The idea of taking someone’s story and turning it into fiction is a fraught one in modern literature. Remember Cat Person, the viral 2017 New Yorker Story by Kristen Roupenian? After the story went viral, it emerged that it was partly based on someone’s real-life experience, which ignited a debate about whether it’s ever okay to fictionalise someone else’s life.
That’s the question former Observer journalist and award-winning short story writer Huma Qureshi asks in her debut novel, Playing Games.
The story begins with Mira, a struggling playwright in her 30s who works as a barista in a local coffee shop. She shares a flat with a woman she doesn’t get along with and dreams of having her own place. Mira’s sister Hana is a high-flying lawyer, married to Samir, and living in a beautiful house. Mira is creative and slightly scattered, while Hana is uptight, stressed out and prone to angry outbursts. Both are still mourning the death of their mother years before and trying to figure out what their family dynamic is now, without that maternal presence.
One night, when Mira is staying over at Hana’s, she overhears an argument between Hana and Samir that gives her an idea for a story. She has been struggling to write a play called Pavements, about a woman who lies down on the path and refuses to get up (this is where Qureshi’s wicked sense of humour comes in), but when Mira overhears the argument, she starts work on a new play about a couple whose marriage is falling apart.
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It’s all fun and games until the play gets staged, and Mira is faced with the dilemma of explaining to Hana that the story might be inspired by her but is not about her.
While the book is engaged with a philosophical debate about the line between real life and fiction, Qureshi, who also works as a writing coach, knows that that alone doesn’t make for a gripping novel. And so, down on the ground level, in beautifully light and charming prose, she gives the reader some deeply engaging romantic drama in the form of Hana’s marriage and Mira’s romantic encounters, which provide a deeply emotional and enjoyable backdrop for the philosophical musings.
