We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan - 3 stars (Subdue)

[Joy D]

We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan - 3* - My Review

Maya has been called back from Los Angeles to the (fictional) African country of Likanni by the (unnamed) charitable non-governmental organization (NGO) she has worked with in the past, which runs an orphanage. One of her former colleagues has been accused of sexual assault. Maya has always had a good relationship with the local community and is asked to defuse and address the situation, while keeping the Swiss parent organization informed.

The story is written in first person present tense from Maya’s perspective. We spend a lot of time in her head, as she obtains information about the assault and deals with marital issues back home. The narrative tackles important topics about foreign aid work, such as paternalism, outside companies’ interventions, and the legacy of colonialism, and the reader views the issues through the characters’ behaviors and the reactions of the local community.

This is an unusual topic for a novel, and the first three-quarters are riveting. Unfortunately, the ending is extremely disappointing. Maya starts behaving in unethical and seemingly random ways, which I did not expect from her characterization up to that point. For me, these arbitrary actions undermine the messages in the rest of the book. I initially thought this was going to be at least a four-star read, but by the end I could barely give it three.