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A review by heathergrace
The City Always Wins by Omar Robert Hamilton
5.0
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
The City Always Wins is poetic, heartbreaking and real. Omar Robert Hamilton has crafted a beautiful piece of literature that captures snapshots of hope and despair in a revolution. It is unique and emotional in a way that will stick with the reader long after they reach the last page.
This book is the story of the uprising that started in Tahrir Square in 2011, told through the eyes of Khalil, a Palistinian-Egyptian born in America who puts himself in the heart of the revolution and helps broadcast news from the front lines. The story is divided into three parts, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Each section brings its own energy, tone and structure, which Hamilton uses adeptly to pace the narrative. From a clear timeline and chapters to strings of frantic tweets and quotes to scenes scattered between news headlines, the reader's sense of time and place spins slowly out of control. Hamilton never lets you settle in, and that's good.
This is a difficult and relatively recent (some would say ongoing) issue. It's something that I admittedly knew little about beyond what U.S. news would have covered in the early days of the revolution in 2011. But it resonated with me as an American watching Black Lives Matter and the Women's March on Washington. It resonated with me as a Baltimore-area resident who watched unrest in the city in 2015 after Freddie Gray died. Some of Hamilton's words and the emotions of his character could have been about how some people felt after the election in November, and it's the universal feeling of hopelessness but ultimate decision to continue fighting that blend to make this book relatable and heartbreaking.
The City Always Wins is poetic, heartbreaking and real. Omar Robert Hamilton has crafted a beautiful piece of literature that captures snapshots of hope and despair in a revolution. It is unique and emotional in a way that will stick with the reader long after they reach the last page.
This book is the story of the uprising that started in Tahrir Square in 2011, told through the eyes of Khalil, a Palistinian-Egyptian born in America who puts himself in the heart of the revolution and helps broadcast news from the front lines. The story is divided into three parts, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Each section brings its own energy, tone and structure, which Hamilton uses adeptly to pace the narrative. From a clear timeline and chapters to strings of frantic tweets and quotes to scenes scattered between news headlines, the reader's sense of time and place spins slowly out of control. Hamilton never lets you settle in, and that's good.
This is a difficult and relatively recent (some would say ongoing) issue. It's something that I admittedly knew little about beyond what U.S. news would have covered in the early days of the revolution in 2011. But it resonated with me as an American watching Black Lives Matter and the Women's March on Washington. It resonated with me as a Baltimore-area resident who watched unrest in the city in 2015 after Freddie Gray died. Some of Hamilton's words and the emotions of his character could have been about how some people felt after the election in November, and it's the universal feeling of hopelessness but ultimate decision to continue fighting that blend to make this book relatable and heartbreaking.