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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Wow. What a book. This collection of short stories was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for fiction and I can see why. Kochai’s family were Afghani refugees who made their way to a refugee camp in Pakistan and then on to America. That lifetime of hardship and change is infused into each story. It’s transnational, it’s multigenerational, it’s sometimes violent, sometimes fantastical. I loved so much his Muslim identity making its way into the pages without explanation for certain phrases, like you would see for any Christian writer, and I felt a special feel of being seen at not being an other in a story. It was painful and raw and the longing for home that you can never truly go back to is saturated in each page. The violence and horrors done to the Afghani people by Russia and then America is there also, the families with holes where an uncle should have been but for Russian violence or American casual violence via drones. Violence by the oppressors that have savaged the lands for generations. The feeling and split tug of being part of the diaspora. It was all there. It was a tough read, you cannot binge the stories, but it was a great one.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
funny
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a collection of interconnected stories exploring the Afghani experience both in Afghanistan and in the United States. The stories which most captured my attention were those with an innovative structure - Enough! (a 13 page story told as a single sentence) and Occupational Hazard (a life story in the form of a resume) - and those told in the second person - Playing Metal Gear Solid V(a young man’s video gaming morphs into a visceral exploration of his father’s war experiences) and the titular story which is told from the perspective a government surveillance worker. Unfortunately the magical realism in the longest story in the collection didn’t fully work for me, but overall I really enjoyed this collection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, War
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
HAJJI HOTAK is a short story collection with interconnected characters–primarily of an Afghanistan immigrant family living in California–focusing on modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in the United States. With luminous writing, Kochai explores the heritage, memory, and tenacity of Afghans and their unbreakable connections to home.
Playing Metal Gear reads like a fever dream in video games but packs a punch. Return to Sender is a heartbreaking and haunting tale of a kidnapped son and his parents. Enough! contains one long and brilliant sentence that lasts an entire page. Occupational Hazards is a list of job descriptions when a man recounts his life fleeing Afghanistan and remaking himself in California. And The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is written from a government worker's POV who becomes invested in the immigrant family's life.
I'm utterly impressed by Kochai's craft and his experimentation with different styles in each short story. Experimental writing can sometimes be a hit or miss for me, but in this case, I enjoyed it immensely!
Playing Metal Gear reads like a fever dream in video games but packs a punch. Return to Sender is a heartbreaking and haunting tale of a kidnapped son and his parents. Enough! contains one long and brilliant sentence that lasts an entire page. Occupational Hazards is a list of job descriptions when a man recounts his life fleeing Afghanistan and remaking himself in California. And The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is written from a government worker's POV who becomes invested in the immigrant family's life.
I'm utterly impressed by Kochai's craft and his experimentation with different styles in each short story. Experimental writing can sometimes be a hit or miss for me, but in this case, I enjoyed it immensely!
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Interconnected short stories that gave all the feels. The last story, also the title story, was my favorite.