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A review by riften
The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
2.0
What a missed opportunity. There is so much to say about the burden of the “good immigrant” - the apologia, the self-sanitisation, the fear of citizenship and belonging being snatched away from us. And this book skimmed straight past it!
These essays were instead superficial and rather self-pitying. Less of a meditation on “the good immigrant” and more a, here: let’s line up these ten Black and Asian people and have them tell random, unconnected anecdotes.
Some essays were bland but inoffensive, while others really annoying. I especially disliked Coco Khan’s apology to the white man she did not sleep with. It smelled of All Lives Matter.
When you decide to write about Shamima Begum, Windrush, the way Muslims have had to bend over backwards to prove they are not terrorists. Let me know!
These essays were instead superficial and rather self-pitying. Less of a meditation on “the good immigrant” and more a, here: let’s line up these ten Black and Asian people and have them tell random, unconnected anecdotes.
Some essays were bland but inoffensive, while others really annoying. I especially disliked Coco Khan’s apology to the white man she did not sleep with. It smelled of All Lives Matter.
When you decide to write about Shamima Begum, Windrush, the way Muslims have had to bend over backwards to prove they are not terrorists. Let me know!