striving for change, and the importance of taking back choices long deprived by others. This is a gripping read that leaves a lasting impression.
October 12, 2022
What are the odds that you’ll finish two books on the same day in which a young man turns into a monkey? (The other was No Windmills in Basra by Diaa Jubaili.)
This is a finalist for the (U.S.) 1922 National Book Award for Fiction. The deciding factor for me, when considering whether to read it, was that the author grew up about 5 miles away, after
his family emigrated from a refugee camp in Peshawar to California. Their original home was in Logar Afghanistan.
It���s always so strange to read references in a piece of fiction to places that are in reality just around the corner. It both jars me out of the fictional mental environment and makes me almost doubt the professionalism of the writer. Who would set a story in Sacramento?
But there is no doubt that Kochai is a professional. These stories really gripped my attention. At first I wasn’t sure I could do it. There is a lot of violence, both in the stories that are set directly in Afghanistan, and in those where in the remote events and memories pursue the refugees in California. One or another of them ends up having to return to Afghanistan to attend to family business, and the consequences are almost always tragic.
At the same time there are humor and generally loving, if exasperated, family ties. The love and compassion that the protagonist feels for his father, once a mujahideen and now a disabled middle aged man denied worker’s comp and unable to support his family in California, is palpable and pervasive. Very skillful writing. I loved the story written as a cv of the father.
Of course some of the stories /episodes fall short, especially toward the beginning. Stick with it, the collection is both rewarding and an eye-opening short course in what Afghan refugees are living through, endlessly. The last two stories, with their politics, allegory and fantastic aspects, are especially good.
I don’t think Goodreads will let me add a link, but there is a wonderful article about how Kochai reconnected with the second grade teacher who mentored and inspired him when he arrived in California as a child with no English and no understanding of US culture. He offers a heartfelt tribute to the power of teachers to change students’ lives. It should be easy to Google.
This is a finalist for the (U.S.) 1922 National Book Award for Fiction. The deciding factor for me, when considering whether to read it, was that the author grew up about 5 miles away, after
his family emigrated from a refugee camp in Peshawar to California. Their original home was in Logar Afghanistan.
It���s always so strange to read references in a piece of fiction to places that are in reality just around the corner. It both jars me out of the fictional mental environment and makes me almost doubt the professionalism of the writer. Who would set a story in Sacramento?
But there is no doubt that Kochai is a professional. These stories really gripped my attention. At first I wasn’t sure I could do it. There is a lot of violence, both in the stories that are set directly in Afghanistan, and in those where in the remote events and memories pursue the refugees in California. One or another of them ends up having to return to Afghanistan to attend to family business, and the consequences are almost always tragic.
At the same time there are humor and generally loving, if exasperated, family ties. The love and compassion that the protagonist feels for his father, once a mujahideen and now a disabled middle aged man denied worker’s comp and unable to support his family in California, is palpable and pervasive. Very skillful writing. I loved the story written as a cv of the father.
Of course some of the stories /episodes fall short, especially toward the beginning. Stick with it, the collection is both rewarding and an eye-opening short course in what Afghan refugees are living through, endlessly. The last two stories, with their politics, allegory and fantastic aspects, are especially good.
I don’t think Goodreads will let me add a link, but there is a wonderful article about how Kochai reconnected with the second grade teacher who mentored and inspired him when he arrived in California as a child with no English and no understanding of US culture. He offers a heartfelt tribute to the power of teachers to change students’ lives. It should be easy to Google.
October 5, 2022
Had its hooks into me right from the first story. Riveting stuff. A knockout. I’ve already bought it for a couple of people.
July 9, 2022
theres some great writing here, but on the whole i found this to be a pretty uneven collection
November 12, 2022
A spectacular set of short stories, exploring a wide range of Afghani-American experiences. A very transnational novel, delving into problems of diaspora populations still intimately tied culturally and politically with their former homes.
June 5, 2023
Fair disclaimer that this is one of those story collections that require attention and I read it quite fast (my hold was ending and I couldn’t renew it yes yes). This being said, I’m not one for short stories in general yet there was something that caught my eye in this one - mainly because of the cover, for whatever reason - and I’m glad it did. There were stories in the collection that felt like a punch in the gut. Kochai has a thing for writing characters that feel real from the first page and then they go through hoops and loops in (mostly) horrific ways.
The writing is impeccable and just the structure of the stories and some stylistic decisions are innovative and brilliant.
My favorite stories were:
- “Return to Sender” - frustrating and harrowing. I went ‘damn’ (out loud) a few times with this story.
- “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” - 10/10.
- "Enough!" - this one seemed okay until the end, but then it really left me feeling gutted. It’s mostly about a cranky old matriarch who suddenly becomes really human and really you, if that even makes sense.
- “Hungry Ricky Daddy” - a PhD starves in protest for Israeli violence. This felt light-hearted at first and then it switched gears.
The writing is impeccable and just the structure of the stories and some stylistic decisions are innovative and brilliant.
My favorite stories were:
- “Return to Sender” - frustrating and harrowing. I went ‘damn’ (out loud) a few times with this story.
- “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” - 10/10.
- "Enough!" - this one seemed okay until the end, but then it really left me feeling gutted. It’s mostly about a cranky old matriarch who suddenly becomes really human and really you, if that even makes sense.
- “Hungry Ricky Daddy” - a PhD starves in protest for Israeli violence. This felt light-hearted at first and then it switched gears.
October 3, 2022
Perfection!! That first short story is one of the best stories I’ve read in a while.
November 10, 2022
After the first couple of stories, I thought this was a really solid collection. After that, when I began to realize that these stories were intertwined and resonated with each other so powerfully, I went from solid to superb. But what I think is Kochai's special sauce, is the way he uses a gentle deadpan humor to bring a sense of ordinary, crazy family warmth to stories that live to varying degrees in the monstrous midst of all the Afghan wars. Anyone who likes this book (or isn't into short stories) has (IMHO) to read his novel, 99 Nights in Logar, which was also a 5 star book for me.
A couple of examples of Kochar's writing. In the first, a mother's reaction to her teenage daughter announcing that she is a vegetarian.
A couple of examples of Kochar's writing. In the first, a mother's reaction to her teenage daughter announcing that she is a vegetarian.
Habibi made an effort to explain to her daughter that vegetarianism was a slippery slope toward feminism, Marxism, communism, atheism, hedonism and, eventually, cannibalism. "Animals are animals," her mother explained deftly, "and humans are humans, and when you begin mixing up the two you will find yourself kissing chickens and eating children."Context for this second quote, Merzagul has a heart condition - he's a very big man, born with a small, weakened heart.
And so it was that after Merzagul caught word of the murder of his only son, his puny heart pumped into overdrive and led him to the studded handle of his father's legendary scimitar, which had once chopped down three hundred British colonizers back in the benevolent days of Kipling and Forster, when white men would fight on the earth like mere mortals- not as they did now; from thousands of miles above, from the very heavens themselves, perched upon behemoths of steel and light, watching their targets below; even in the darkest of nights, hour upon hour, spying and recording and listening, until one fateful day or night, when the white men in the clouds would rain down their fire and decide, with the flick of a finger, the twitch of an eye, the shiver of an asshole, whether an entire village would celebrate a wedding or mourn a funeral.
October 15, 2022
This creative mix of stories features Afghans and Afghan Americans. The city of Logar occurs in almost all the stories. (And the name Watak often appears; I wondered what his significance was to the author.)
There is cutting, insightful social commentary and affecting characters. I found the stories to be compelling, fresh, and at times, wrenching. Each story is unique and reflects a span of subject matters and ingenuity. There's wry wit and a level of crushing grieving and longing. The book is about perseverance and the human will to live and to love.
I was awed by "Occupational Hazards," a chapter in a résumé format that shows the historical trajectory of a person from Logar, Afghanistan to establishing a life in Sacramento, California. And I very much appreciated the quirky and inventive "The Tale of Dully's Reversion" about a man who transforms into a small monkey and how his family attempt to help him. From this collection, I also liked "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" about a young Afghan American man who gets new computer game and it places him in his father's ancestral village with familiar characters, "Saba's Story," and "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak."
Having read this and his 99 Nights in Logar, I can readily recommend Kochai and whatever he writes. He assuredly writes searing, touching stories that transport and touch readers meaningfully.
One quote:
"Dully resisted subjugation the only way he knew how: anxiety-inducing procrastination."
I enjoyed this interview with the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qUZq...
and this wonderful story about the author reuniting with his 2nd grade teacher who taught him to read and write English https://www.npr.org/2022/08/17/111780...
There is cutting, insightful social commentary and affecting characters. I found the stories to be compelling, fresh, and at times, wrenching. Each story is unique and reflects a span of subject matters and ingenuity. There's wry wit and a level of crushing grieving and longing. The book is about perseverance and the human will to live and to love.
I was awed by "Occupational Hazards," a chapter in a résumé format that shows the historical trajectory of a person from Logar, Afghanistan to establishing a life in Sacramento, California. And I very much appreciated the quirky and inventive "The Tale of Dully's Reversion" about a man who transforms into a small monkey and how his family attempt to help him. From this collection, I also liked "Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" about a young Afghan American man who gets new computer game and it places him in his father's ancestral village with familiar characters, "Saba's Story," and "The Haunting of Hajji Hotak."
Having read this and his 99 Nights in Logar, I can readily recommend Kochai and whatever he writes. He assuredly writes searing, touching stories that transport and touch readers meaningfully.
One quote:
"Dully resisted subjugation the only way he knew how: anxiety-inducing procrastination."
I enjoyed this interview with the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qUZq...
and this wonderful story about the author reuniting with his 2nd grade teacher who taught him to read and write English https://www.npr.org/2022/08/17/111780...
June 20, 2023
I need to sit and digest most of what I just read, but that’s exactly why I loved this short story collection so much.
Here’s a quick rating for each story (though as a whole I do see this collection differently):
1. Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 3/5 stars
2. Return to Sender - 4/5 stars
3. Enough! - 4/5 stars
4. Bakhtawara and Miriam - 4/5 stars
5. Hungry Ricky Daddy - 5/5 stars (FAVOURITE)
6. Saba’s Story - 4/5 stars
7. Occupational Hazards - 5/5 stars
8. A Premonition; Recollected - 3/5
9. Waiting for Gulbuddin - 3/5 stars
10. The Parable of the Goats - 3/5 stars
11. The Tale of Dully’s Reversion - 3/5 stars
12. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak - 5/5 stars
Here’s a quick rating for each story (though as a whole I do see this collection differently):
1. Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 3/5 stars
2. Return to Sender - 4/5 stars
3. Enough! - 4/5 stars
4. Bakhtawara and Miriam - 4/5 stars
5. Hungry Ricky Daddy - 5/5 stars (FAVOURITE)
6. Saba’s Story - 4/5 stars
7. Occupational Hazards - 5/5 stars
8. A Premonition; Recollected - 3/5
9. Waiting for Gulbuddin - 3/5 stars
10. The Parable of the Goats - 3/5 stars
11. The Tale of Dully’s Reversion - 3/5 stars
12. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak - 5/5 stars
December 23, 2022
Collection of related short stories set in Afghanistan and the US mostly pertaining to war, terrorism, and migration. The first story is outstanding and my favorite of the bunch. It pertains to a young man playing a video game in which the avatars resemble his family members. I found the other stories uneven. Several include elements of magical realism. It is used, I presume, to help convey some of the more brutal content in a manner that does not overwhelm the reader. I liked it enough to read another book by this author.
July 28, 2022
Absolutely superb! I love reading anthologies and especially as a south asian muslim, I like reading stories from that region that are very human, very intimate and this fits it to a T. His writing is masterful, full of heartbreak and verve. Each of his stories worms your way to your heart like a fishhook, seizing you without you ever realizing it till the end.
September 25, 2022
Some real standouts here. This collection focuses on being first generation Afghan American, the differences between the cultures, and the after effects of decades of instability in the region.
April 12, 2024
It feels so weird rating a book that is about war, displacement, trauma, the destruction of bodies. Like saying that your experience of reading these stories was enjoyable...anyway this is one of the most incredible, terrifying books I have ever read. The writer is a masterful craftsman, the stories play with form and structure, using parables and resume formats to convey a sense of foreboding, loss and immeasurable human pain. The world building in each story is done so deftly you are pulled in immediately as the story starts. I highly highly recommend this book and given the times we are living in, to please give it a go.
December 3, 2022
3,5
Strong but uneven collection by a promising writer
Strong but uneven collection by a promising writer
August 4, 2022
Every once in a while, I come across a book that reignites my love for reading and makes me aware how many incredible pieces of literature that I might discover are out there. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is one of these books. It’s a collection of short stories about family, immigration and generational trauma, war and faith. The stories have a beautiful, haunting and surreal quality to them that reminded me of Charles Yu’s collection titled Sorry Please Thank You that I absolutely adored. Kochai’s writing is creative and original, and I loved that the stories had different forms and structures, which made them more memorable. They’re thought-provoking and meditative, but the humor and dreamy atmosphere keep them from being too heavy. I breezed through this book and I can’t wait to read more of Kochai’s work.
TLDR: The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is a brilliant collection of short stories that bridge the distance between Afghanistan and the US through the themes of home, history, and war.
TLDR: The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is a brilliant collection of short stories that bridge the distance between Afghanistan and the US through the themes of home, history, and war.
October 25, 2022
Jamil Jan Kochai’s debut short story collection is a profound commentary on life, love, and survival in Afghanistan and the U.S. These stories will break your heart into small pieces, scattered around you, as you read them. For me, Return to Sender and the Haunting of Hajii Hotak are the best stories in the book. I will not write more so as not to spoil the reading experience for anyone. But, please, do yourself a favor, and read these beautifully written, visceral stories because they will move you.
As J.J. K. eloquently asks, “why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
As J.J. K. eloquently asks, “why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
November 9, 2022
Fantastic right out of the gate and let me add I’m not someone who loves a short story collection but man these are excellent. Shortlisted for the #NationalBookAward writer Jamil Jan Kochi has crafted a series of linked stories centered around Afghan characters both in their native country and in the United States.
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I was blown away by his seemingly boundless creativity and the way the stories are told, with two in particular standing out in a vast field of stand outs. In, ‘Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’, a young man descends into his video game while simultaneously reliving his fathers memories of war. And in ‘Occupational Hazards’, we see the life of an Afghan man told through quick job descriptions that are searing in their brilliant brevity. This is imagination run wild tethered by a rooted history that can be brutal and utterly unforgiving . Really great stuff, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
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I was blown away by his seemingly boundless creativity and the way the stories are told, with two in particular standing out in a vast field of stand outs. In, ‘Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’, a young man descends into his video game while simultaneously reliving his fathers memories of war. And in ‘Occupational Hazards’, we see the life of an Afghan man told through quick job descriptions that are searing in their brilliant brevity. This is imagination run wild tethered by a rooted history that can be brutal and utterly unforgiving . Really great stuff, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
February 13, 2023
I felt strongly about writing a review of Jamil Jan Kochai’s new collection of fictional stories The Haunting of Hajji Hotak, principally, to critique an awful and racist review that I read in the New York Times.
That NYT had chosen Elliot Ackerman, a former US marine and intelligence officer, to critique a collection that is attempting to come to terms with the destruction wrought by the institution he represented, perhaps indicates their blindness to the ways violence works.
In the NYT review, we see a bizarre moment of gas-lighting as Ackerman accuses Kochai of writing in reductive tropes about the US military, going further in stating that there is a “distracting fixation on whiteness.”
"We are treated to the most direct view of this lingering and cumulative trauma through the story ‘Occupational Hazards’, where Kochai presents a CV from 1966 through to infinity – marking each major moment of violence from the Soviet invasion through to the global War on Terror, both in Afghanistan and the diaspora"
This view suggests more of Ackerman’s lack of understanding of structures of power in the US and less about Kochai’s ability to narrate the spectres of aggression that continue to haunt his motherland.
However, I feel it is an injustice to Jamil Jan Kochai’s prose to focus on critiquing Ackerman, and so instead I turn to this stunning collection of short stories.
These are stories that reduce the large distances that exist. Whether it is between an Afghan living in the US diaspora, or a drone operator flying unmanned vehicles of destruction from thousands of miles away, the distance to Afghanistan is reduced to nothing as the world is connected through Kochai’s storytelling.
Full review at the New Arab: https://www.newarab.com/features/brea...
That NYT had chosen Elliot Ackerman, a former US marine and intelligence officer, to critique a collection that is attempting to come to terms with the destruction wrought by the institution he represented, perhaps indicates their blindness to the ways violence works.
In the NYT review, we see a bizarre moment of gas-lighting as Ackerman accuses Kochai of writing in reductive tropes about the US military, going further in stating that there is a “distracting fixation on whiteness.”
"We are treated to the most direct view of this lingering and cumulative trauma through the story ‘Occupational Hazards’, where Kochai presents a CV from 1966 through to infinity – marking each major moment of violence from the Soviet invasion through to the global War on Terror, both in Afghanistan and the diaspora"
This view suggests more of Ackerman’s lack of understanding of structures of power in the US and less about Kochai’s ability to narrate the spectres of aggression that continue to haunt his motherland.
However, I feel it is an injustice to Jamil Jan Kochai’s prose to focus on critiquing Ackerman, and so instead I turn to this stunning collection of short stories.
These are stories that reduce the large distances that exist. Whether it is between an Afghan living in the US diaspora, or a drone operator flying unmanned vehicles of destruction from thousands of miles away, the distance to Afghanistan is reduced to nothing as the world is connected through Kochai’s storytelling.
Full review at the New Arab: https://www.newarab.com/features/brea...
August 3, 2023
a fantastic collection of short fiction. “return to sender” is unmissable; it’s one of the fuckin best and wildest short stories i’ve ever read. the author’s writing is simultaneously stark and overflowing, like we are hidden in a storyteller’s backseat—or pressed mercilessly against a fractured windshield—consuming confessions we are never quite sure we are meant to hear but can’t stop listening to.
April 26, 2023
Amazing, some of the best prose I’ve read in a while. This is a short story collection, but the stories flowed so seamlessly together that it read almost like a novel, and I absolutely loved the surrealistic elements. Probably my favorite read of the year so far, like I was absolutely mesmerized.
April 17, 2023
My only reading goal for this year was to try to diversify my reads. I knew I wanted to pull myself out of my norm, and tackle some of the prize list reads. This is one of the @aspenwords short list picks. 12 stories exploring Afghanistan or Afghan people… it was totally unique and dove a bit into magical realism as well.
I’ll be the first to admit short stories really tend to be hit or miss for me, this one landed somewhere in the middle. The first story in this series was SO STRONG. The second, equally compelling! I was so excited, but then some of the others really fell off for me.
“Why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
Overall, I’m glad I read it and plan on reading a few more from the short list soon!
I’ll be the first to admit short stories really tend to be hit or miss for me, this one landed somewhere in the middle. The first story in this series was SO STRONG. The second, equally compelling! I was so excited, but then some of the others really fell off for me.
“Why must we always ruin what is beautiful with what is true?”
Overall, I’m glad I read it and plan on reading a few more from the short list soon!
October 20, 2022
This short story collection was uneven. As with most short story collections, some stories were better than others. However, as a whole this was a better than average collection that took some risks which mostly were successful.
June 17, 2023
i’m on a bit of a short story kick lately. i think it has something to do with the fact that im trying to write my own short stories, the genre has been really speaking to me. this short story collection had so many bright spots; there was so many interesting creative choices: in the first story, when the son explores his Afghani heritage through the assassins creed video games that glorify American violence and he almost seems to inhabit the video game; “return to sender” was absolutely haunting in its s depiction of shame and loss; the use of a list of attributes almost like a resume to show how someone considered an “unskilled” immigrant actually has so many different skills earned through so much hard work and challenges; bits of surrealism with the Imam Qadir who keeps returning to life like Dede Korkut in turkish tales of where we came from our folk poetry; all the different references and allusions to political events, groups and twisted alliances provide a brief glance into how unnecessarily complicated the situation in Afghanistan is; use of repetitive elements across different stories that seem to link them even if plot wise they’re all distinct; these include the younger brother Walid who dies tragically, the grandmother with her oxygen tank, the father figure who’s nerves are fried due to a labor accident; the name Saba to refer to different young women, as so on and so forth. i really appreciate that Kochai takes these creative choices because it’s some of the boldest writing i’ve seen in a while. not that it always works but it’s INTERESTING at least. and true to the reviews the haunting of hajji hotek was a gem of a story in it and as i finished the collection i was left with a breathlessness due to all the carnage but unmistakably, unbelievably reaching out for hope. i cant wait to see what else he has for us.
January 16, 2023
*4.5
I’m not usually one for a collection of short stories, but these were literally enchanting. The writing is so good, and the humor and tone conveys a sense of family even in the most grotesque circumstances. I think a perfect example is the (I don’t know what you would call it) “dark humor” of the title of one of his stories: Return to Sender. This story is about a little boy who is kidnapped and cut into pieces. These are then mailed individually to his parents who are Afghan-Americans that chose to come to Kabul. They now deal with not only the political and cultural ghosts of their past, but also the literal ghost of their son. Then, there is Hungry Ricky Daddy, which is by far my favorite. The entire collection is a journey of stories that are connected through place and emotion, but that connection isn’t really established until the very end. So, you, as the reader, get to piece these stories together—like the doctor parents suture back together the pieces of their unfortunately-very-dead son (sorry). For example, the first story is about a boy playing a video game and a later story is about that same boy visiting the setting of the video game. I digress, but would certainly recommend (Torture TW for The Parable of Goats).
I’m not usually one for a collection of short stories, but these were literally enchanting. The writing is so good, and the humor and tone conveys a sense of family even in the most grotesque circumstances. I think a perfect example is the (I don’t know what you would call it) “dark humor” of the title of one of his stories: Return to Sender. This story is about a little boy who is kidnapped and cut into pieces. These are then mailed individually to his parents who are Afghan-Americans that chose to come to Kabul. They now deal with not only the political and cultural ghosts of their past, but also the literal ghost of their son. Then, there is Hungry Ricky Daddy, which is by far my favorite. The entire collection is a journey of stories that are connected through place and emotion, but that connection isn’t really established until the very end. So, you, as the reader, get to piece these stories together—like the doctor parents suture back together the pieces of their unfortunately-very-dead son (sorry). For example, the first story is about a boy playing a video game and a later story is about that same boy visiting the setting of the video game. I digress, but would certainly recommend (Torture TW for The Parable of Goats).
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December 13, 2022"In his collection of short stories set in Afghanistan and America, Kochai forces his readers to look the violence associated with the War on Terror squarely in the face, and shows how these two countries are forever intertwined. Employing elements of the surreal, the absurd, and the magical, 'The Haunting of Hajji Hotak' asks what war does to those who see it firsthand—and how this witnessing reverberates to their descendants."
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/arc...
January 12, 2023
jamil jan kochai proves why he's a national book award finalist for 270 pages
favs: playing mgsv: the phantom pain, enough!, hungry ricky daddy, occupational hazards
favs: playing mgsv: the phantom pain, enough!, hungry ricky daddy, occupational hazards
April 26, 2023
everyone should read this
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