A review by bexellency
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

2.75

I was intrigued making it easy to return and listen frequently.  But I didn’t unreservedly like it.  There are a ton of characters; it’s a lot and the shifting viewpoints are a lot, constantly taking you between voices and potentially from a style you like to a style you don’t.  Of course, all those lives intersecting is what the book is about.  There are also a ton of themes all shoved in there together, too much for my taste.  Again, that’s what the book is about, all the complexities people bring into each situation.  But because there are so many people and so many themes, a lot of doors get opened and just left there, with little treatment within the story.  A case in point is Selma, who pretty clearly fulfills the trope of the  dutifu l sibling, who does what’s expected precisely because their sibling doesn’t, but who is desperately unhappy.  At least, that was my take, the author starts to take on Selma, then backs away.  There are a lot of characters who are unlikeable for various reasons (Jeremy for his obliviousness on how his military service past intersects with Nora’s cultural background; Nora for her obliviousness on the logistics of not selling the diner and her desire to blame others for her relationship problems around infidelity; AJ for his desire to blame everyone else for his business loss; etc.  Realizing it’s lots of people who are oblivious or unwilling to take ownership, in various ways.). The end of the book seemed very rushed - starting from where Nora leaves to go back to San Francisco.

Interesting as an audiobook primarily because I knew so many of the narrators from other audiobooks.  Several voiced similar characters to where I’d heard them elsewhere (The Stationary Shop, The Book fo Unknown Americans).  One voiced something very different, and I never got used to it (We Came, We Saw, We Left).