Good Intentions: ‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist

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I knew this was gonna be thought provoking and inspire a lot of discussions but damnnn. Shoutout to Kasim Ali though because I loved the writing style in regards to the inner monologues, self reflections and how he writes friendships. As someone who also has anxiety I don’t feel like I’ve ever read it’s symptoms and how it impacts relationships as accurate as in this book. That being said it’s not necessarily Muslim rep and I don’t think it was meant to be. An emotional ride through the highs, lows, and inescapable truths of modern love' Justin Myers, author of The Fake-Up Nur!” comes a shout from the living room. His mother’s voice, urgent. “It’s about to begin! Come down!” Nur loves how she gets so excited about something that could so easily become mundane to other people, the same year in, year out. He loves that she makes them all sit there, her husband and their three children, in a family tradition crafted from something that only she truly enjoys. If we stop expecting the big male novelists of the 2020s to look like updated big male novelists of the 1980s, there are signs of an exciting new era of fiction by young men. This spring saw the publication of Caleb Azumh Nelson’s Open Water, while in the past year there have been critically acclaimed books from Gabriel Krauze, Sunjeev Sahota and Chris Power. Writers such as Nikesh Shukla, Luke Kennard, James Scudamore and Michael Donkor are hitting their stride, while Garth Greenwell, Brandon Taylor, Bryan Washington and Paul Mendez are producing powerful fiction about queer desire. There are also poets such as Sam Riviere and Will Burns, whose debut novels are expected later this year. And in 2022, 4th Estate’s lead debut is Good Intentions by Kasim Ali, bought as part of a six-figure, two-book deal. Alluring . . . [A] thoughtful portrait of young people weighing the bonds of tradition with personal identity. Readers will root for this imperfect love until the end."

No taboo is off-limits in Kasim Ali's bold and thought-provoking debut. Good Intentions is a necessary addition to literature." But Rob Doyle suggests that maybe having pariah status isn’t such a bad thing. “It strikes me that really good writing and great literature historically has not come from glory and triumph. It has come from abjection and opposition.”Good Intentions is a magnificent and messy love story that broke my heart. Bittersweet and tender, Ali writes about modern day relationships with such compassion. This is a novel for anyone who has ever known what it is to be conflicted in falling in love, feeling the expectations of our families but also ourselves; it is for anyone who has ever felt their heart breaking under the weight of it all' Huma Qureshi, author of How We Met Imran’s relationship with his parents by turn helps Nur consider his own parents, his expectations of them. “It’s fascinating to me as the author that I sat down and subconsciously created a mirror narrative to Nur’s relationship with Yasmina through Imran. And his relationship with his parents and his family,” he says, adding that alongside questions of masculinity, parents show up again and again in his writing. Parental guidance Honesty makes us trust the story, trust the characters and form a bond. We adore Nur like we might a younger brother: at times we empathise, want to take him in a warm embrace, and at other times we would rather give him a damn good throttle.

Good Intentions" follows the story of the relationship between Nur, a young British-Pakistani man, and Yasmin, a young British-Sudanese woman. Nur and Yasmina are in love. They've been together for four happy years. But Nur's parents don't know that Yasmina exists. It delves into their relationship, racism in the community and the familial ties. The story also ended when there was a conclusion about the main leads' relationship, but I also wanted to know more about the side characters e.g. Yasmina's sister. What happened to her in the end? I don't need a proper ending for her, but I would have liked to know her progress. He was wary, he says, when writing Good Intentions, of building a narrative where “[Nur’s] parents are just racist, like, capital-R Racist”, when “it’s actually got a lot to do with how [Nur] perceives his parents.” Writing for me is such an intrinsic part of my life. Now, I’ve been doing it for so long I can’t not write. I’m always writingHe does this with many topics, one being race, and the abhorrences People of Color and non-whites have to go through in this crude world. This was a common thread throughout the book but wasn't something that felt overly redundant. It got worse when she introduced her son to an array of brown women for him to consider: all of them wearing stereotypical clothes, speaking meekly, and not given any agency. This is a complex, tender and bittersweet love story that interrogates familial obligation, religion, race, what it means to be “good”– and specifically, what it means to be “good” to each other.' The Skinny Moving, modern and utterly engaging. What a talent’ Rhik Samadder, author of I Never Said I Love You

The book ends on such a 360 degree note and I still do not understand what the hell happened. But yeah it also make sense, Because the main character was kind of unhinged. Take a Look at Our Summary of November Highlights, Whether You're Looking for the Latest Releases or Gift Inspiration When I was writing Good Intentions, I wanted to write about a boy who wasn’t afraid to be physically and emotionally vulnerable with his friends, who would have conversations with men in his life that were open and honest about how he is feeling. And it’s not a bad thing. Because people like that, like I, exist. And there is strength in being in tune with your feelings,” he says. Fast-forward to the summer of 2020 and the novelist Luke Brown, author of last year’s Theft – a comedy of manners about sexualised class war – argued that only women have the freedom to present sexual relationships in ways that are “real and complex” (he singled out Sally Rooney, Gwendoline Riley and Lisa Halliday). Writing in the Times Literary Supplement, he said that heterosexual male desire had been linked so closely to abuses of power that “no sensible man is impolitic enough” to write honestly about the more unpalatable aspects of their experiences of love with women. Men think that to be allowed a place at the table, they need to have the right views and be these nice guys Rob Doyle, author Sutton says people have always read literature by men and this isn’t about to change. But what has “radically changed” is the literary space into which they are emerging. Their status no longer feels dominant.You should have taken some more time off,” his father says. “It’s nice having you home, makes it feel like it used to.”