Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Radiant Fugitives

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed

3 reviews

djvill's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

A very compelling story told beautifully, with well executed perspective shifts. As an American non-Muslim, I also appreciated getting the perspective of Tahera, the younger sister who navigates motherhood and devout Islamic practice in an early 21st century America that is not exactly welcoming. My main issue is that this book gets in its own way with at times overly florid language, as well as an extended side plot centered on the political history of the aughts that makes it seem like this book was making a bid for Great American Novel. (The editor really should've spared no red ink on the Coda section that took Barack Obama's perspective.) That said, due in part to this perceived GAN bid, this book reminded me of two others I admire: Middlesex and American Pastoral.

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Radiant Fugitives is another of the Aspen Words 2022 longlist books, my 12th of the longlist (I'm three quarters of the way there)! I had very little idea what this one was about before starting it, though I had a vague idea of it being about undocumented immigrants (I blame the title), which turned out to be patently false and also, if I'm being honest, I still don't really know if I understand the relation of the title to the rest of the novel. However, while not *quite* as good, IMO, this one makes my personal shortlist of "books that I would not have picked up otherwise and was really impressed/totally absorbed by." The Five Wounds currently tops that list, with Bewilderness as another entry.

Seema, a political activist living in Obama-era San Francisco, is nearing the end of her pregnancy. After not seeing her mother, Nafeesa, and sister, Tahera in many years, the three women come together to help Seema through the last days of her pregnancy, childbirth and everything that life change brings. It would seem to be a wonderful, celebratory visit. And yet, the three women are grappling with quite a bit amongst themselves. Seema harbors resentment at her mother for not standing by her when her beloved father disowned her for her sexuality and emotional distance from Tahera from so much time spent apart. Tahera, an OBGYN living with her family in Texas, is harboring anger at Seema for disappearing years ago without a word, and at the assumed judgement from her regarding her own decisions to deepen her practice as a Muslim. Nafeesa, traveling alone from Chennai and dealing with her own failing health, is hoping to reconcile the sisters and apologize for her years of (as she sees it) failure as a mother, especially to Seema. At the same time, she struggles not to judge and comment on either daughters' lifestyle choices, Seema's sexuality and choices in friends/partners and Tahera's seemingly self-imposed strictures and limitations. In the week before Seema's delivery, the time the three spend together is that of complex emotional dependency, conflicting wants and beliefs and a history of misunderstandings warring with the unifying love of sisters, mothers and daughters.

So, like I said, this is not one I would have picked up if it hadn't been on this longlist. I had nothing against it specifically, it was just that the blurb wasn't quite enticing enough and there are so many books I want to read! However, yet again, I am grateful to this award longlist reading challenge for making me give it a go. I was completely engrossed in these characters; Seema, Tahera and Nafeesa were so vivid and complex, individually and in relation to each other, and I was so impressed with this reading experience. From a literary perspective, the voice telling the story, that of Seema's unborn/newly born son Ishraaq, was quite unique. It was sort of fascinating, in a creative and off-putting way simultaneously to read. I would be totally lost in the unfolding interactions and then randomly be snapped out of it by this unborn child directly addressing (mostly in the second person, like talking right to them) these characters, or referring to himself as “me.” It was jarring, but I didn't hate it. It wasn't my favorite stylistic device ever, but it did sort of fit this novel in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it gave some shock to what is otherwise a very thorough character development/exploration style read, helping to balance out the lack of real plot, as it were. Overall, I really enjoyed the flow of the novel, the writing was simply gorgeous. And though I am not personally a fan of poetry, and therefore tended to skim the sections that were focused on the words and themes of Wordsworth and the reflections on the parallel meanings of poetry and life, I did respect the place they held and what they added to the novel.

The cornerstone and shining achievement of this novel is absolutely in the characters, introspectively and interpersonally. Oh the depth of the complexity of the sisters' yearning and love and resentment, and the impossibility of their mother's efforts to move them past it, after it's been left to simmer in distance and lack of communication since childhood and their travels so far in different directions since then. My heart cracked as their facades cracked. Ahmed also deftly displayed the way(s) we all all have blind spots and fear and frustration for the lifestyles we don’t understand, showing with stunning nuance the ways that happen even within shared families and cultures. That portrayal is both remarkable in its own right, as well as carrying a great (as in strong and profound) message about how much bigger it must then be to those outside the family/culture. To be fully transparent, for content warning purposes, in the specific lifestyles that push and pull at each other in these pages, Ahmed hones in on being queer and out in opoosition to strict religious doctrine (that of Islam in particular), and the vastness of the ways these interactions can play out and affect people's lives and influence the how and why they make major decisions. It is difficult to read at times, in a variety of emotional ways, but is handled with thoughtfulness and care.

Another major theme within this novel is the search for the sources of happiness during childhood (that happiness that you don’t have to work/fight for). Ahmed details with detailed emotion the different paths each sister, and their mother, follows in that attempt to refind that as an adult. I also found it sort of fascinating to read this kind of recent past historical fiction. Having lived through it (specifically referring to Obama's first run/campaign for presidency), but in such a different way (a different age, life experience, part of the country, racial/cultural background, etc.), it was just very compelling. And also made me feel a little old, to have "life" I've lived through being long enough ago to warrant a past reflection in a novel form like this.

There is such an aching sorrow and heartbreaking sense of yearning in the love in these pages. The peaks and dips, the ebbs and flows, of support and expectation within families and society, especially within sibling rivalries and needs, are visceral. I usually try to use my own words for these reviews, but I have to end with this blurb about the book from the Goodreads page, because I don't think I can make it any better or more personal: "Radiant Fugitives is an operatic debut from a bold new voice, exploring the tensions between ideology and practicality, hope and tradition, forgiveness and retribution for one family navigating a shifting political landscape."

“For what world handicaps a child at the same time it receives him?”

“Is it too much to ask to be held, to be consoled, to be loved? Is it too much to ask that she not end up where she started - on the outside looking in?”

“Change you can believe in. What if you didn't - couldn't - believe in change? Change as something that took you someplace new, and lasting, not something that brought you back to where you;ve already been: three continents, three countries, six cities, multiple homes, myriad loves, the ceaseless struggle, but still the same inescapable tragedy of her self: still seeking approval, still seeking some way to make her father proud of her again.”

“Wordsworth is a prophet. Like all prophets, he describes what should be, while at the same time admitting to what is, what cannot be, and what is beyond his understanding. Like all prophets, he has been blessed not with the whole truth but with that part of the truth he can grasp and convey. Like all prophets he is beset with self-doubt. But even speaking half-truths, he points us towards the whole. The light he casts flickers, illuminating some part of the picture of life for one moment, only to cast it into shadows and doubt the next. But that flickering gives us a glimpse of the truths that mark our lives. This is the best any human being can do in the face of the complexity of the universe, and most of us will do much worse.”

“…Nafeesa’s remorse, Tahera's fears, Bills' disillusionment, Arshad's anguish, Seema's optimism. America’s turmoil.” (This little summary of observations does so much to sum up this book's characters and representations.)

“How to explain in a moment what has taken a lifetime to accrue?”

“I’m a blank slate at birth, with an infinity of futures available to me. With each neural connection that is made, that my brain fails to make, that is pruned, the futures are whittled down, until if I were alive long enough, there's only one life I could possibly live. Call it fate, call it destiny. Call it qismat, call it the will of Allah. Call it following the laws of nature, call it acting in accordance with our natures. Say it's been decided by evolution; say it's in our genes, in the secretions from our glands, in the pathways in our brains. Say we're the products of our environments, our upbringings, our histories. Aren't our lives circumscribed, in any case, by powers over which we have little control?”

Content Warnings

cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

More...