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bobthebookerer 's review for:
Hyphen
by Pardis Mahdavi
This book weaves together the stories of various people who are struggling at the cross-sections of various aspects of their identities (whether in terms of race, nationality, culture, gender or sexuality) and sets it alongside the history of the hyphen.
Although at first that sounds like a somewhat bizarre concept, this book does a great job of bringing out the tensions in these identities, and how something as small as a hyphen can keep them together. We see how an Iranian-American woman navigates her Iranian identity once her Iranian passport is stripped from her, making her, legally, only American.
The history of the hyphen is interesting enough, especially given the passionate debates at various points in history where so-called ‘hyphenated Americans’ were seen as intrinsically harmful and dangerous to US nationhood, and everyone was expected to subsume their identity under the banner of ‘American’.
Bringing in the personal touches of the individual stories gave this book some real heart, helping to show how disparate identities have come to rely on what lies at the cross-sections to make sense of the various parts that make us up, and how the hyphen can act as a ‘bridge’ from one identity to another, strengthening both.
Although the last few chapters felt a bit cheesy for me, this book still brought up some interesting arguments in a concise and fascinating package.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Although at first that sounds like a somewhat bizarre concept, this book does a great job of bringing out the tensions in these identities, and how something as small as a hyphen can keep them together. We see how an Iranian-American woman navigates her Iranian identity once her Iranian passport is stripped from her, making her, legally, only American.
The history of the hyphen is interesting enough, especially given the passionate debates at various points in history where so-called ‘hyphenated Americans’ were seen as intrinsically harmful and dangerous to US nationhood, and everyone was expected to subsume their identity under the banner of ‘American’.
Bringing in the personal touches of the individual stories gave this book some real heart, helping to show how disparate identities have come to rely on what lies at the cross-sections to make sense of the various parts that make us up, and how the hyphen can act as a ‘bridge’ from one identity to another, strengthening both.
Although the last few chapters felt a bit cheesy for me, this book still brought up some interesting arguments in a concise and fascinating package.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.