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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book. It was quite unsettling. I'm not trying to take away from the author, but I have to say that nothing in this book was surprising. Had the opening events in this book actually happened, I can't see this turning out any other way. And that's extremely sad and pathetic.
I don't know if "anger" is the feeling this book is meant to evoke. Maybe it is. It is about America's own worst self, where racism rules the day and people are allowed to be vile because they're afraid and angry.
It is 2003 in this book, and a selection committee has just chosen the design for the 9/11 memorial. Turns out that the anonymous architect of the winning design is a Muslim named Mohammad "Mo" Khan and then all hell breaks loose because every single white character in this novel (with the exception of TWO, both bit players and one sanctimoniously smug) is a bigot.
I mean, it's not like the racist venom doesn't come out in real life - when an Islamic Community Center was proposed a couple blocks away from the World Trade Center site, some people got nasty. But people also were supportive of the Center, including Mayor Bloomberg who showed more courage and humanity than any of the white characters in this book.
There is a scarily clear divide between white characters (racist) and Muslim characters (often heroic). Not a single white main character comes out well. Mo's boss does support him and tells Mo that he will get other prominent architects to sign a letter of support for Mo (everyone keeps trying to get Mo to bow out of the competition to avoid the controversy). But then the boss is never heard from again. And Mo's best friend is white, but besides some fumbling support in an interview, he refuses to have Mo's back and mostly just wants to stay out of it. And the best friend's wife comes out and says that she's okay with Mo being the architect in charge of the Memorial, but would NOT be okay with any other Muslim - thanks racist wife!
Claire Burwell initially looks like she'll be sympathetic. She's the wealthy and beautiful young widow of a 9/11 victim and a member of the selection committee for the new memorial. She loved Mo's design - known as The Garden - and felt it was perfect. She was also the only committee member who didn't flinch when it was revealed that the architect was a Muslim man. And then...I can't tell if it's from weariness or lack of spine or the fact that Mo never said exactly what she wanted to hear or just really poor character development, but Claire eventually slips into the same racist bullshit as everyone else. The quote that just made me give up on her forever was when she is arguing with an ex-boyfriend (a smug do-gooder) about supporting Mo's design and says: "You, with your liberal causes, how do you reconcile your support for Islam with your support for gay rights, for feminism, when you look at how women, or gays, or minorities get treated in so many Muslim countries?” I. Cannot. Even. At the point you are smearing an entire religion because some people in it are terrible people YOU ARE BEING A BIGOT FULLSTOP.
Other poor examples of characters are: Geraldine Bitman (the NY mayor who uses the anti-Muslim sentiment to her political advantage), Paul Rubin (the successful elder gentleman in charge of the selection committee who spends the entire book trying to get Mo to withdraw, despite the fact that he grows to deeply respect Mo; I think he is supposed to represent the soft, apologetic liberal form of bigotry), Sean Gallagher (the heated, angry, violent, form of bigotry who assaults a Muslim woman and stalks Claire - weirdly enough, he becomes the only white character who seems to have GROWN A SPINE and seen the error of his ways. But whether he actually has become a decent human being or backslides is unknown); and Alyssa Spier (a tabloid reporter who will do anything for a scoop - she's not a bigot, she's just out for herself; as a workaholic who will do anything to get ahead she's basically Mo's foil and I may not like her but I respect her simple amoralness, which is at least more palatable than all the characters pretending their motives are pure and good).
The Muslim characters are less reflexively unlikeable and some of them are downright heroic. Mo is a non-practicing Muslim whose sole focus is his ambition - he doesn't have long-term relationships or even hobbies because his goal in life is to be a great architect. He's married to his job and so he's unprepared to be thrust into a national controversy - he's not a great guy per se, just a simple workaholic, but his ability to withstand the immense pressure of unwanted public attention is admirable. Laila Faithi is a female attorney who gave up a lucrative firm career to handle cases involving Muslims. She is someone doing the right thing for the right reasons. Asma, a Bangladeshi 9/11 widow (and I suppose this makes her Claire's foil, who is a billion times better than Claire), is the most admirable character of all. She risks deportation - she's an illegal immigrant - to stand up to all the bigots and support Mo's design. Malik, the executive director of the Muslim American Coordinating Council, is ambiguous - he may be supporting an effort he believes deeply in, he may just be ambitious, he does ultimately throw Mo under the bus.
And I'm saying the "white" characters versus the "Muslim" characters because that's basically the groups that Waldman gives us. I could be mistaken, but I don't think any of the non-Muslim characters are any race but white, or at least it doesn't come up. And the focus is on the fact that the Muslim characters are Muslim - regardless of their race or national origin.
I think the major problem is that no one is a person - they are all just mouthpieces for whatever ideology or thought that Waldman felt like sticking in their mouths. If Waldman just scribbled some stick figures on a piece of paper spouting off what the characters in this book were saying, it would be no less developed.
I think Waldman is playing with a very interesting idea and I read it compulsively - which says that the writing is solid, or maybe just that it held the same fascination as a car crash.
I just. I just didn't want to hate everybody. I wanted more complexity in the characters.
I felt about this book what I felt about the film Crash. And this awesome review pretty much works for both Crash and this book.
It is 2003 in this book, and a selection committee has just chosen the design for the 9/11 memorial. Turns out that the anonymous architect of the winning design is a Muslim named Mohammad "Mo" Khan and then all hell breaks loose because every single white character in this novel (with the exception of TWO, both bit players and one sanctimoniously smug) is a bigot.
I mean, it's not like the racist venom doesn't come out in real life - when an Islamic Community Center was proposed a couple blocks away from the World Trade Center site, some people got nasty. But people also were supportive of the Center, including Mayor Bloomberg who showed more courage and humanity than any of the white characters in this book.
There is a scarily clear divide between white characters (racist) and Muslim characters (often heroic). Not a single white main character comes out well. Mo's boss does support him and tells Mo that he will get other prominent architects to sign a letter of support for Mo (everyone keeps trying to get Mo to bow out of the competition to avoid the controversy). But then the boss is never heard from again. And Mo's best friend is white, but besides some fumbling support in an interview, he refuses to have Mo's back and mostly just wants to stay out of it. And the best friend's wife comes out and says that she's okay with Mo being the architect in charge of the Memorial, but would NOT be okay with any other Muslim - thanks racist wife!
Claire Burwell initially looks like she'll be sympathetic. She's the wealthy and beautiful young widow of a 9/11 victim and a member of the selection committee for the new memorial. She loved Mo's design - known as The Garden - and felt it was perfect. She was also the only committee member who didn't flinch when it was revealed that the architect was a Muslim man. And then...I can't tell if it's from weariness or lack of spine or the fact that Mo never said exactly what she wanted to hear or just really poor character development, but Claire eventually slips into the same racist bullshit as everyone else. The quote that just made me give up on her forever was when she is arguing with an ex-boyfriend (a smug do-gooder) about supporting Mo's design and says: "You, with your liberal causes, how do you reconcile your support for Islam with your support for gay rights, for feminism, when you look at how women, or gays, or minorities get treated in so many Muslim countries?” I. Cannot. Even. At the point you are smearing an entire religion because some people in it are terrible people YOU ARE BEING A BIGOT FULLSTOP.
Other poor examples of characters are: Geraldine Bitman (the NY mayor who uses the anti-Muslim sentiment to her political advantage), Paul Rubin (the successful elder gentleman in charge of the selection committee who spends the entire book trying to get Mo to withdraw, despite the fact that he grows to deeply respect Mo; I think he is supposed to represent the soft, apologetic liberal form of bigotry), Sean Gallagher (the heated, angry, violent, form of bigotry who assaults a Muslim woman and stalks Claire - weirdly enough, he becomes the only white character who seems to have GROWN A SPINE and seen the error of his ways. But whether he actually has become a decent human being or backslides is unknown); and Alyssa Spier (a tabloid reporter who will do anything for a scoop - she's not a bigot, she's just out for herself; as a workaholic who will do anything to get ahead she's basically Mo's foil and I may not like her but I respect her simple amoralness, which is at least more palatable than all the characters pretending their motives are pure and good).
The Muslim characters are less reflexively unlikeable and some of them are downright heroic. Mo is a non-practicing Muslim whose sole focus is his ambition - he doesn't have long-term relationships or even hobbies because his goal in life is to be a great architect. He's married to his job and so he's unprepared to be thrust into a national controversy - he's not a great guy per se, just a simple workaholic, but his ability to withstand the immense pressure of unwanted public attention is admirable. Laila Faithi is a female attorney who gave up a lucrative firm career to handle cases involving Muslims. She is someone doing the right thing for the right reasons. Asma, a Bangladeshi 9/11 widow (and I suppose this makes her Claire's foil, who is a billion times better than Claire), is the most admirable character of all. She risks deportation - she's an illegal immigrant - to stand up to all the bigots and support Mo's design. Malik, the executive director of the Muslim American Coordinating Council, is ambiguous - he may be supporting an effort he believes deeply in, he may just be ambitious, he does ultimately throw Mo under the bus.
And I'm saying the "white" characters versus the "Muslim" characters because that's basically the groups that Waldman gives us. I could be mistaken, but I don't think any of the non-Muslim characters are any race but white, or at least it doesn't come up. And the focus is on the fact that the Muslim characters are Muslim - regardless of their race or national origin.
I think the major problem is that no one is a person - they are all just mouthpieces for whatever ideology or thought that Waldman felt like sticking in their mouths. If Waldman just scribbled some stick figures on a piece of paper spouting off what the characters in this book were saying, it would be no less developed.
I think Waldman is playing with a very interesting idea and I read it compulsively - which says that the writing is solid, or maybe just that it held the same fascination as a car crash.
I just. I just didn't want to hate everybody. I wanted more complexity in the characters.
I felt about this book what I felt about the film Crash. And this awesome review pretty much works for both Crash and this book.
Read the original, German version here
I got this book as an ARC from the German publisher Heyne.
----
I came across this book by chance, read a few pages of the excerpt and knew instantly that i just had to read the whole novel. And I haven't been disappointed.
It is a very fascinating debate about the US after 9/11 and shows successfully the complexity of emotions and that there is not one correct reaction or that the rationally right solution is also feeling right emotionally. And I'm not only ttalking about the characters in the novel, but also about me as the reader. At least as far as I am able to imagine the feelings caused by the attacks - as someone with no personal ties to the people directly affected.
And that - the ability to be affected as a reader - is one of the great things about this novel. It always feels realistic, as if everything really could have happened this way, if someone with an islamic background and name would ahve won the open competition (and such a competition really happened). The Reactions from the different persons in the novel all feel real and never exaggerated even though most of the characters are reduced to a few characteristics - mostly their reaction and opinion towards the memorial. But then again in the context of the novel this reduction makes sense (at least for me).
The end of the plot contains a time lapse in the future and that happened a bit to sudden and out of nowhere for me. There was a tonal change for me that just did not fit to the rest of the book. But I have to admit I can think of another way to end the book without leaving all questions unanswered.
Judging purely by the entertainment value this surely is not the best book I have read this year, but it is one I will continue to think about for quite a while after finishing it.
And by the way: I really like Mos (or rather the authors) conceptions for the memorial and I am a tad sad that it is just fiction. Sound like it would have made a great place.
I got this book as an ARC from the German publisher Heyne.
----
I came across this book by chance, read a few pages of the excerpt and knew instantly that i just had to read the whole novel. And I haven't been disappointed.
It is a very fascinating debate about the US after 9/11 and shows successfully the complexity of emotions and that there is not one correct reaction or that the rationally right solution is also feeling right emotionally. And I'm not only ttalking about the characters in the novel, but also about me as the reader. At least as far as I am able to imagine the feelings caused by the attacks - as someone with no personal ties to the people directly affected.
And that - the ability to be affected as a reader - is one of the great things about this novel. It always feels realistic, as if everything really could have happened this way, if someone with an islamic background and name would ahve won the open competition (and such a competition really happened). The Reactions from the different persons in the novel all feel real and never exaggerated even though most of the characters are reduced to a few characteristics - mostly their reaction and opinion towards the memorial. But then again in the context of the novel this reduction makes sense (at least for me).
The end of the plot contains a time lapse in the future and that happened a bit to sudden and out of nowhere for me. There was a tonal change for me that just did not fit to the rest of the book. But I have to admit I can think of another way to end the book without leaving all questions unanswered.
Judging purely by the entertainment value this surely is not the best book I have read this year, but it is one I will continue to think about for quite a while after finishing it.
And by the way: I really like Mos (or rather the authors) conceptions for the memorial and I am a tad sad that it is just fiction. Sound like it would have made a great place.
An interesting idea for a novel. Post 9/11, New York City has commissioned an anonymous contest to design a memorial for the victims. When it is discovered that the winner is a Muslim, controversy erupts. None of the characters of very likeable, which made this a bit difficult to read.
I had to read this for a course at my college, but I have to say that I did not like any of the characters, and cannot sympathize with their anguish and bigotry. Maybe it is because I am too young to understand, or I'm from California, but really. In this day and age, almost everything that had happened was such a lifetime ago, and the sentiments back then are now scorned at. Mo was the only character I cared a little about as I understand his reluctance in being the person to represent and fight for his whole race. No one wants to shoulder that responsibility.
Claire, Sean, all of the white people in this book. Bah.
Claire, Sean, all of the white people in this book. Bah.
I am going to try to do this book justice, although my ability to write a compelling book review is sadly lacking (especially considering my current profession).
It is very rare for me to have such visceral reactions while reading books. This book led to moments of deep anger, complete sadness, and some despair (occasionally so deep that I felt the emotions in the pit of my stomach). Waldman's writing is wonderful, and the storyline is compelling (and very realistic).
At first the title seems straightforward: it refers to the plan submitted to the jury for what is assumed to be a 9/11 Memorial, a plan that after a blind process wins the contest and then is found to be designed by a Muslim. However, it is much more clever than that: it also refers to people's submission to fear, to anger, to self-righteousness, to group dynamics, to appearances, to pride. In other words, a much more psychological and less concrete "submission."
I thought Waldman's handling of the subject was even-handed; regardless of which side of the debate you would fall on, she did well in creating an environment where both sides (although not necessarily all people on each side) evoke empathy.
This is one of the best books I've read this year, and also one of the most though provoking. In terms of what has become known as the "9/11 Novel," this one is, as the NY Times said, a great memorial.
It is very rare for me to have such visceral reactions while reading books. This book led to moments of deep anger, complete sadness, and some despair (occasionally so deep that I felt the emotions in the pit of my stomach). Waldman's writing is wonderful, and the storyline is compelling (and very realistic).
At first the title seems straightforward: it refers to the plan submitted to the jury for what is assumed to be a 9/11 Memorial, a plan that after a blind process wins the contest and then is found to be designed by a Muslim. However, it is much more clever than that: it also refers to people's submission to fear, to anger, to self-righteousness, to group dynamics, to appearances, to pride. In other words, a much more psychological and less concrete "submission."
I thought Waldman's handling of the subject was even-handed; regardless of which side of the debate you would fall on, she did well in creating an environment where both sides (although not necessarily all people on each side) evoke empathy.
This is one of the best books I've read this year, and also one of the most though provoking. In terms of what has become known as the "9/11 Novel," this one is, as the NY Times said, a great memorial.
Based on reviews I had hoped for more. For the most part the characters were unlikable, which was intentional, but for me it made the story less powerful and/or provocative.
Excellently written, on the nose and important for our time however I didn't really enjoy the book. That's probably more a statement on my remaining feelings about 9/11 and how America has reacted to it than the book itself.