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Exit West

Mohsin Hamid

Start date: June 1, 2020

Finish date: June 29, 2020

Discussion: Monthly Bonus Reads

Why we're reading this: June Bonus Read: World Refugee Day

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
[close] June Bonus Read: World Refugee Day

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

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What Members Thought

Nov 13, 2017 Josh Caporale rated it it was ok

I read this book as a buddy read with Michelle from MichEllisLife. This is our third buddy read together (which is a record as we speak). Keeping up with the theme of Man Booker or Man Booker International nominees, Michelle expressed interest in this particular novel, so I suggested we go forward with reading it. Exit West was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2017, ultimately losing out to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Unfortunately, in addition to falling short of the Man Booker Pr I read this book as a buddy read with Michelle from MichEllisLife. This is our third buddy read together (which is a record as we speak). Keeping up with the theme of Man Booker or Man Booker International nominees, Michelle expressed interest in this particular novel, so I suggested we go forward with reading it. Exit West was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2017, ultimately losing out to Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Unfortunately, in addition to falling short of the Man Booker Prize, it also fell short of getting a recommendation from myself. This novel had the ability to be somewhat special, but it lost me. I was not fond of it, simple as that.

Exit West tells the story of a particular man and a particular woman and the particular situation in which they are dealing with. The man, Saeed, is reserved, but bright, and he lives with his parents, with whom he has a pretty close knit bond with. The woman, Nadia, is the complete opposite of Saeed, as she is rebellious and artistic. While she goes against the common grain in the Middle East, Nadia still dresses conservatively and "how a woman should dress." Why? "So men don't fuck with me." (as she states on page 17). Saeed and Nadia engage in a relationship with one another, but conflict is occurring very abruptly and very quickly. It gets to the point where it would be best not to stay in this country and on that note, they find a door that leads them to a completely different world and a different situation.

The doors represent a very thought-provoking, magical realist idea that asks, "what if immigration meant that you just walked through a door?" The situation at hand would still be the same, but you were in a new place with a new opportunity. This is exactly what happens to Saeed and Nadia, where they are no longer enduring the intensity of their homeland, but their new home cannot be described as the complete contrast. This novel is creative in how it describes what a home is and what it means to be a migrant.

On the flipside, though, this is a very detached novel and it did not do a good job in engaging me into its story. I felt that the writing style was stand-offish and it seemed like the writer was introducing characters and their situations, but felt that a general idea was all we needed. Major points in the story also seemed to be brought up as if, "ahhh yeah, this happened," and as we passed over them, I did not feel as if I had the ability to feel anything. Saeed and Nadia turn into authentic characters with issues as they face their issues throughout the text, but to me, I only found their characters to be okay in likability. I did not dislike them the way I did the characters in Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, but yet they were not the kind of people that I would consider impactful.

Exit West had its good moments, but it was outdone immensely by its flimsy execution and its inability to grab my attention as I was reading it. I cannot recommend this book unless you have a firm, solid goal to read every book that was nominated for the Man Booker Prize.

You can find a video review of mine of this book from Literary Gladiators (spoiler free) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqwvm... ...more

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Apr 27, 2017 Judy Lindow rated it it was amazing

You will experience some beautiful moments while reading Exit West. You will definitely have more empathy for someone forced from their home and trying to survive in a new alien place.

Exit West is mostly about the first look to the last look in a relationship - that although it lasts for a short time - lasts a lifetime, and it is about two people growing into love, growing out of love and riding a huge wave and the rocky seas together and together alone, but you will feel it sometimes - what the You will experience some beautiful moments while reading Exit West. You will definitely have more empathy for someone forced from their home and trying to survive in a new alien place.

Exit West is mostly about the first look to the last look in a relationship - that although it lasts for a short time - lasts a lifetime, and it is about two people growing into love, growing out of love and riding a huge wave and the rocky seas together and together alone, but you will feel it sometimes - what they are feeling - without understanding - like they do or maybe they don't, and you may feel that it doesn't really matter that you can't know all the details to write it out exactly, these simple and yet complex feelings and does it matter anyways?

Hamid will give you sentences as a long as a paragraph and you will read the small words like: and, or, and but - but especially AND - a lot. This will not be a problem, unless you day dream and you have to reread the sentence from the beginning. It's not so much that he rambles - it's that there are always compound motives (feelings, metaphors, etc.), or they are unclear, or many layered ones. So if you are like that - if that's how you find yourself thinking or feeling sometimes - you'll be fine with it (unless you teach emerging writers and you can't stop thinking: run ons!).

Exit West is also about what immigrants and refugees go through. Hamid projects into the not to distant, dystopian future, where the number of failing states increase rapidly and there are more immigrants, refugees, and families relocated - with increasing resource shortages and conflicts between natives and newcomers.

Ironically, I just finished The Underground Railroad where the beginning and ends of the mythical tunnels are analogous for starting over. In Exit West the "door" is what travelers move through to start their new lives. There were other parallels. For example the fear of the "other", the fear of someone unfamiliar outside of your tribe, of paranoia of loosing your property, of being separated and/or abandoned by family - but especially the fear of the unknown and being chased and punished arbitrarily. Both books are about the small spaces between the violence and challenges when people are loving and kind to each other - when people share or withhold what is deeply held and important to them.

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