Meatless Days (1989) – Sara Suleri

I was drawn to Sara Suleri’s Meatless Days for aesthetic reasons. I love the title of the autobiography. Is she a vegetarian? Why are the days meatless? I wanted to know more.

Not only that, I love the image on the lilac-colored cover. One of Suleri’s dear sisters, Ifat, dressed in a gharara and holding a young child’s hand. She looks like a Vogue model. Tall, thin, impeccably dressed. It’s an absolutely gorgeous photo, which, unfortunately, was scrapped in Penguin’s 2018 edition. (And this is part of the reason why I buy most of my books secondhand. The cover art is different, more evocative, and less generic.)

Women Writers

But enough about the cover art, this is a memoir that should live on the shelves of anyone passionate about women’s writing. I was happy to see it featured in the Penguin Women Writers series alongside The Lark by E. Nesbit and Lifting the Veil by Ismat Chughtai—books I haven’t read but intend to.

Meatless Days is not for anyone who likes to rush through their reading. This book takes time. A touching tribute to a family of great character and personality, Suleri does a fantastic job of capturing each memory and memorializing it. While pedantic in some places, the memoir is beautifully written overall. Suleri has a true gift.

My mother was buried at the nerve center of Lahore…Her tombstone bore some pretty Urdu poetry and a completely fictious place of birth, because some details my father tended to forget. “Honestly,” it would have moved his wife to say.

When it comes time for me to pen my own memoir, I will keep Meatless Days in the back of my mind. If I can capture the nuance and idiosyncracies of my loved ones only half as well as Suleri I will be content. The way she navigates extreme tragedy is admirable. She maintains the dignity of the deceased while focusing on the humanity brought by their life.

But in Pakistan someone had different plans for that sister [Ifat] of mine and thwarted all my plans. When she went walking out that warm March night, a car came by and trampled her into the ground, and then it vanished strangely. By the time I reached Lahore, a tall and slender mound had usurped the grave-space where my father had hoped to lie, next to the more moderate shape that was his wife. Children take over everything.

Meatless Days

I learned a lot about Pakistan in reading this book. Much of the history went over my head, but sometimes that’s the case. The title, for example, refers to literal meatless days in Pakistan, which are usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays. How curious! What first started “in order to preserve the national supply of goats and cattle,” the law remains on the books today.

While Suleri spends little time discussing this specific legislation, I’m sure the title was chosen as being representative of an era. Her father was a political journalist and throughout the chapters, she enlightens readers about the region’s politics, touching on “Bhutto’s empire”, the “Islamization of Pakistan”, and General Zulu Haq. History lessons abound.

What did I enjoy most about this book? The extremely personal nature of Suleri’s writing. Her uncanny ability to observe all the finite qualities that make a person an individual. The adeptness of her writing. Suleri was a learned woman, smart and intimate. If you are looking for a book to truly savor, this is it.

Further reading:

• “On Meatless Days” by Kamila Shamsie. Click here.
• “Sara Suleri Bows Out” by Beena Sarwar. Click here.
• Sara Suleri. “Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition.” Critical Inquiry, 1992.
• “Sara Suleri” via postcolonialweb.org. Click here.