A review by emjay24
American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar

3.0

American Dervish is about a boy, Hayat, who gets carried away with religion. Neither of his parents are religious, and his dad, a research doctor, borders on being atheist. When he is about ten, his mom’s childhood best friend, his ‘aunt’ Mina, comes to live with them in the US after a divorce back in Pakistan. She is somewhat religious, so she begins to teach Hayat about their Muslim religion. In worry about his family and confusion about his other feelings, he takes everything a little bit too far and ends up partially ruining the lives of some people he loves. The story is told from his point of view later on in college, and even later as a young adult, so it was very rounded out and didn’t leave you wondering. This was a pretty good coming of age type story. The characters could have been more developed, but I think that was a little on purpose, because we were seeing things from a child’s point of view. I would have liked his dad, even with all his faults. The adults in the story seemed much more interesting and likable than the child.