Author Syed Masood has published 2 novels in the span of 6 months. His first published novel, More Than Just a Pretty Face, made waves in the world of YA literature. Meanwhile, The Bad Muslim Discount has already earned significant praise in anticipation of its February 2nd release date.
Hayat spoke with Masood about his latest book, another one under construction now, and how he navigates the complexities of identity when crafting characters.
Syed Masood juggles writing, law, and family
Masood always wanted to be a writer. He studied English Literature at the University of Toronto, before making a shift and earning his law degree from William & Mary.
He still practices law, while living in California with his young family. Yet, he has found time to pen two novels, with a third on the way.
“While [Bad Muslim Discount] was on submission, there was this tension and stress, and Bad Muslim had a very intense main character, and I needed a break,” Masood tells us.
That break: writing an entirely different novel, More Than Just a Pretty Face. He also notes that while he sees a lot of similarities between himself as a young man, and the protagonist of Bad Muslim Discount, he turned an entirely different direction with this second novel and protagonist.
“I wrote a character who is funny, but more of a people person, and doesn’t need to feel validated by academics at all,” he says. “Which is…not how I was at all.”
Syed Masood tells the stories he knows
Masood’s characters are Muslim. But when it comes to these characters, he puts the focus on their humanity, not just their religion.
“You can have a Muslim in Uzbekistan who is 80 years old, and a teenager in San Diego who are going to have very different lives,” Masood explains. “And very different ideas of what religion is and how to practice it.”
With this in mind, Masood avoids trying to shoehorn representation into his work. “I try to stay away from this idea of representation as something that I ‘do’,” he continues. “[My characters] just happen to be Muslim, and their background informs their life in profound ways, but it doesn’t necessarily control their lives.”
Sometimes, that means writing characters that reflect Masood himself in one way or another.
“People come to me and say ‘oh, well this doesn’t reflect my experience.’ And my response is just: Well, it reflects other people’s experiences, sometimes including my own, so…write your own book. And when you do, I’ll be a huge supporter. I think the more stories get written, especially the more Muslim stories, the easier this question will get because there won’t be this pressure to represent billions of different people.”
“The Bad Muslim Discount” by Syed Masood
Though it was not the initial title for the book, “The Bad Muslim Discount” is a potentially controversial title. But Masood explains what this means.
“The term bad muslim refers to the perception that people who aren’t perfect have to deal with, because their voices aren’t taken into account as heavily as to what Islam is or should be,” he says. He goes on to note that a lot of the visible discussion about Islam happens between Muslim experts and scholars, and people who have moved away from religion entirely.
But that leaves “the middle ground, those people who are just trying to make their way, unrepresented. So I think one of the questions that all books that are written about Muslim experiences or literature are asking and/or answering the question: who speaks for Muslims? And I think the answer, really, is all of us.”
“I think when we let more voices into the conversation, we’ll have a more accurate picture of what the Muslim experience is.”
Purchase The Bad Muslim Discount , available today.
Check out some of Syed Masood’s recommendations:
The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
Heretic Anonymous by Katie Henry
