You fake being this heightened version of yourself, hide away the flaws and the cracks, make sure they can't see your bleeding heart and your trauma. I've yet to read any of Rooney's work, but I can certainly understand why critics would make the comparison. I never felt like the book was trying to cover too many topics here—they were all given time and space to be discussed and with nuance. Each night at home, he has gone to bed with this tightness pinning him down, like his lungs can’t pull in enough air.

We also have Imran, the friend from University, from a Muslim Pakistani background who has come out to his family, he faces discrimination from his parents because of his sexual orientation. Nur did not come from a typical cultural family and I definitely think that was taken for granted on his part. Regret begins to tug then, as Nur wonders if he should have told them first, tested it with them, but that moment has long passed.Overall, I really like the story for the themes explored as well as the writing, and will be looking forward to more of the author's works in future. It is very poignant, addressing the problems of racism and the tension between love for your family versus love for the person you have chosen to marry. As with other reviewers, I also agree that the alternating points in time as the chapters change did the book more harm than good for me because I would get confused or we would see things unfolding in present time then jump to some time in the past when I really wanted to go back to present day. Although Ali is critical of certain behaviors or mindsets Nur's parents exhibit, it's refreshing to see how he's equally critical of Nur.

A debut novel that suggests the term "star-crossed romance" may just be a way of pinning on the innocent cosmos the damage we do ourselves, without meaning to. In perusing reviews of Good Intentions, a popular sentiment critics seem to hold is that Kasim Ali may be new Sally Rooney (for non-white people, obviously). It's very easy for us to partake in their ignorance and bigotry when we avoid ever confronting them about it due to preconceived notions about their capacity to learn, and I'm glad to see a South Asian author so explicitly criticizing it and refusing to absolve our generation of blame.

Khalil and Mariam turn to their phones, his parents watch the TV with tired eyes, waiting for it to be over. After about 50% of the story, I did become invested in the character, mainly Nur, and how his family may react to his relationship. Nur has offered to take his entire family to London before, to pay for the train tickets and the hotel, let them see in real life what they have so often watched through a screen, but each time they have refused, saying it is too much money. It addresses human imperfections and the prejudices that people don’t want to admit to themselves and how a persons decisions have far reaching consequences that affect other peoples lives.

A focal point of the novel is a building criticism of Nur's inability to confront or challenge his parents' anti-Blackness and colorism because he believes them to be incapable of growing or changing as people; this in turn impacts his relationship with his Sudanese girlfriend Yasmina, who increasingly questions her worth after four years of Nur refusing to let her meet his parents. In the tradition of Spike Lee's film School Daze, Ali's novel explores the ways that racism may do its insidious damage even among those who are traditionally not its targets and victims. I related to this, coming from a Pakistani family myself I often think twice before making certain decisions and questioning myself! I really enjoyed the writing (the banter between the main leads, the descriptions of the food omg) such that I ended up tabbing way more than expected!Nur is repeatedly told that he is treating Yasmina badly, even though he continually shifts the blame on his family instead, and he’s not …babied (for want of another word) when it all goes wrong because of it. Really highlighted issues around self esteem and the prejudices and biases in the South Asian Societies. It’s the countdown to the New Year, and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he’s seeing someone.

This story covers male friendships, race and family dilemas, as Nur hasn't told his family he's dating someone. It was a relief to reach the concluding chapters of the novel and watch the consequences of all of Nur's actions come to a head, Yasmina exposing at length how the problem was never really Nur's family - it was Nur. He takes Islam and it's teaching as backward and is thoroughly making it out like the people who believe in it's teaching are "backward" and that doesn't sit right with me.A philosophical, modern-day classic debut, this novel includes absolutely everything that forms a well-made novel. He touches upon the different issues within the British Asian community giving you an inside from a male perspective. Opening on New Years Eve, with Nur gathering up the courage to tell his parents about Yasmina, the novel takes a non-linear route through the four years of their relationship before this point and the ways in which Nur’s family react to his secret. Initially, Nur thought he was protecting Yasmina (his own Good Intentions) from his family whom he thought wouldn't accept her, but he ended up hurting Yasmina and even his family. it just made me feel a little bored, as i waited to read about the plot of what was currently happening.