A review by kymme
The Submission by Amy Waldman

4.0

Waldman weaves together a tale that reveals what it is to be a post-9/11 American in a fictional world as much as in the real one. People are good, bad, messy, (un)trusting, acting in their own self-interest, acting on behalf of others. At times I was frustrated by ever more characters being introduced and a somewhat slow pace, but the book is, overall, compellingly constructed. Its final page is searing. These characters made me think prismatically—who’s right? Whose views on a 9/11 memorial should win? Why? What to do with conflicting points of view from the same person? How do we untangle culture from religion, citizenship from belonging, status from identity, or person from ideology? The questions this book makes one ponder are real and visceral and complicated and annoying and necessary.