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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
One of the best and most insightful novels I've ever read. It kept me thinking for weeks. A must read for every American!
I found this thoughtful and readable. The style is popular and journalistic, and the author is a journalist. It is pacy, but also thought provoking. A powerful demonstration of the fault lines that 9/11 caused in American society. A good read.
The Submission is the fictional story of the anonymous competition to build the 9/11 memorial in NYC. Claire, who lost her husband in the attacks, represents the victims' families on a judging panel consisting of artists, historians, and other NYC elites. When the winning design is chosen, the architect is revealed to be named Mohammad Khan--a Muslim. From there, we follow Claire, Mo, Bangladeshi immigrant Asma, and several others as they attempt to decide the fate of the memorial and negotiate the increasingly-hostile climate between New Yorkers and Muslims. As Mo refuses to stand down, explain himself, or change his design, and the opposition becomes virulent, the ethics of having a Muslim build a memorial to those who lost their lives to extremists become increasingly muddled--even for Claire, Mo's greatest supporter.
Waldman has the incredible ability to make her characters, if not entirely sympathetic, understandable and realistic. The temptation to make Mo perfect must have been high; yet the story was much more interesting when Mo is arrogant and stubborn and conflicted about his actual relationship with Islam. Liberal Claire wobbles and becomes increasingly filled with doubt over what was originally her favorite design. If you had told me The Submission would have me feeling pity for a man who, in the midst of an anti-Islamic, anti-Garden rally, rips off a woman's headscarf, I never would have believed it. But that character, Sean, is not painted as only a racist bigot--he's simultaneously grieving for the loss of his brother and living ever deeper in that same brother's shadow, he's trying to win his hard mother's respect and love, he's dealing with his own feelings of incompleteness. And that's just one character! Waldman turns a compassionate eye to every player in this tale, and that lent to its compulsive readability.
Read the rest of my review at Bookwanderer!
Waldman has the incredible ability to make her characters, if not entirely sympathetic, understandable and realistic. The temptation to make Mo perfect must have been high; yet the story was much more interesting when Mo is arrogant and stubborn and conflicted about his actual relationship with Islam. Liberal Claire wobbles and becomes increasingly filled with doubt over what was originally her favorite design. If you had told me The Submission would have me feeling pity for a man who, in the midst of an anti-Islamic, anti-Garden rally, rips off a woman's headscarf, I never would have believed it. But that character, Sean, is not painted as only a racist bigot--he's simultaneously grieving for the loss of his brother and living ever deeper in that same brother's shadow, he's trying to win his hard mother's respect and love, he's dealing with his own feelings of incompleteness. And that's just one character! Waldman turns a compassionate eye to every player in this tale, and that lent to its compulsive readability.
Read the rest of my review at Bookwanderer!
Gosh this was bad.
Full review here - https://charmainelimen.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/review-the-submission-by-amy-waldman/
Full review here - https://charmainelimen.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/review-the-submission-by-amy-waldman/
So, I wrote a review for this when I read it but accidentally deleted a whole bunch of reviews when I was reorganizing my shelves... So I guess I just have to read them all again so I can give accurate reviews :D
This is an intricate, complicated, very engrossing book about 9/11, Islam and America, grief and healing, art and politics. It follows what happens when the artist chosen to create a 9/11 memorial turns out to be an American architect who is Muslim. It bogged down for me a little in the middle, but I was complete re-engaged particularly with the plight of Asma, an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh whose husband was killed in the attacks while she was 8 months pregnant. While there is some resolution, it remains complicated and thorny to the end--no easy answers but a very engaging and thought-provoking story.
This is a story about a Muslim man winning the design contest for the 9/11 memorial. The world is turned upside down with rage when families of the dead and the rest of the world get a hold of this knowledge, because clearly this man (born in America) has bad intentions. The best part of this book is how the author goes between the key players in the story; the Muslim "Mo", a women who lost her husband and is a member of the jury, a Bangladesh women whose husband dies, an anti-Muslim extremest brother of a firefighter and newspaper columnist. It is a quick read and evokes memories and emotions of 9/11.
Even though this is a work of fiction, I believe the misconceptions that Americans have about Islam rings true in real life. People of the world have been fighting over differences in religion forever, it pains me that we still fight and that people can not open their minds to accept all people.
Even though this is a work of fiction, I believe the misconceptions that Americans have about Islam rings true in real life. People of the world have been fighting over differences in religion forever, it pains me that we still fight and that people can not open their minds to accept all people.
Easy to read, even funny at times, while still illuminating what it means to be Muslim in post-9/11 America, the public personas we all hide behind, how we deal with and even use grief, and our ability to trust others with our true selves.
Full review available here
This will be one of my favorite reads of the year. I adore Waldman’s prose and this is a beautiful, thoughtful, thought-provoking-in-a-good-way, amazing novel. I wish we could bring such intelligence and insight to all discourse in our country, be it political, religious, cultural or all of the above.
It would be easier for a writer to play favorites among her characters and their views, but aside from Alyssa, the journalist, Waldman evokes empathy and sympathy, if not agreement, for each of her characters and their positions. Somewhere along the way, we lost that ability to understand without agreeing. Asking us to do so again is one of the many reasons I was so moved by The Submission.
The Submission of the title is the Garden, but I also thought of submission in relation to Mo, the architect. It is not his nature to submit. He’s not a religious Muslim, he does not submit to god, but he also does not submit to others. His attitude reminded me of Joan Allen in The Contender. As a nominee for Vice President, she won’t respond to certain allegations because if she were a man, the questions would not be asked. If Mo were not a Muslim, the questions would not be asked. This could be read as arrogance, but as another character muses “maybe arrogance is necessary for greatness” (272).
I don’t know if Waldman is arrogant. I suspect not, since her writing is brilliant yet also subtle, but she is certainly great, and The Submission is a work of greatness.
This will be one of my favorite reads of the year. I adore Waldman’s prose and this is a beautiful, thoughtful, thought-provoking-in-a-good-way, amazing novel. I wish we could bring such intelligence and insight to all discourse in our country, be it political, religious, cultural or all of the above.
It would be easier for a writer to play favorites among her characters and their views, but aside from Alyssa, the journalist, Waldman evokes empathy and sympathy, if not agreement, for each of her characters and their positions. Somewhere along the way, we lost that ability to understand without agreeing. Asking us to do so again is one of the many reasons I was so moved by The Submission.
The Submission of the title is the Garden, but I also thought of submission in relation to Mo, the architect. It is not his nature to submit. He’s not a religious Muslim, he does not submit to god, but he also does not submit to others. His attitude reminded me of Joan Allen in The Contender. As a nominee for Vice President, she won’t respond to certain allegations because if she were a man, the questions would not be asked. If Mo were not a Muslim, the questions would not be asked. This could be read as arrogance, but as another character muses “maybe arrogance is necessary for greatness” (272).
I don’t know if Waldman is arrogant. I suspect not, since her writing is brilliant yet also subtle, but she is certainly great, and The Submission is a work of greatness.