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smadams 's review for:
American War
by Omar El Akkad
Wow I didn't realize before that I read this book for the second time on the two year anniversary of the first time I read it :)
Reading it a second time offered a lot of insight. I was able to recognize several clues about the upcoming events that I didn't understand the first time. I like Sarat, believe it or not. I see her motivations shape as life beats her down again and again. El Akkad is from Cairo, so he has personal connection to the unrest in the Middle East. It doesn't take a PhD in literature to see some of the connections he's trying to make. When people are forced into violent, oppressive situations, they do what they can to survive. And it's not a far jump from there to see the need for revenge take root. As the book says, "if it had been you, you’d have done no different." I don't pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but I think El Akkad is trying to show us (Americans) how easy it is to judge the people in his region as "backwards," "intrinsically violent," or "jihadists" when they are just responding to their environment. An environment, might I add, that has been explicitly manipulated by the United States for a century, and by Europe for centuries before that. So yeah, Sarat did what she had to do.
Metaphorical implications aside, the book was stunningly well-written. The prose is beautiful. His characters jump to life; each has their own alliances, motives, personalities, and ties to the land and to people. It's heavy, to be sure, but it's also engaging. The news inserts do a good job of providing context for the world-building that El Akkad creates.
Reading it a second time offered a lot of insight. I was able to recognize several clues about the upcoming events that I didn't understand the first time. I like Sarat, believe it or not. I see her motivations shape as life beats her down again and again. El Akkad is from Cairo, so he has personal connection to the unrest in the Middle East. It doesn't take a PhD in literature to see some of the connections he's trying to make. When people are forced into violent, oppressive situations, they do what they can to survive. And it's not a far jump from there to see the need for revenge take root. As the book says, "if it had been you, you’d have done no different." I don't pretend to be an expert on the Middle East, but I think El Akkad is trying to show us (Americans) how easy it is to judge the people in his region as "backwards," "intrinsically violent," or "jihadists" when they are just responding to their environment. An environment, might I add, that has been explicitly manipulated by the United States for a century, and by Europe for centuries before that. So yeah, Sarat did what she had to do.
Metaphorical implications aside, the book was stunningly well-written. The prose is beautiful. His characters jump to life; each has their own alliances, motives, personalities, and ties to the land and to people. It's heavy, to be sure, but it's also engaging. The news inserts do a good job of providing context for the world-building that El Akkad creates.