Homeland Elegies

Homeland Elegies is a post-9/11, post-Trump Muslim-American manifesto. I could never claim to know the experience of being Muslim in our country, but I think this book does a fantastic job of fleshing out nuanced, complicated feelings regarding a nuanced, complicated identity. The choice to make this read like a memoir only adds to the effect. In fact, I thought this was a memoir until about halfway through (love that shit) – the author does a good job of making it very convincing, and feeling like you're reading a first-hand account makes it easy to empathize, or at least sympathize, with the experience. There are some interesting dissertations/opinions on the topic of the American sociopolitical climate that lead to Trump's rise, and many scenarios of overt racism (borderline hate crimes) towards Muslim Americans/people of southeast asian or middle eastern descent that are automatically assumed Muslim that feels way too real. The ending really smacks you in the chest. Definitely worth a read, if you're into this kind of thing.

Despite the narrator also being a Muslim-American, son of Pakistani doctors, Pulitzer Prize-winning author named Ayad Akhtar, the author Ayad Akhtar is adamant that this is a novel not an autobiography. I get it. No doubt after the acclaim of his play Disgraced, Akhtar probably tired of being asked if he, like his character Amir, felt a blush of pride after the events of 9/11. Surely he must have been writing himself on the page. Best to leave yourself a little wiggle room for subsequent novels and avoid that altogether.

What Akhtar is doing is nothing short of an examination of our current reality in the midst of the Trumpian era. Rampant capitalism, the elimination of checks on private enterprise, the financialization of modern medicine, college as a customer experience, the stock market as an unregulated casino, the warping effect of massive wealth and the strange appeal of Donald Trump for so many unlikely folks. And somehow this sad parade of modern travails is wrapped in a story that is as edifying as it is entertaining.

It's a warts and all approach that includes some unflattering relationships with women and his clear seduction by fame and wealth. But all of it is in service to unveiling certain truths - to me it reads like a book from Malcolm Gladwell adapted for the stage. (I assure you the end result is immensely better than the prior sentence might have you believe.)