Anne Dymond answers “I am about a quarter way into this book...”

SandraB asked this question about Homeland Elegies:

I am about a quarter way into this book and am feeling like so far this is pure memoir (as well as a lesson in social studies/politics). I thought this was supposed to be fiction/a novel. How does the rest of the book develop?

Anne Dymond I found this a really interesting read and feel it gives me new understanding of the US and of Muslim immigrant experience. Sometimes in read more lik…moreI found this a really interesting read and feel it gives me new understanding of the US and of Muslim immigrant experience. Sometimes in read more like social studies than novel -- and like it was definitely putting forth the protagonists' social critique: "America had begun as a colony and that a colony it remained, that is, a place where enrichment was paramount and civil order always an afterthought." A little preachy -- but often quite illuminating about things as diverse as rural poverty, racial profiling, self-hatred and shame, the global economy, the partition of India and Pakistan. The chapter on the history of Pakistan and Afghanistan pretty read more like a thinly disguised history lesson than a novel, but it gives important context. Worth pushing through that for the insights to come. (less)

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Homeland Elegies

by Ayad Akhtar (Goodreads Author)

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