'Our Postcolonial Proust': Celebrated Pakistani-American Author Sara Suleri Is No More

'Our Postcolonial Proust': Celebrated Pakistani-American Author Sara Suleri Is No More
Celebrated Pakistani-American author Sara Suleri Goodyear passed away at the age of 69. Fans and literati took to social media to pay glowing tributes to the wordsmith.

Born in Pakistan in 1953, an alumni of Kinnaird College and Punjab University, Sara Suleri is most well-known for her classic memoir, Meatless Days, in which she recounts her youth in post-colonial Lahore. She also wrote The Rhetoric of English India in 1992, followed by Boys Will Be Boys: A Daughter’s Elegy in 2003.

Literary fans on social media paid tribute to her life and work.

"Perhaps the greatest Pakistani writer of a generation - our "postcolonial Proust," an intellectual powerhouse - Sara Suleri, passes away", wrote Home Boy author H M Naqvi.

https://twitter.com/HMNAQVI/status/1505904623600689155

"Thank you for opening my eyes to how writing about home could be so beautiful and painful and honest all at the same time. Going to reread the majestic Meatless Days to say goodbye," wrote one reader.

https://twitter.com/sehartariq/status/1506085359435673603

"This and Boys will be Boys by Sara Suleri are my most prized possessions. Perhaps she was the first Pakistani woman writer to tell intimate personal stories through cultural references. Each sentence of her two biographies is laden with meaning," wrote another about the author's work.

https://twitter.com/aishoishrat/status/1505989204060557312

"She was one of the finest writers I know, and her writing remains unmatched in Pakistan. No one wrote memoirs & non-fiction with more nuance, poignancy and resolute use of vocabulary. Her turns of phrases were masterful," eulogized another fan.

https://twitter.com/guldaar/status/1505963418649567236

Born to a Welsh mother and a Pakistani journalist father, Sara Suleri went on to receive her PhD from Yale University, where she was a professor emeritus of English.