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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
I really wanted to like this book more. Overall, it was insightful and provided good perspective, but it was just too disjointed to keep me engaged. I thought he would wrap things together at the end, but there are still portions that remain a question as to why they were included.
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book should have been right in my wheelhouse--I love immigrant stories and memoirs, and this "novel" is a bit of both. While the writing is strong and I was moved by the the author's descriptions of his relationship with his father and with this county (and with his father's relationship with this country), ultimately it felt uneven and a little flat for me. I found myself just wanting to finish it so I could move on to something else.
I wish I had read this in fewer sittings so my review could truly do it justice.
Another book club read :) First off, this was the second audio book I have ever listened to & I am glad I did for a couple of reasons. I appreciated Akhtar himself narrating the book & the 'voices' he did for the different characters. Also because there were some parts that were dry, long-winded, & tangents that caused me to forget what the original point was that he was making. Some parts of the story were very interesting & I was pretty invested in what was happening. However, there were many parts where I just lost disinterest, especially when centered around politics & finance. I could have done without the sections about his sexual escapades because they seemed slightly disjointed from his overall message & I think distracted the reader from some of the 'heavier' experiences that he would share in the next breath.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Smart and seamless storytelling that doesn’t shy away from itself
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am still not entirely sure to what to make of Homeland Elegies. I found it gripping and fascinating from the first page to the last. Nonetheless, it's difficult to form an opinion on a novel that's as loose and digressive and didactic as a memoir.
Reading it, I had made the assumption that Homeland Elegies was basically a memoir, and that it was labelled as a novel mostly because it contains so many things that would probably be legally actionable if presented as true. (It begins with Trump recommending prostitutes to his father.) After I finished, I discovered that the book is legitimately a work of fiction, and I am really not sure what to do with that.
It's not just that many of the most memorable parts--including the revenge of Riaz Rind--turned out not to have really happened. The weirdness of the concept is more general. Fictional memoirs are of course a thing, but they tend to be as plot-oriented as other novels. Homeland Elegies can't really be said to have a plot. And there are large sections that are just him musing at length on what some minor incident says about the state of America. The musing is high-quality, but it's just odd when the underlying incident didn't happen.
Of course, the larger truths that Akhtar deals in remain true. As a portrait of an artist caught between a country that doesn't really accept him and immigrant parents that don't really understand him, it's poignant and compelling, and feels very real. On balance, I highly recommend it, as long as you're warned that it's conceptually weird.
Reading it, I had made the assumption that Homeland Elegies was basically a memoir, and that it was labelled as a novel mostly because it contains so many things that would probably be legally actionable if presented as true. (It begins with Trump recommending prostitutes to his father.) After I finished, I discovered that the book is legitimately a work of fiction, and I am really not sure what to do with that.
It's not just that many of the most memorable parts--including the revenge of Riaz Rind--turned out not to have really happened. The weirdness of the concept is more general. Fictional memoirs are of course a thing, but they tend to be as plot-oriented as other novels. Homeland Elegies can't really be said to have a plot. And there are large sections that are just him musing at length on what some minor incident says about the state of America. The musing is high-quality, but it's just odd when the underlying incident didn't happen.
Of course, the larger truths that Akhtar deals in remain true. As a portrait of an artist caught between a country that doesn't really accept him and immigrant parents that don't really understand him, it's poignant and compelling, and feels very real. On balance, I highly recommend it, as long as you're warned that it's conceptually weird.
Brilliant character study + philosophical analysis about our current culture. not exactly a novel, but thoroughly engrossing and thought-provoking.