A review by damalireads
The Laughter by Sonora Jha

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is one of those books that I think is really smart, darkly funny, & thought-provoking – and yet I’d definitely hesitate to blindly recommend it to everyone.

Dr. Oliver Harding is an aging white professor at a university in Seattle who sees himself as an open, but “reasonable”, liberal. Deeply entrenched in the old-school academic culture, he develops a fascination and obsession with Ruhaba Khan – a Pakistani Muslim law professor who rejects this status quo. As he becomes a mentor to her nephew Adil, visiting from France, we get unfiltered access into the mind of a man attempting to be in tune with the times but is instead a man with a complete lack of self-awareness. Campus protests, controversial costumes, and disturbing truths about Oliver’s past and Ruhaba’s present build up to a shocking ending that actually made my jaw drop.

The most surprising aspect of this book is that it’s told solely from the POV of Oliver, and his POV can be borderline unbearable. He is a clever man who knows what to say to appear like a safe ally (& he is in comparison to others in the book), but his thoughts reveal him to harbor every –ism and –phobia under the sun. His obsession with Ruhaba is immediately sexual & misogynistic, with a sprinkling of exoticism on top. The dissonance between his actions, especially with his mentorship with Adil, and his dangerous thoughts is what kept me engaged in the book enough to withstand his uncomfortable stream of consciousness. He was also, unfortunately, occasionally funny when talking about the life of an academic, aging, and realizing that he is becoming less and less relevant in his personal and professional life. His narcissistic delusion was funny to watch in real time, but it’s darker impacts became more and more clear as the story progressed. He wasn’t a cartoonish character, but felt like a very real and multi-faceted person that I had to take the time to understand.

Jha also does an impressive job of still making Ruhaba & Adil (a little less so) 3-dimensional characters outside of the judgements Oliver passes on them. Through dialogue, letters, and emails, Jha humanizes them both and made me reflect on how misleading Oliver’s (& maybe even my own) assumptions about them are. Also, the reveals about Ruhaba in particular were so well done to me - seeing the gray in her character was another testament to the complexity of the story.

Writing/pacing wise, this book was damn near perfect. I read half of the book in one sitting because it was that suspenseful and compelling. There were some scenes that dragged on, some plot points that were circled around but not fully addressed, but it wasn’t detrimental. The ending slapped me in the face but I go back and forth on whether some aspects were believable.

The ONLY reason I wouldn’t recommend this freely is that Oliver’s voice in the novel is not for the faint of heart, especially as an audiobook (something I regret lol). There is a point to all of Oliver’s griminess, but some people wouldn’t stick around long enough to find out.

But if you’re curious, & you like like campus novels & unlikeable/unreliable narrators – this book is a carefully crafted work of art.

4.5 stars