Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Seat of Power: Javaid Quazi's tales, gathered in the just-released "Unlikely Stories, Fatal Fantasies and Illusions," contains hidden morals.
Hope, disillusionment fuel author's poignant stories
Javaid Quazi feels that Silicon Valley is abandoning some of its needy citizens
By Jessica Lyons
Javaid Quazi speaks softly and thoughtfully. The Willow Glen author wears a light yellow sweater, and his eyes smile even when his mouth doesn't. So the alienation and disillusionment in his collection of short stories, Unlikely Stories, Fatal Fantasies and Delusions , comes as a surprise.
"My vision is a little bleaker than most," says Quazi, an English professor at San Jose City College.
The local author will visit Willow Glen Books on Friday, May 7, to share some of his Unlikely Stories.
"I don't feel optimistic," Quazi continues. "People are being cheated out of their birthright--they are being used up and thrown out. We live in a disposable society."
Maybe it's a result of being one of the many underpaid teachers in Silicon Valley, trying unsuccessfully to land a full-time job at a local college. It could be leftover feelings of disillusionment from years spent as a self-described "hippie-dippie" during the Vietnam War. Or possibly a mix of Quazi's love for--and disappointment with--America, a country he moved to from Pakistan for school. Maybe it's all of the above.
"Even though the economy is up, I'm still very suspicious of the whole game plan," he says. "I'm not so gung-ho on the stock market. I'm not making a lot of money. I still feel bitter and left out. I'm still teaching 35 students in an overcrowded, run-down classroom. I still can't get a full-time teaching job. The rebelliousness is still there even though as you get older you realize the mortgage payments come first. You put on the harness, you put the bit in your mouth and you start pulling."
Things are starting to look up for Quazi, however. His short story collection is being distributed in the United States and in Pakistan, and can be bought online at Amazon.com or locally at Willow Glen Books.
Quazi's collection of short stories makes for an intriguing read. Ranging from a lusty Portuguese maid, an unemployed Silicon Valley worker, a country barfly, a Pakistani doctor and a German "stripteuse," Quazi's diverse characters embody post-modern disillusionment. They are uprooted, alienated, oppressed, depressed and processed by the turbulence of the late 20th century. He creates believable characters--both good and bad.
"I won't create a character simply for effect or for show, for example, 'here's a bad guy,'" he says. "I want to get at more human truths. There may be something the person is doing that may not be morally good, but it's truth. It's like a big piece of chocolate cake and the moral is hidden in the middle. You can't hit the reader over the head with a sermon."
Born and raised in Pakistan, Quazi moved to the U.S. in 1968 to study English literature at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He met his wife Carol in Chicago and the two moved to Arizona, where Quazi received his Ph.D. in English lit in 1978.
Quazi and his wife have lived in their Willow Glen home for 18 years now. But for this expatriate, who grew up reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Silicon Valley is not a perfect fit.
"In the high-tech world of San Jose, I don't feel at home," he says. He's traveled to Italy and England, and although "England is near and dear to my heart," he says, "I would love to go back to Italy and live and write. It's so warm and so friendly."
He's going to London over the summer by himself, "just to walk around, look at the museums, look at the galleries." And maybe write some of the great short stories of the 21st century.
Author Javaid Quazi will visit Willow Glen Books, 1330 Lincoln Ave. at 7 p.m., Friday, May 7.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
