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cassiedunkin 's review for:
A Good Country
by Laleh Khadivi
In the current state of the world this is a novel that you should be reading.
One of the reasons I read is to expand my worldview. To read about people who are unlike me. The characters of Laleh Khadevi’s A Good Country are about as far removed from me as possible within the sphere of American young adults.
A Good Country follows Reza Courdee, the son of wealthy Iranian immigrants. A high school aged student at Laguna prep in California, Rez enjoys smoking pot, surfing, sleeping with girls, and skipping the classes he once got straight A’s in. But then the bombing of the Boston Marathon happens. And then an attack at the local mall. And the community that Rez once felt a part of, begins to alienate and harass him.
Rez befriends a couple teenagers at his school – children of Middle Eastern immigrants who in the tumultuous environment find comfort and meaning in converting to Islam. Through this events and the atmosphere of Rez’s community changes he begins to look in places for a sense of belonging. For Rez, that belonging leads him to follow a path of radicalization.
This novel sits with you. It roots itself in your chest. It has been called necessary and after reading it, I can see why.
This story is empathetic to the people it writes about yet doesn’t shy away from its realities.
The book gets off to a slow start. I don’t really care about teenagers cutting class to go surf in Mexico and shirk responsibilities just for the sake of it. I don’t care for stories where a lack of communication is a driving plot point. (This book is not that, but in the beginning I was concerned that it would follow that tired-trope. Thankfully, it did not.) I put it down for a couple of weeks, unsure if I wanted to finish. When I picked it up again, the plot and tension picked up and urged me to finish the book in an afternoon.
Ultimately this is a story about how a boy with physically everything and emotionally very little, could lead him from a comfortable life to a terrifying potential.
A Good Country is part of a trilogy about generations of Kurdish men. It is a story of cycles – watching histories repeat themselves in different settings. I was sent this book without any knowledge of the previous two – each novel stands alone and do not need to be read to understand each other. That being said, now that I have read the last book I am looking forward to tracing the histories of this family and see how not only Rez’s choices led to his fate but how his family’s choices also played a part in the ripple effect.
Without giving away anything. What got me – me the reader/writer/editor/nerd the most, what made me want to gasp in delight on a physical level is that after all the events of the book, the very last word of the book is “love”. After everything, we’re left with love.
I received a copy of A Good Kingdom from Bloomsbury for an honest review. I did not receive any payment from the publisher.
One of the reasons I read is to expand my worldview. To read about people who are unlike me. The characters of Laleh Khadevi’s A Good Country are about as far removed from me as possible within the sphere of American young adults.
A Good Country follows Reza Courdee, the son of wealthy Iranian immigrants. A high school aged student at Laguna prep in California, Rez enjoys smoking pot, surfing, sleeping with girls, and skipping the classes he once got straight A’s in. But then the bombing of the Boston Marathon happens. And then an attack at the local mall. And the community that Rez once felt a part of, begins to alienate and harass him.
Rez befriends a couple teenagers at his school – children of Middle Eastern immigrants who in the tumultuous environment find comfort and meaning in converting to Islam. Through this events and the atmosphere of Rez’s community changes he begins to look in places for a sense of belonging. For Rez, that belonging leads him to follow a path of radicalization.
This novel sits with you. It roots itself in your chest. It has been called necessary and after reading it, I can see why.
This story is empathetic to the people it writes about yet doesn’t shy away from its realities.
The book gets off to a slow start. I don’t really care about teenagers cutting class to go surf in Mexico and shirk responsibilities just for the sake of it. I don’t care for stories where a lack of communication is a driving plot point. (This book is not that, but in the beginning I was concerned that it would follow that tired-trope. Thankfully, it did not.) I put it down for a couple of weeks, unsure if I wanted to finish. When I picked it up again, the plot and tension picked up and urged me to finish the book in an afternoon.
Ultimately this is a story about how a boy with physically everything and emotionally very little, could lead him from a comfortable life to a terrifying potential.
A Good Country is part of a trilogy about generations of Kurdish men. It is a story of cycles – watching histories repeat themselves in different settings. I was sent this book without any knowledge of the previous two – each novel stands alone and do not need to be read to understand each other. That being said, now that I have read the last book I am looking forward to tracing the histories of this family and see how not only Rez’s choices led to his fate but how his family’s choices also played a part in the ripple effect.
Without giving away anything. What got me – me the reader/writer/editor/nerd the most, what made me want to gasp in delight on a physical level is that after all the events of the book, the very last word of the book is “love”. After everything, we’re left with love.
I received a copy of A Good Kingdom from Bloomsbury for an honest review. I did not receive any payment from the publisher.