More Than Just a Pretty Face is about Danyal, whose Muslim family is trying to set him up for an arranged marriage while he already has his sights on someone else. But when he meets the girl he is supposed to marry and needs her help for a History project at school, things begin to change for him.
In the lead up to the publication of his novel, More Than Just a Pretty Face, we were lucky enough to have a chat with author Syed M. Masood. We asked him all about his new book and learned why he won’t let someone hating on Jane Austen go – under no circumstances!
Hi Syed! Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m the author of More Than Just A Pretty Face, which is my first novel and my young adult debut. I live in Sacramento, California, where I’m currently sequestered from a global pandemic with a three-year-old and a six-year-old. So if my answers to these questions are less than coherent, there’s a reason (though my wife is currently holding them at bay).
I have, over the course of my life, been a citizen of three countries, and I’ve lived in at least eight cities, which has certainly helped shaped my perspective on the world.
Your debut novel, More Than Just A Pretty Face, releases on August 4th 2020. If you could only use five words to describe it, what would they be?
Funny. Serious. Food Centric. Romantic. Hopeful.
Where did the inspiration for More Than Just A Pretty Face come from?
I’m not sure how it happened, but a few years ago I got interested in the concept of forgiveness. Who gets forgiven and who doesn’t? Why is a girl who made a decision in her personal life that some consider a mistake judged more harshly—and is less readily forgiven—than someone like Winston Churchill, who made enormous decisions that affected the rest of humanity? The book grew from there.
Your novel is told from the perspective of a Muslim main character. How important is it to you to have Muslim main characters in books?
It’s definitely important, but I don’t want to say it is the most important thing to me when I’m writing. The make up of the cast is almost more important than the religion of the main character. You always want to have a cast with divergent points of view, even if those points of view are about the same thing.
So in this book, most of the cast is Muslim, but they all have slightly different relationships with Islam, which challenges the myth that there is a monolithic religious experience that all Muslims have. People’s relationships with religion are complex, but there is a push to see us all as one, indistinguishable mass, both from outside the religion and sometimes from inside the religion. But that’s a topic for a different day and a different book.
Danyal wants to be a chef and is very passionate about food and cooking, but is told repeatedly that this is not a suitable profession for him. How important is this portrayal of a teenage boy who chooses his career despite what everyone tells him to do?
In this one respect, Danyal’s story is like mine. I wanted to be an English Literature professor, but my parents were adamantly against it. They wanted me to be a doctor. It was a trying time.
In the end, I ended up becoming a lawyer, so everyone lost.
Seriously though, it’s an important experience to write about. Especially in desi families, for older sons, the idea that they’re going to be the primary breadwinner for their extended family is the source of a great deal of pressure and angst. I wanted to acknowledge that.
Do any parts of Danyal’s character come from yourself or anyone you know?
Of the trio of friends at the heart of the story—Zar, Danyal and Sohrab—Danyal is the least like me. I was more like Sohrab in high school and I was more like Zar in college. Danyal is who I wish I’d been more like. He’s a more aspirational character for me.
Danyal is passionate about history during his time preparing for the Renaissance Man. What are your thoughts on history and the way we are taught about it in our day and age?
All history is political in nature. People forget that when they study it or are made to study it.
Think about what you know of history. Someone chose to give you that knowledge, to present it to you in a specific way, especially if you got it in school. Think about all the places whose history you don’t know. Someone chose not to give you that knowledge—they left out all kinds of information. Why? What were the criteria for relevance? Only a very narrow perspective was included in your education.
History in America is fascinating. It shrinks the world, and casts a relatively young nation as its protagonist and inevitable heir. A lot of it is myth building, actually, and I think that’s unfortunate. Yes, America plays a large role on the world stage today. We hear all the time that we’re ‘leaders of the free world,’ whatever that means. But how can we lead something we don’t understand? What kind of leaders know only their personal history and care not for the perspectives and stories of others?
I could say a lot more about this, but in short, read everything and take nothing at face value, and recognize that, as they say, between your truth and my truth is the truth.
There are two very differently portrayed girls in More Than Just a Pretty Face, Bisma and Kaval. The general lesson taught is “don’t judge a book by its cover” in regard to romance and love. Is this a message that is important to you?
Danyal’s realization is partly “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but I think more broadly speaking, it is “don’t judge a book” – which is kind of a funny statement to make on a site that does book reviews, I suppose.
Seriously though, what I tried to achieve with Danyal, in the end, is that this young man who everyone calls an idiot is the only one who doesn’t judge any character whose flaws he discovers or deals with. He tries to understand them, and if possible, accept them, and where he feels they need help, he tries to help them. His realization that things aren’t always what they seem is as much, if not more, about himself than it is about the young women in the book.
But to answer the question, yes, this is definitely a message that is important to me. The world would be a better place if more people were like Danyal Jilani.
More Than Just a Pretty Face has some instances, in which Danyal thinks that it’s important to just disregard his own belief in order to make things easier for him, e.g. when the class is supposed to describe their perfect date and his friend is reluctant to do so, while Danyal just “goes along” for the sake of not arguing. How complicated can situations like these be and how could we as a society be more aware towards such things?
The way I see it, we all have personal beliefs and we all hold them dear to one extent or another. You may say to me, for example, that the Harry Potter series is overrated. Depending on my mood, I might let that go. However, if you say that Jane Austen is overrated, I’m definitely not letting that go, no matter what my mood.
It’s okay to pick your battles, is what I’m saying. It’s probably healthy.
In the example you cited, Danyal and Sohrab put different values on how important it is to point out to the teacher that they don’t date for religious reasons. Danyal doesn’t think it’s worth it. Sohrab does. It’s fine either way. Stand up for what you believe you have to stand up for. If you want to let something go, let it go. Both are valid choices in my opinion, and neither one of them changes what your beliefs are.
Do you think it is difficult to grow up in mainly Christian/Western society while having a Muslim belief? Especially since society is very much concerned with dating and relationships? How can and should a teenager deal with this contradiction?
Yes and no. It’s difficult to grow up, period. Does being Muslim make that more complicated sometimes? Sure. You’re not going to be able to do a some of things that other teenagers can. But there is no contradiction, I think, between being a Westerner and being Muslim. There is, at times, a tension there, but it’s resolvable tension.
The important thing is to not concede ground on what is ‘normal.’ Yes, dating is ‘normal,’ but not dating is also ‘normal.’ There are plenty of non-Muslim teenagers who don’t date. Too often we—that is to say everyone—let other people tell us what our lives should look like. We should stop doing that as soon as we can, figure things out on our own, and live the lives want—or at least, get as close as we can manage to living the lives want.
I’m not sure, frankly, that I would have found any of that advice very useful as a teenager, though. It’s all a lot easier to say and put into practice when you’re closer to forty than seventeen.
The book is about and plays with the trope of the arranged marriage. How common are arranged marriages in 2020 and what are your thoughts about it?
Arranged relationships might be more widespread than they’ve ever been—it’s just that instead of your parents or some aunty in the community setting you up with someone, a dating algorithm is doing it. As for arranged marriages, they’re still fairly common, though as Zar points out in the book, they’re not terribly common for individuals Danyal’s age.
The concept of arranged marriages seems alien and incomprehensible because people imagine you being dragged to the ceremony weeping and wailing, meant to be tied to someone you’ve never met or spoken to. It isn’t like that. At least, it mostly isn’t like that—that isn’t the experience I or anyone I know had.
It’s more like being introduced to someone through your family and then talking, over months usually, and trying to figure out if you want to marry them. The only unusual part is that your “dates” are chaperoned and are almost always in the homes of one of your parents. It’s very Victorian that way.
Personally, dating always seemed like a lot more work and also more random to me—but I suppose that’s part of the romance of it. I don’t know. I’m more than fine with arranged marriages. I had one myself about seven years ago and have found myself fortunate.
Is there anything you would like to tell all the readers of More Than Just a Pretty Face?
Thank you for reading! Keep at it. Check out the authors listed on the back cover. My editor and I asked them to read More than Just a Pretty Face because we love their work. I hope you will too.
Lastly, what’s next for you?
I have a contemporary adult literary novel coming out in November 2020 that I’m very excited about called The Bad Muslin Discount. In terms of YA, I’m currently working on my next book, which doesn’t have a title yet. Actually, it does have a title, but not one I like, so I’m not going to share yet. It’s about a boy who’s been primarily raised by his 100-year-old great-grandfather, and who’s trying to adjust to a more mainstream life now that he’s attending high school. He ends up becoming the dance partner of a girl who completely befuddles him, and vice-versa. It’ll be out next year.
I hope you enjoy them both when they’re available. Meanwhile, thank you so much for your time and for reading More Than Just A Pretty Face.
