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A review by stephand2449
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
3.0
3.5 stars
This book started out so strong for me and I got excited thinking that this could be a 5 star book based on how it was going...but it just went downhill in terms of character development and lost focus for me.
SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!
Once Driss’ affair was revealed, I kind of felt an ominous “oh no” come upon me that I wouldn’t like the rest of the book as much as I had in the beginning, and unfortunately I felt correctly. I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. I really did love the “outsider” theme that ran throughout the book. But, by the end, it felt like this book couldn’t decide what it wanted to be: a cultural piece, a family drama, a romance, a war/political piece...And the characters just deflated the further on it went. I was sad to see many characters (like Nora’s sister) remain undeveloped. And the closer it got to the end, the more obvious the “outsider/other” descriptions became.
Again, I really wanted to love this so much more than I did and even considered re-reading to see if my thoughts changed if I thought about the details and writing more, but here’s where I’m at with it right now.
This book started out so strong for me and I got excited thinking that this could be a 5 star book based on how it was going...but it just went downhill in terms of character development and lost focus for me.
SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT!
Once Driss’ affair was revealed, I kind of felt an ominous “oh no” come upon me that I wouldn’t like the rest of the book as much as I had in the beginning, and unfortunately I felt correctly. I wanted to love this book so much more than I did. I really did love the “outsider” theme that ran throughout the book. But, by the end, it felt like this book couldn’t decide what it wanted to be: a cultural piece, a family drama, a romance, a war/political piece...And the characters just deflated the further on it went. I was sad to see many characters (like Nora’s sister) remain undeveloped. And the closer it got to the end, the more obvious the “outsider/other” descriptions became.
Again, I really wanted to love this so much more than I did and even considered re-reading to see if my thoughts changed if I thought about the details and writing more, but here’s where I’m at with it right now.