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alexa13 's review for:
Homeland Elegies
by Ayad Akhtar
I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit tough to get into at first but Riaz’s story really hooked me. Reading this made me realize i have not consumed much media/art by Muslims. It had been easy to forget how scary it must have been and how much Muslims were mistreated and abused after 9/11. I was young enough that I don’t think I fully understood it at the time, and it had receded enough into “history” as I grew older and more aware. This book reminded me a bit of the depiction of anti-Muslim sentiment in Come From Away, mostly in that both made me realize I was very ignorant / forgetful of the post-9/11 realities that still continue into the present.
When chatting with friends they told me this book was billed as a work of fiction. I had thought it was memoir so now I’m very curious how much is made up and how much is Ayad’s real life and experiences!!
Some quotes that stood out to me:
“That America had begun as a colony and that a colony it remained, that is, a place still defined by its plunder, where enrichment was paramount and civil order was always an afterthought.”
“As ever, interpretation has more to do with the one interpreting than the one being interpreted.”
“If all this sounds somewhat paranoid, i am happy for you. Clearly you have not been beset by daily worries of being perceived - and therefore treated - as a foe of the republic rather than a member of it.”
“The established majority takes its we-image from a minority of its best, and shapes a they-image of the despised outsiders from the minority of their worst.” (Quote attributed to Norbert Elias)
“Money comes with its own point of view; what you own, when you own enough of it, starts making you see the world from its perspective.”
“They call it a melting pot, but it’s not. In chemistry, they have what they call a buffer solution - which keeps things together but always separated. That’s what this country is. A buffer solution.”
When chatting with friends they told me this book was billed as a work of fiction. I had thought it was memoir so now I’m very curious how much is made up and how much is Ayad’s real life and experiences!!
Some quotes that stood out to me:
“That America had begun as a colony and that a colony it remained, that is, a place still defined by its plunder, where enrichment was paramount and civil order was always an afterthought.”
“As ever, interpretation has more to do with the one interpreting than the one being interpreted.”
“If all this sounds somewhat paranoid, i am happy for you. Clearly you have not been beset by daily worries of being perceived - and therefore treated - as a foe of the republic rather than a member of it.”
“The established majority takes its we-image from a minority of its best, and shapes a they-image of the despised outsiders from the minority of their worst.” (Quote attributed to Norbert Elias)
“Money comes with its own point of view; what you own, when you own enough of it, starts making you see the world from its perspective.”
“They call it a melting pot, but it’s not. In chemistry, they have what they call a buffer solution - which keeps things together but always separated. That’s what this country is. A buffer solution.”