A review by wanderlust_romance
American War by Omar El Akkad

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book is so deeply thought provoking. What would the future look like in the wake of fossil capitalism leading to a second American Civil War? American War so vividly imagines a tense, bleak, and violent landscape that has also been drastically impacted by climate change. The story is set primarily in the South, lending an air of dystopian Southern gothic, and follows members of the Chestnut family from 2070 onward.

El Akkad's experience as a journalist during the post-9/11 War on Terror is an element critical to this storytelling. It is such a visceral reminder that as Americans, we passively watch military violence unfold through our television and cell phone screens, and perhaps think "I'm glad that isn't us." And so, American War flips the script on that and says no - this is now happening here, in the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave." As the story progresses, you see the war's impact on the Chestnut family. Their displacement, their poverty, their hunger, their resentment, their coping mechanisms - and perhaps most significantly as it pertains to Sarat's character and plot arc - their losses. Sarat was such an interesting and complex character.

The writing here is really incredible. The story moves quickly but lingers in just the right places where ideas around militarism, patriotism, imperialism, violence, and displacement demand to be explored with more depth. El Akkad's prose is lyrical, able to paint a vivid scene while also pulling forth emotion from their characters. I really enjoyed the varied use of "historical texts" as an endcap to each chapter, as it provided additional context and tied back to the prologue's narrator.

The audiobook performance is one of the best I have ever encountered and a stunning portrayal of the text. I would highly recommend listening.

Bookmarked Quotes
Prologue: My favorite postcards are from the 2030s and 2040s, the last decade before the planet turned on the country and the country turned on itself. A visual reminder of America as it existed in first half of the 21st century, soaring, roaring, oblivious.

Ch.4: Your side fought the war but the war never happened to you. In the Red country the war happened. If you lived in the South during that war, maybe you were never forced from your home at gunpoint, but you knew someone who was. Maybe you didn't lose a loved one when the Birds came and rained down death with no rhyme or reason, but you knew someone who had.

Ch. 6: "An empire is when many small countries become part of one big country, willingly or otherwise," Gaines said. "An empire is what we used to be."

 Ch. 6: Somewhere in the caverns of her mind awoke memories of the place where she was born: the mud banks, the hot tin box, the mouth of the Mississippi. Like a stranger to herself, she was surprised to discover she'd started softly crying.
"We forget sometimes," Gaines said, "that there are still beautiful things."

Ch. 7: "I sided with the Red because when a Southerner tells you what they're fighting for-be it tradition, pride, or just mule-headed stubbornness-you can agree or disagree, but you can't call it a lie. When a Northerner tells you what they're fighting for, they'll use words like democracy and freedom and equality and the whole time both you and they know that the meaning of those words changes by the day, changes like the weather."

Ch. 13: And even today, all these years later, we live with the consequences. They didn't understand, they just didn't understand. You fight the war with guns, you fight the peace with stories.
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