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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
emotional
funny
hopeful
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:
Yes
This is not a novel but an ego document (in Dutch literary criticism at least). It is autobiographical with a strong focus on what it means to be a muslim American whose parents have been born in Pakistan. Probably this is what the author's live revolves about. Being white middle class in a dominantly white middle class country this is a bit hard to grasp for me, but Akhtar makes it quite clear how for instance his father, who emigrates to America and is successful as a specialist doctor (he even treats Donald Trump somewhere in the eighties) and is totally focused on blending in, finally gives in and retires to Pakistan, after a trial for medical liability. I forget whether he wins or loses, but it is obviously that, though he is not to blame from a professional point of view, he is simple not being trusted. It seems that all the (former) muslim Asians in the US suffer badly from exclusion, even if they are wildly successful in business or a bit less successful than that in the arts, as the author is. Especially for the author, who is born and raised in the US, this is hard. He has nowhere to go to. I can imagine that for every minority, and everyone can be part of a minority, it is important to have a bubble were they can simply be, without mistrust.
I learned a lot, so it was definitely work reading. The writing is very male. I also found it frustrating that it's basically a memoir, but it's fiction - so you don't know what is true and what isn't.
See No Stranger by Valerie Kaur covers similar cultural subjects, but in a way that I'm enjoying much more.
See No Stranger by Valerie Kaur covers similar cultural subjects, but in a way that I'm enjoying much more.
So many incredible and engaging essays that touch on what it means to live in the US today by blending fact and fiction.
challenging
emotional
reflective
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Homeland Elegies was a revelation, a chance to see American culture and history and politics from the viewpoint of an 'outsider,' even if that outsider was American born.
Ayad Akhtar has written a novel with a strong narrative voice that reads like memoir. It's compelling storyline and conflicted characters engage the reader. It is also a novel of ideas, a dissection of social and political culture.
How Christian is America? Consider the commercialization of Christian holy days, the Christian based place names of cities, the King James Bible language and words that are woven in our writing and speech, how we do personal hygiene, dogs in every home.
The accumulation of wealth, buying sprees dependent on credit cards and interest, and the importance of corporate wealth and the power it wields is another theme. It's a Wonderful Life, that beloved Christmas movie, the narrator realizes, was really about money and power.
Central to the novel is the experience of living in a racist culture, especially after 9-11. When the narrator's car breaks down in rural Pennsylvania, the narrator finds himself vulnerable.
The narrator travels to Pakistan to visit family. Is returning to one's family homeland the answer? The anger that fuels people here is also found abroad.
"America is my home," the narrator affirms.
Homeland Elegies, this poem that mourns the country of our hopes and dreams, reveals our character like a mirror. It isn't pretty.
I was given access to a free galley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Ayad Akhtar has written a novel with a strong narrative voice that reads like memoir. It's compelling storyline and conflicted characters engage the reader. It is also a novel of ideas, a dissection of social and political culture.
How Christian is America? Consider the commercialization of Christian holy days, the Christian based place names of cities, the King James Bible language and words that are woven in our writing and speech, how we do personal hygiene, dogs in every home.
The accumulation of wealth, buying sprees dependent on credit cards and interest, and the importance of corporate wealth and the power it wields is another theme. It's a Wonderful Life, that beloved Christmas movie, the narrator realizes, was really about money and power.
Central to the novel is the experience of living in a racist culture, especially after 9-11. When the narrator's car breaks down in rural Pennsylvania, the narrator finds himself vulnerable.
The narrator travels to Pakistan to visit family. Is returning to one's family homeland the answer? The anger that fuels people here is also found abroad.
"America is my home," the narrator affirms.
Homeland Elegies, this poem that mourns the country of our hopes and dreams, reveals our character like a mirror. It isn't pretty.
I was given access to a free galley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Minus one star for the amount he talks about his own dick.