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| 3.5 stars out of 5 |
Book clubs are all about getting us to read outside our comfort zones (at least that's what I'm looking for in a club). I think I've only read one of Tyler's novels before and although I do have another of her books on my TBR, I probably wouldn't have chosen this one. I've had it out of the library for quite a while and was shocked when I checked it and found that it has been requested. No more renewals for me!
I was curious why Tyler chose to write about Iranian immigrants, so off to Wikipedia I went. She was married to an Iranian and obviously they discussed his immigrant experience in detail. She writes this novel like it was her own experience. The feeling of never fitting in, never knowing the “rules" of being American, and the American people who seem to want to become more Iranian than you are. It must be tiresome to be constantly regarded as “exotic," never just an ordinary citizen. I really felt for Maryam, who technically had an arranged marriage, but if anyone bothered to listen to her, they would realize that she and her husband actually chose each other. Sometimes blind dates actually work.
There are so many books about feeling like you don't belong, that the main character is somehow excluded from the magic circle that they perceive around everyone else. But don't we all have these feelings from time to time? Especially those of us who are introverts in a world seemingly dominated by extroverts. I think that's why these books are popular, because we all can identify. And, as Dave tells us, it's not easy being American (or Canadian) either. Are you unintentionally offending someone? Are your manners up to par? Are you uneducated or insensitive? We all have our insecurities.
This morning, I hear Iranian poet Kaveh Akbar reading from his poem The Palace and it really moved me. It inspired me to pick this novel back up and finish it. Below, I'm sharing part of the poem that really resonated in me.
A boy’s shirt says: “We Did It To Hiroshima, We Can Do It To Tehran!”
He is asked to turn his shirt inside out. He is asked? His insides, out. After he complies, his parents sue the school district.
Our souls want to knowhow they were made, what is owed.
These parents want their boy to want to melt my family, and I live among them.
Palace throne. Comfy, burning. I draw it without lifting my pen. I draw it fat as creation—
empty as a footprint.
How to live? reading poems, breathing shallow, spinning lettuce.
America the shallow breath, how to live?
The shallow trap, America catching
only what is too small to eat.
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