Homeland Elegies

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.)