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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
A more accurate rating would be 2.5 stars. I wanted to like this more and while there are aspects that I enjoyed, overall, it left much to be desired. There are several plotlines and I can just imagine this being turned into a movie eventually. The main plotline involving Mohammad Khan and his design was the more fleshed out and through of them all. It was also the only one that kept me engaged. And it bothers me that female characters who are single or widowed or divorced need to find that "third act" romance or fling to complete their character. It's unnecessary 90% of the time and it was definitely unnecessary here. The things I did like however is the use of media in fanning the flames of racial and religious intolerance. The immigrant experience in America is explored nicely and with care, especially after September 11.
Mo's father tells his son, an architect, "I know buildings are your religion... But they shouldn't keep you from God, and they can't bring you to Him." Mo's proud reserve, Claire's tortured ambivalence, and the entire identity of a nation provided the narrative for much of the story. Along the way, politics, journalism, TV personalities, and American bigotry were skewered, but at its core, this novel forced a reckoning of sorts, one in which the US did not come out on top.
I didn't appreciate the title of the book until the end. Mo's submission to the memorial committee, as well as one of the meanings of Islam, were debated for all of their ambiguities.
Another thing I appreciated: the female characters. An opportunistic journalist, a grieving, conflicted widow, and an ambitious governor: Waldman did not try to make her female characters likeable, only interesting.
I didn't appreciate the title of the book until the end. Mo's submission to the memorial committee, as well as one of the meanings of Islam, were debated for all of their ambiguities.
Another thing I appreciated: the female characters. An opportunistic journalist, a grieving, conflicted widow, and an ambitious governor: Waldman did not try to make her female characters likeable, only interesting.
Waldman's book is set only 2 years after 9.11. She did a wonderful job of portraying how raw people were and the characters managed to be familiar yet fell short of becoming caricatures. The perceptions and changes in perceptions that each of the characters experienced through the book were very honest. This would be a fantastic book to discuss and dissect. I love how the simple title alone has many layers. And the book makes you think right up to the very end.
I really enjoyed this novel, even though I only liked two of the six main characters. I think the author did a marvelous job of imagining the feelings of various people and the societal ramifications of what would happen were an American [non-practicing] Muslim architect to submit the winning design for the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial. Would the best in us rise to the top, or would our darker impulses prevail?
Hard to put down. Really had a hard time understanding why Mo would not denounce the 9/11 attacks or explain his design. He didn't come off as a likable character. The attraction Claire had for Mo and Sean had for Claire were extraneous.
The Submission starts with a jury selecting a memorial for the victims of 9/11, two years after the attacks. All the designs are anonymous and after fierce deliberations, they decide that a garden would be the best memorial, the designer's name learnt: Mohammad Khan (Mo to his friends). This opens debate into Islam, what art is and grief.
The story focuses on the aftermath of Mohammad Khan's win and tells the story in 3rd person, focusing on different characters. The 3 main characters are Claire, a widow who was the biggest supporter of the garden design until it starts to throw up opposition from other people who lost loved ones in the attack and is hounded by journalists. Asma, a Bangladeshi illegal immigrant who is also a widow but also the mother of a child born on American soil. Lastly, Mo, the winner who is isolated and caught up in the debate despite no strong feelings towards Islam and being a born and bred American. I found these three characters the best developed. The raw emotions of both widows was very well captured and I really felt for Mo.
The other characters whose stories we learn, just do not feel so well developed and feel quite flat at times. But they all had important parts to play in the story and I suppose Waldman felt she could not write the story without giving us their backgrounds, thoughts and fears.
I liked the book. It was thought-provoking, well written and very easy to get into. Waldman captured a tragedy bringing America together but also bringing out the best and worst in people. It is written quite well and the subject area handled with care.
The story focuses on the aftermath of Mohammad Khan's win and tells the story in 3rd person, focusing on different characters. The 3 main characters are Claire, a widow who was the biggest supporter of the garden design until it starts to throw up opposition from other people who lost loved ones in the attack and is hounded by journalists. Asma, a Bangladeshi illegal immigrant who is also a widow but also the mother of a child born on American soil. Lastly, Mo, the winner who is isolated and caught up in the debate despite no strong feelings towards Islam and being a born and bred American. I found these three characters the best developed. The raw emotions of both widows was very well captured and I really felt for Mo.
The other characters whose stories we learn, just do not feel so well developed and feel quite flat at times. But they all had important parts to play in the story and I suppose Waldman felt she could not write the story without giving us their backgrounds, thoughts and fears.
I liked the book. It was thought-provoking, well written and very easy to get into. Waldman captured a tragedy bringing America together but also bringing out the best and worst in people. It is written quite well and the subject area handled with care.
This book is almost like a time machine, putting us right back into those painful, angry, suspicious times of the early years after 9/11. The author does a really fantastic job of bringing all of those feelings and those voices back to life in a story surrounding the imagined reaction if a Muslim had been chosen to represent our nation's grief. Even though this story is fiction, so many of the voices and the feelings felt so familiar.
I was completely sucked in to the debate in the book, and at the same time I found myself debating in my head -- has our real world moved on from that time, or could someone light a match that would ignite the same kind of firestorm 10 years later? Considering the fight over the Islamic cultural center in NY over the last year or so, it all still feels very real. Kudos to the author for trying to articulate so many of the difficult and oftentimes very ugly feelings behind our rhetoric and our reactions.
I was completely sucked in to the debate in the book, and at the same time I found myself debating in my head -- has our real world moved on from that time, or could someone light a match that would ignite the same kind of firestorm 10 years later? Considering the fight over the Islamic cultural center in NY over the last year or so, it all still feels very real. Kudos to the author for trying to articulate so many of the difficult and oftentimes very ugly feelings behind our rhetoric and our reactions.
Ten years after 9/11, a dazzling, kaleidoscopic novel reimagines its aftermath and wonders what would happen if a Muslim-American was blindly chosen to plan the World Trade Center Memorial.
Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack.
Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan - Mo - an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own. When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America.
A really thought-provoking book and many times it made me stop and think about my reactions. I swayed from one opinion to another depending on the force of the argument - a real floating voter. A book I think I've learned from although to me there was one big flaw:
Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack.
Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan - Mo - an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own. When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America.
A really thought-provoking book and many times it made me stop and think about my reactions. I swayed from one opinion to another depending on the force of the argument - a real floating voter. A book I think I've learned from although to me there was one big flaw: