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TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW

8/16/2022

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It's been a long time since a book has moved me to actual tears, but Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin has done just that. It did so not because it is overly romantic or remotely sappy, but rather because it is wonderfully written, with two main characters that are fully drawn and utterly engaging. Sam and Sadie meet as pre-teens while he is in the hospital and she, unbeknownst to him, is accumulating volunteer hours for a program through her synagogue. Although coming from very different worlds, a friendship is born, lost and re-born, spanning several decades, including when the two reunite in Cambridge, MA while in college.

It is there that they discover their shared passion for gaming, playing and designing them, and as such, they decide to collaborate on the creation of one. Ichigo was truly a labor of love that took most of their Junior year. Throughout the year, their friendship deepened although initially they did not divulge the deep emotions making up their lives. For Sam, in addition to being partially disabled, that meant withholding exactly when and how he loss his mother and why he had spent much of his youth being raised by his grandparents in LA. For Sadie, it was the current situation of being in an ill-advised and unhealthy relationship with her married professor.

Helping to navigate their friendship while keeping up with classes and building a great game, was Sam’s affluent, but always affable and positive roommate, Marks. Although he knows nothing about gaming except playing them, Marks is Sam and Sadie's biggest fan. He was there for them both- buying meals, diffusing arguments, encouraging creativity, and underwriting the project. He was their rock and the glue that made them stick throughout that challenging year and then some. The three would garner so much success with that first game, they would go on to develop other games, enlisting the help of an entire staff, first in Cambridge, then back to LA.

Author Gabrielle Zevin brilliantly explores the fragility of love and friendship, identity and disability. She does so through the vivid prose, stinging dialogue, and with the backdrop of the imaginative world of gaming. It's important to note, that you do not have to be into gaming at all in order to appreciate this story. As much as I was fully drawn into the characters and their individual and collective journeys, I even more so appreciated Zevin’s writing, plot development and witnessing her obvious personal growth as a writer. She quietly and solidly enter the indie bookstore scene in 2014 with the sweet and effective novel, The Storied Life ofA.J. Fikry, then in 2017 she showed her range with the socially relevant, yet often hilarious book, Young Jane Young. But Tomorrow takes her to a whole other level, or as Publisher’s Weekly puts it, “A-one-of-a-kind achievement.”

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NIGHTCRAWLING novel review

7/24/2022

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photo by Magdalena Frigo

Nightgcrawling by Leila Mottley is not only a truly stunning debut novel from a very young author, accomplished beyond her years, but it is an vital story giving voice to the voiceless.  The book’s protagonist, seventeen-year-old Kiara, who like her slightly older brother, Marcus, has dropped out of school and is barely scraping by to keep a roof over their heads in the absense of both their parents. Adversely impacted by death and prison, Marcus can’t seem to do anything but futily pursue a dream of a career in music. While this may spark joy and hope for Marcus, it does not help pay the rent or put food on the table. As such and while also trying to take care of a neighbor’s little boy who is neglected by his mother, Kiara bumps into perpetual unemployment which leads her to become a streetwalker to make ends meet. She’s ashamed by the path she has gone down. And knows she has to let her brother know.

I think maybe today is the day I’ve been waiting for. The Day when Marcus decides he will straighten his. Spine and learn how to hold up a little of this life again. The day he’ll put his head in my lap and. Let me cradle him. Or he might even hold my hand, ask me why there are bruises tracing my chest. Some days it feels like I’m stuck between mother and chld. Some days it feels like I’m nowhere. I’ve got something tosay to him. I promised myself I would and I don’t remember most things mama taught us, but she always said we stick to our word. Not just mama. This whole city knows the one thing. You don’t do is break a promise. Just like you don’t take the last piece of chicken without asking every person old enough to your mamma if they it first.

Unfortunately, Marcus doesn’t come through and Kiara’s streetwalking lands her in turning tricks among a corrupt group within the Oakland Police Dept. 

While Nightcrawling at times is an emotionally tough literary journey given its premise, it is also a novel I found myself fully engrossed with and finishing it relatively quickly. The fact that it can be emotionally challenging is large part credited to Mottley’s writing prowess. The first-person narrative effectively has you immersed in Kiara’s sad, destitue world, but also her strength and protective, mother-like quality that leads her to do anything to maintain the semblance of family with Marcus and Trevor. 

Although Kiara is the same age as the novel’s author at the time it was written (yep, Mottley is was only seventeen!), this is not based on her life. In fact, Kiara is a fictionalized character, but her story represents real events that were in the news in 2015. These events involving young Black women and the Oakland police served as inspiration, as mentioned in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book. Here is a sample:

In 2015, when I was a young teenager in Oakland, a story broke describing how members of the Oakland Police Department, and several. Other police departments in the Bay Area, had participated in the sexual exploitation of ayoung woman and attempted to cover it up. This case developed over months and years and, even as the news cycle moved. on, I continued to wonder about this event, about this girl, and about the other girls who did not receive headlines, but nonetheless experienced the cruelty of what. Policing can do to a person’s body, mind and spirit … The stories of black women, and queer and trans folks, are not often represented in the narratives of violence we see protested, writtenabout, and amplified in most movements, but that does not erase their existence.

Nightcrawling will prove to be one of the best books of 2022 for it’s rawness and intensity, yet undeniable poignancy, as well as marking the unearthing of a dazzling new and necessary voice in the world of fiction from Oakland Youth Poet Laureate (2018), Leila Mottley.


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REVIVIAL SEASON book review

9/26/2021

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Revival Season - While Revival Season by Monica West is a quick read, it is not necessarily an easy read. That is not to say it isn’t a well-executed, contemporary debut novel, because it is, but the subject matter about an abusive Southern Baptist preacher, is intense and heart-wrenching at times. The story’s main character, 15-year-old Miriam is the daughter of one of the South’s most prominent Black evangelists. As such, at the start of every summer, she and her family load up the family car and spend several weeks on the road, going from church to church for her father’s healing services.  During this one fateful summer, Miriam sees her passionate preacher father in a different light as she observes his temper targeted towards not only herself and her mother, but congregants. Maybe even doubling vexing is hearing her father accused of abusing a young girl.
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During that same revival season, Miriam learns that she may actually have the gift of healing her father may only be faking. Out of fear of her father’s jealousy, as well as his staunch belief that women cannot heal or have leadership positions in the church, she uses her “gift” sparingly and on the down low. With all the tumult of this particular season, Miriam’s belief in her father and religion is shaken to its core.

Every few minutes, I caught Ma shooting glances at Papa. De he at all resemble the man she had married sixteen years ago? The way the story went, she was seventeen. When a.  cocky, twenty-year-old boxer turned preacher came to her town as the Faith Healer of Midland. She gave her life to Jesus on the spot and married Papa six weeks later. We had lived under the canopy of that belief my whole life, eating and drinking faith in God first and Papa second, never questioning Papa’s healing abilities, the same way we never questioned the existence of the sun, even when it was hidden behind clouds. Our belief left no directives about what to do if our faith in Papa faltered.

The story of Revival Season is simple, yet somewhat unique in its exploration of a young girl’s faith in the face of an abusive father and a life-altering decision. It is both interesting and laudable that although a Black family is at the center of this story, race and racism are not. It is themes of man versus religion, and women versus a dominant man that is universal that West chooses to navigate. As a writer, her style is pared down and straight forward, maybe at first glance, even a bit underwhelming, with little to no lush, lyrical or memorable lines, per se. There is no especially strong sense of place although the spaces the family inhabits are screaming for atmospheric descriptions. That said, with a debut such as this, West undeniably shows signs of an emerging talent to keep an eye on.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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THE SHORT STACK - book review

9/26/2021

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The Archer - If you’re looking for a novel that offers escapism, with a healthy dose of reality; family drama, with poetic lyricism, look no further than The Archer by Shruti Swamy. Taking place in 1960s- 1970s Bombay, it presents the idea and dilemma of independent womanhood, motherhood and artistic endeavors coexisting. When the protagonist, Vidya as a young girl, observes her mother and a class of women performing a native dance, she is vexed. She is determined to not only learn it, but perfect it. The pursuit of it means more than marriage, becoming a mother or her eventual college studies. It takes on even more meaning once she loses her mother while still only in high school. Of course her desire to be consumed by her art runs contrary to her father’s, her husband’s and societal expectations. Can Vidya have it all? Does she want it all or is her life’s ambition singular?

Although this is Samy’s debut novel, it is not her first publication. Her recently published collection of stories, A House is a Body, was dubbed by Kiese Laymon as “one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s.” Given that, along with the The Archer’s original premise, it is no surprise that this is an impressive and wholly engaging debut from a unique writing talent who will only get better and better with each project.

Publisher: Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Press

A Knock at Midnight by debut writer/lawyer Brittany K. Barnett is a compelling memoir of justice, determination and freedom. The small-town Georgia native was in the midst of a successful career in finance in 2011, and headed to an even more lucrative one in corporate law when she came along the story of Sharanda Jones. Sharanda was a single mother who received a life sentence without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. The situation resonated with Brittany who herself was the daughter of a single mom, addicted to drugs, and constantly in and out of jail through little fault of her own but an untreated addiction. Although criminal justice law was not in Brittany’s wheelhouse at the time, she was determined learn what she needed in hopes of garnering Sharanda a second chance at life, along with family friends and former neighbors who had been unfairly impacted by a flawed justice system. 

I dug into the history of federal drug legislation, trying to find justification for the clearly inequitable 100-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio. Surely there had to be some legislative. History that explained lawmakers’ rationale. … What little legislative history there was suggested that legislators justified penalties a hundred times harsher for crack cocaine for reasons unsubstantiated at the time … In the months leading up to the 1986 elections, more than one thousand articles appeared in major news outlets around the country focused on the devastation wrought by crack cocaine. The articles played on age-old racist white fears of Black criminality, ignoring the fact that white Americans used cocaine at higher rates than Black Americans.


Somewhere in between law school and Brittany’s mom’s legal and drug addiction struggles, her mother persevered, overcoming her habit (not while in prison) and released from the clutches of a failed system. It took several years, but thanks to Brittany’s persistence and Sharanda’s hopeful nature, the single mom who thought she’d never hug her kids again, let alone experience their life milestones as twenty-something-year-old women, her story too ends on an inspiring note. A Knock at Midnight is no ordinary book. It impressively weaves together elements of memoir, prison drama, and courtroom suspense, and it does so in a very approachable, accessible way for readers of all ages.

Publisher: Crown, an imprint of Random House

Revival Season - While Revival Season by Monica West is a quick read, it is not necessarily an easy read. That is not to say it isn’t a well-executed, contemporary debut novel, because it is, but the subject matter about an abusive Southern Baptist preacher, is intense and heart-wrenching at times. The story’s main character, 15-year-old Miriam is the daughter of one of the South’s most prominent Black evangelists. As such, at the start of every summer, she and her family load up the family car and spend several weeks on the road, going from church to church for her father’s healing services. 

During this one fateful summer, Miriam sees her passionate preacher father in a different light as she observes his temper targeted towards not only herself and her mother, but congregants. Maybe even doubling vexing is hearing her father accused of abusing a young girl. During that same revival season, Miriam learns that she may actually have the gift of healing her father may only be faking. Out of fear of her father’s jealousy, as well as his staunch belief that women cannot heal or have leadership positions in the church, she uses her “gift” sparingly and on the down low. With all the tumult of this particular season, Miriam’s belief in her father and religion is shaken to its core. The story of Revival Season is simple, yet somewhat unique in its exploration of a young girl’s faith in the face of an abusive father and a life-altering decision. It is both interesting and laudable that although a Black family is at the center of this story, race and racism are not. As a writer, her style is pared down and straight forward, maybe at first glance, even a bit underwhelming, with little to no lush, lyrical or memorable lines, per se. That said, with a debut such as this, West undeniably shows signs of an emerging talent to keep an eye on. 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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THE SHORT STACK book reviews

9/25/2021

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A Knock at Midnight by debut writer/lawyer Brittany K. Barnett is a compelling memoir of justice, determination and freedom. The small-town Georgia native was in the midst of a successful career in finance in 2011, and headed to an even more lucrative one in corporate law when she came along the story of Sharanda Jones. Sharanda was a single mother who received a life sentence without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. The situation resonated with Brittany who herself was the daughter of a single mom, addicted to drugs, and constantly in and out of jail through little fault of her own but an untreated addiction. Although criminal justice law was not in Brittany’s wheelhouse at the time, she was determined learn what she needed in hopes of garnering Sharanda a second chance at life, along with family friends and former neighbors who had been unfairly impacted by a flawed justice system. 

I dug into the history of federal drug legislation, trying to find justification for the clearly inequitable 100-to-1 crack-to-powder ratio. Surely there had to be some legislative. History that explained lawmakers’ rationale. … What little legislative history there was suggested that legislators justified penalties a hundred times harsher for crack cocaine for reasons unsubstantiated at the time … In the months leading up to the 1986 elections, more than one thousand articles appeared in major news outlets around the country focused on the devastation wrought by crack cocaine. The articles played on age-old racist white fears of Black criminality, ignoring the fact that white Americans used cocaine at higher rates than Black Americans.

Somewhere in between law school and Brittany’s mom’s legal and drug addiction struggles, her mother persevered, overcoming her habit (not while in prison) and released from the clutches of a failed system. It took several years, but thanks to Brittany’s persistence and Sharanda’s hopeful nature, the single mom who thought she’d never hug her kids again, let alone experience their life milestones as twenty-something-year-old women, her story too ends on an inspiring note. A Knock at Midnight is no ordinary book. It impressively weaves together elements of memoir, prison drama, and courtroom suspense, and it does so in a very approachable, accessible way for readers of all ages.

Publisher: Crown, an imprint of Random House

The Archer - If you’re looking for a novel that offers escapism, with a healthy dose of reality; family drama, with poetic lyricism, look no further than The Archer by Shruti Swamy. Taking place in 1960s- 1970s Bombay, it presents the idea and dilemma of independent womanhood, motherhood and artistic endeavors coexisting. When the protagonist, Vidya as a young girl, observes her mother and a class of women performing a native dance, she is vexed. She is determined to not only learn it, but perfect it. The pursuit of it means more than marriage, becoming a mother or her eventual college studies. It takes on even more meaning once she loses her mother while still only in high school. Of course her desire to be consumed by her art runs contrary to her father’s, her husband’s and societal expectations. Can Vidya have it all? Does she want it all or is her life’s ambition singular?

Although this is Samy’s debut novel, it is not her first publication. Her recently published collection of stories, A House is a Body, was dubbed by Kiese Laymon as “one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s.” Given that, along with the The Archer’s original premise, it is no surprise that this is an impressive and wholly engaging debut from a unique writing talent who will only get better and better with each project.

Publisher: Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Press

Revival Season - While Revival Season by Monica West is a quick read, it is not necessarily an easy read. That is not to say it isn’t a well-executed, contemporary debut novel, because it is, but the subject matter about an abusive Southern Baptist preacher, is intense and heart-wrenching at times. The story’s main character, 15-year-old Miriam is the daughter of one of the South’s most prominent Black evangelists. As such, at the start of every summer, she and her family load up the family car and spend several weeks on the road, going from church to church for her father’s healing services. 

During this one fateful summer, Miriam sees her passionate preacher father in a different light as she observes his temper targeted towards not only herself and her mother, but congregants. Maybe even doubling vexing is hearing her father accused of abusing a young girl. During that same revival season, Miriam learns that she may actually have the gift of healing her father may only be faking. Out of fear of her father’s jealousy, as well as his staunch belief that women cannot heal or have leadership positions in the church, she uses her “gift” sparingly and on the down low. With all the tumult of this particular season, Miriam’s belief in her father and religion is shaken to its core. The story of Revival Season is simple, yet somewhat unique in its exploration of a young girl’s faith in the face of an abusive father and a life-altering decision. It is both interesting and laudable that although a Black family is at the center of this story, race and racism are not. As a writer, her style is pared down and straight forward, maybe at first glance, even a bit underwhelming, with little to no lush, lyrical or memorable lines, per se. That said, with a debut such as this, West undeniably shows signs of an emerging talent to keep an eye on. 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster


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RIPPLE EFFECT book review

8/11/2021

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Ripple Effect deftly mixes writing genres of literary fiction and mystery, leaving readers to wonder where author Cathy Rath has been all this time, and will this be the first of many or a possible series. Ripple Effect by newcomer, Cathy Rath, is a fresh and truly engaging take on family dynamics and family secrets. It is as much a suspense plot-driven narrative as it is a character-driven one that make for a story with a lot of heart and undeniable intrigue.  The protagonist, Jeannie Glazer, was three years old in 1952 when her father dies in a car accident on a trip to Atlanta. Sixteen years later, as a college freshman, she is arrested during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. She is released hours later when a sergeant announces that her bail was paid by her “pop” and tosses her an envelope of cash. Stunned and suspicious, Jeannie tells no one, convinced somebody is watching her. Determined to find answers, her search closes in on an even darker secret about her father’s tragic death two decades earlier.

Although Jeannie garners most of the novel's character focus, there are several others that are key to the story and mystery. Some are within the Glazer family, others are pivotal supporting cast of characters., but all that should be, are fully drawn and interesting. Also interesting and admirable is that the novel crosses over two to three time periods, which in the hands of a lesser writer could be tricky, even problematic, but Rath navigates it all with aplomb. It is especially appreciative that the character names and dates as demarkation of each chapter. The reader is quickly drawn into the point of view and the year/decade. All that, and coming in at just under 300 pages, Ripple Effect is one of the most readable books you and your book group should dive into this year. 

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INFINITE COUNTRY book review

7/31/2021

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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is what American Dirt by Jeanine Commins should have been, or at least what the latter fancied itself to be. Where Cummins’ novel about a mother and son on the run from the Cartel in Mexico succeeded in delivering up an undeniable absorbing suspense thriller, it received warranted criticism for promoting falsehoods, often labeled “stereotypical” and “appropriative.” Engle’s story about a Colombian family fractured by deportation, and the young female protagonist initially running from school, her family and her inner demons, feels authentic and compassionate. It deftly combines political narratives with human struggles. 


The story begins with 15-year-old Talia breaking free from a nun-managed reform school in the Colombian mountains. Talia, a young, but tortured soul is more than capable on her own. She’s tough, and a force to be reckoned with as she forges her way back to Bogotá where she had been raised by her father and grandmother in Colombia. From there, she is determined to catch a flight and reunite with her mother and siblings in the United States, her place of birth. but raised by her father and grandmother in Colombia. Along the way from the school to her home, readers are taken along not only Talia’s rigorous trek and the people she encounters, but through the backstory of her young life and her family’s. Though Talia’s journey drives the novel’s narrative and rhythm of short, brisk chapters, Infinite Country’s is less about Talia’s journey and need to reunite with her family than expected from the story’s start. Instead, as the novel richly unfolds, one realizes its focus is on her and her parent’s choices and unfortunate circumstances, as well as the cruel immigration policies that led to their initial separation. It is those themes that Engel explores and excels. The writing is lyrical and captivating, and the messages are necessary and urgent. 


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INTERIOR CHINATOWN book review

2/28/2021

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Photo Credit - UTA


"Interior Chinatown" is an excellent example of satire. In fact, it is one of the best recent examples of the genre. It is both fun, yet poignant, deftly weaving in issues of race, identity and racism, while often eliciting a laugh from the reader. The book’s author, Charles Yu, comes from a screenwriter background, including projects for high profile cable channels such as HBO, FX and AMC. That screenwriting background comes through with this novel because it is written in a screenplay format, with characters that blur the line between real life (in the novel) and movie actors.

The novel’s young protagonist, Willis Wu, sees himself like the world, and certainly Hollywood, sees him- as “Generic Asian Man.” Most of his adult life is spent leaving the SRO housing complex/Chinese restaurant (Interior Chinatown) brimming with other aspiring Asian actors and restaurant workers, then going to the set of the “Black and White” procedural cop show. For it, he is just an extra “Generic Asian Man,” but he longs to be “Kung Fu Guy,” which is supposedly many steps up. Throughout Wu’s days on the set and career, such as it is, he longs for more personally and professionally but feels held back by ever persistent low self-esteem and societal stereotypes. Although these issues of identity, race and racism are center stage, Yu delivers it with an undeniable delightful sense of humor. But don’t let the entertainment aspect fool you. Yu successfully delivers biting commentary on Hollywood typecasting and societal stereotypes. Below is an example of the more biting, poignant type of dialogue found towards the novel’s end after Yu has climbed the “Asian Man” in Hollywood ladder and found success, but at a cost.
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Yu

I spent most of my life trapped. Interior Chinatown. I made it out, to become Kung Fu Dad. But that was just another role. A better role than I’ve ever had, but still a role. I can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over again. My dad did that. And where did it get him? He was a true master, someone who had mastered his craft. And what did his life add up to? You never recognized him for what he could do. Who he was. You never allowed him a name. So what do we do?

Skewering Hollywood typecasts has never been so much fun since Robert Townsends’ “Hollywood Shuffle,” a 1987 American satirical comedy film about the racial stereotypes of African Americans in film and television. It is easy to understand why “Interior Chinatown” won the 2020 National Book Award. It is brilliant in its messaging, format and delivery, and destined to a screen adaptation in the near future. 

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Celebrate BHM with a Good Book!

2/11/2021

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Any time of year is a great time of year to learn about your culture and/or the other people's culture. But in February, the spotlight is on Black history and culture, so now is as good a time as any to take advantage of the readily available information that was once relegated to the backseat of American society. It's true that there was a time not long ago when Black people were rarely on television or in movies, nor were celebrated in other aspects of the arts. Likewise, literature by, for and about the African diaspora was practically nonexistent in comparison to their white counterparts. Black authors were not often given a platform among the major publishing houses, making historical and contemporary black stories few and far between.

Fortunately, in recent decades that has changed for the better, with a plethora of talented Black writers in the forefront of the literary industry. During Black History Month and throughout the year, be encouraged to reflect on more than 400 years of Black history, heritage and culture in literature. Be it regarding stories of the past, current accounts; fiction or nonfiction. 


Below are a few carefully curated, recently release selections to get you started:


- Black Buck (fiction) by Mateo Askaripour

- Caste (nonfiction) by Isabel Wilkerson

- Caul Baby (fiction) by Morgan Jerkins

- Four Hundred Souls (nonfiction) edited by Ibram X Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

- Office of Historical Corrections (contemporary short stores & novella) by Danielle Evans

- The Prophets (fiction) - by Robert Jones, Jr.

- A Spy in the Struggle (fiction/mystery) by Aya de Leon
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HOMELAND ELEGIES book review

11/8/2020

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(photo: Marc J. Franklin for Playbill)
Ayad Akhtar deftly blurs the lines between memoir and literary fiction as he explores what it really means to be American
in a post 9-11 era. “Homeland Elegies” is immediate and politically charged, with a tender father and son story at its core. The novel is loosely autobiographical as Ayad, the novel's protagonist, like the actual author, is a playwright of Pakistani descent living in New York. He is constantly confronting family and societal battles -as a Muslim who has often the target of micro-aggressions- and as the son of a Pakistani immigrant. As a successful doctor who successfully provided for his family while practicing in Wisconsin, his father often critiques his son for pursuing creative endeavors instead of lucrative ones.

Throughout the novel, Ayad navigates what he considers home. Is it America where he has spent most of his life, or the Pakistan of his youth? He has allegiance to both, but experiences guilt if he is critical of either. As such, he is stuck in between the very different perspectives on the topic by his parents. His mother fondly clings to her homeland, while constantly voicing resentment towards the U.S. Conversely, his father is dismissive of Pakistan, and views America as the “great land of opportunity.” As an adult, Ayad forges his own identity and a new life in New York. His respect for the country he has learned to embrace and his infatuation with his adopted city is tested after Muslims become the target of a disportioncate amount of hate in the aftermath of 9-11. One of the results of Ayad’s conflicting emotions came in the form of a play he wrote that garnered much success on and off Broadway. 

Not quite ten years after 9/11, I wrote a play in which an American-born character with Muslim origins confesses that as the towers were falling, he felt something unexpected and unwelcome, a sense of pride- a “blush” is how he describes it- which, he explains in the play’s climatic scene, made him realize that, despited being born here, despite the totality of his belief in this country and his commitment to being an American, he somehow still identified with a mentality that saw itself as aggrieved and other, a mind-set he’s spent much of the play despising and for which he continually uses to those on stage, and many in the audience, the term “Muslim.”

While America was shaken to its core after 9-11, it was torn at the seams after the financial crash of 2008, followed by the presidential election of 2016. The political divide was never bigger and the racist rhetoric probably hadn’t been more loud and blunt in many decades. The only thing more surprising to Ayad than the actual results of the presidential run-off was his father supporting Trump. Once again, father and son find another issue to be at odds over, and Ayad, the author and protagonist, found endless social commentaries to observe and present. Although finding answers to life’s dilemmas is a goal for Ayad, experiencing healing and closeness with his father priority. America is his homeland, but family is home. That search for connection- to the world and to family- is a trough line of this brilliant novel. It’s the broad social constructs, mixing with the deeply personal layers, along with the poignantly merged genres that make “Homeland Elegies” one of the most important books you should read this year by one of the most interesting writers of our time.
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