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4.5 stars writing a paper on this so i’m sure i’ll edit my rating to 5 stars by the time i sit with the book in depth. love hage’s prose
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The main character is a troubled person. His trauma has clearly manifested a perverse need to be acknowledged by women, men and rich people. He wants to interrupt the lives of people who do not live the same poor life that he does. the repression of his sister‘s death and his role in it as well as the war in Iran led to his depression. This manifested as his aversion to sunlight and his hypocritical view on those around him. Near the end of the book, he stops seeing his therapist breaking that relationship as he gets triggered when she asked the right questions. she makes him think deeper and face the trauma and grief he ran away from by immigrating to Canada. this scares it so he breaks off the relationship by telling her how he broke into her house and violated her boundaries. So the natural response from the therapist was determinate their therapeutic relationship and submit a form to admit the main character into the hospital.
The immigrant experience was also clearly stated here from the way the main character compares himself to a cockroach to how he describes himself as hairy brown, and the way that we see the other Iranian refugees and citizens are treated. We can see how the first generation immigrant experience is like. Unlike those who came in immigrated with a job lined up or come from old money in their home countries, our main character came poor with no job and is clearly struggling and living welfare. Check to welfare check. This book made me think about how hard it is to build a life from nothing while also dealing with trauma or in this case, not dealing with it and pushing it down.
The immigrant experience was also clearly stated here from the way the main character compares himself to a cockroach to how he describes himself as hairy brown, and the way that we see the other Iranian refugees and citizens are treated. We can see how the first generation immigrant experience is like. Unlike those who came in immigrated with a job lined up or come from old money in their home countries, our main character came poor with no job and is clearly struggling and living welfare. Check to welfare check. This book made me think about how hard it is to build a life from nothing while also dealing with trauma or in this case, not dealing with it and pushing it down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, War
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Rawi Hage's writing is unlike anything I've read before. I savoured every word of his stunning prose, which is filled with wit and unique descriptions, and is a portal into the dark world of the struggles of immigrants in Montreal. I can't wait to read his other novels.
dark
reflective
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Grotesque, dark but laden with diasporic themes. Storytelling is breathtaking.
I cannot imagine how this has been selected as a Canada Reads finalist for a book that brings about social change. If I could give it 1.5 I would. I only give 1 to books that I can't finish. I did finish this one but not with any enjoyment. I think that while Canada Reads selections don't need to be fluffy easy reads, they shouldn't be so artsy and way out there that they will be inaccessible to some readers. I certainly hope this book does not win because I think it would turn a lot of people off Canada Reads winners if it does. What a disappointment.
Although I struggled with it in the beginning, Cockroach proved to be an enjoyable and thoughtful read. I recently developed a slight hate-on for Giller-nominated titles (because of books like The Boys in the Trees and Divisadero), but then I remembered how much I enjoyed Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott and I decided to give this one a fair shot.
And I'm glad I did. With his second novel, Hage chooses to address the issue of "forgotten exiles" from war-torn countries through a main character who simply identifies himself as a half-human, half-cockroach thief. We never learn his name, and this proves to be an important device to illustrate just how forgotten he has become within society, that he has become almost irrelevant in a country filled with lost souls from all corners of the world. At the same time we are reminded that the problems of refugees can follow them across oceans and country limits, and that the horrors they experienced in a sort of previous life are not erased with a Visa and Canadian citizenship.
Throughout the novel, the thief periodically speaks to a psychiatrist after he is found trying to unsuccessfully hang himself in a park. It is through these sessions that we learn about the thief's life in Turkey, and the events that lead to his emigration to Canada. During these sessions we also see an interesting clash between first- and third-world cultures, in the way the psychiatrist attempts to apply "new world" labels (ie. schizophrenic, depressive, etc.) to someone who has been forced to simplify the world in terms of existing or not existing, of living and dying. The thief often expresses extreme frustration toward the "privileged", whom he believes are living fake lives in a fake world, therefore making them "filth". He is obsessed with what he considers "real" and would rather not exist at all if he can't live as real a life as he possibly can.
All of this begs larger questions: How far should immigrants be forced to assimilate themselves into first-world society once they've entered it? How much are they capable of forgetting from their previous lives? Are those born in a free society in a position to comment on how refugees should begin their lives anew? I don't pretend to know the answers to these questions, but I was happy to read a book that steered my mind in that direction.
And I'm glad I did. With his second novel, Hage chooses to address the issue of "forgotten exiles" from war-torn countries through a main character who simply identifies himself as a half-human, half-cockroach thief. We never learn his name, and this proves to be an important device to illustrate just how forgotten he has become within society, that he has become almost irrelevant in a country filled with lost souls from all corners of the world. At the same time we are reminded that the problems of refugees can follow them across oceans and country limits, and that the horrors they experienced in a sort of previous life are not erased with a Visa and Canadian citizenship.
Throughout the novel, the thief periodically speaks to a psychiatrist after he is found trying to unsuccessfully hang himself in a park. It is through these sessions that we learn about the thief's life in Turkey, and the events that lead to his emigration to Canada. During these sessions we also see an interesting clash between first- and third-world cultures, in the way the psychiatrist attempts to apply "new world" labels (ie. schizophrenic, depressive, etc.) to someone who has been forced to simplify the world in terms of existing or not existing, of living and dying. The thief often expresses extreme frustration toward the "privileged", whom he believes are living fake lives in a fake world, therefore making them "filth". He is obsessed with what he considers "real" and would rather not exist at all if he can't live as real a life as he possibly can.
All of this begs larger questions: How far should immigrants be forced to assimilate themselves into first-world society once they've entered it? How much are they capable of forgetting from their previous lives? Are those born in a free society in a position to comment on how refugees should begin their lives anew? I don't pretend to know the answers to these questions, but I was happy to read a book that steered my mind in that direction.