Exit West with Mohsin Hamid...No, Really, Do It


In Mohsin Hamid’s ExitWest, two lovers, Saeed and Nadia, flee an unnamed country in the middle of a civil war, travel through magical doors, and try to find new lives for themselves, first in Greece, England, and finally the United States. Through a mix of the horrors of war and the fantasy of the doors, Hamid tells the story of how Nadia and Saeed grow together and apart by the end.

Saeed and Nadia’s personalities push Exit West along. Saeed is fairly shy and is lead by more traditional values about relationships and family, at least at the beginning of the novel. Nadia is independent and free spirited. Hamid does each character service by showing neither personality as better, each with its strengths and weaknesses. As they clash, we also see their mutual respect and love help them find middle ground. It is a study in compromise, which helps the couple survive.

Another layer of Exit West is Hamid’s examination of how relocation for a refuge population changes the refugee, mentally, emotionally, fundamentally. Hamid’s choice to not focus on the journey, by giving Nadia and Saeed and other refugees doors they can step through to their next place, makes for a shorter book, and a more focused look at the dynamics of starting life anew in a strange place.

Hamid has stitched together a story of war, individual refugees, relocation, and a compelling relationship into an entertaining, engrossing 256 pages. As Saeed grows in confidence through the various moves, Nadia also changes. By the end, when they break up, they have become two different people than when they first fled their home country. It feels appropriate when they split, they part as friends, and the reader feels they have learned from and grown fond of both of them. 

Thanks to my old Oberlin buddy Mary Wilson for recommending Exit West.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Books to Escape into while Social Distancing

Maybe one day soon a headline will read, “Out of Netflix Content, More People Turn to Books for Relief.” If you’re already ready for some literary escapism, check out these five books I read and loved in 2019. Hopefully they help you in this difficult time: The Storm King , Brendan Duffy. This book has many things that would make me not choose it as a Top Five: a straight male hero; not many strong female leads; privileged men acting out their privilege. Alas, it sucked me in with a short, strong opening chapter that set the tone and the mystery for the rest of the book. Duffy’s writing is a bit dramatic at times, but that’s also what kept the pages quickly turning. You can check out my review here . The Soul of an Octopus , Sy Montgomery. Montgomery ’s beautiful work in The Soul of an Octopus gives us hope about the connectivity between living creatures. Introducing the reader to several octopuses she met at the New England Aqua
Read more

A Chat with E. Christopher Clark, author of the Stains of Time series

In the first book of his Stains of Time series, E.Christopher Clark pulls in magical realism, a hearty dose of nineties’ nostalgia, and family drama to tell Veronica’s story. Pregnant at sixteen, Veronica marries the baby’s father to appease a father who might never be happy with her, but really won’t be happy with her if she follows her heart and dates women as she wants to. Clark kindly answered About a Book’s questions about The Piano of Death , the series as it stands now, and his plans for its future. About a Book : How/when did you conceive of The Piano of Death ? Clark : The book that people can read today really started to come together in September 2011. I met with my friend, the actor/director Crystal Lisbon…to plan a benefit for the arts organization she was starting. Another friend of Crystal’s, the musician Mary Casiello [joined us for that meeting]. We were trying to put together an evening of theater and music, and I was tasked with writing the scrip
Read more

Almost Too Much Covered in The Tradition

In his third book of poetry, The Tradition , Jericho Brown covers much ground: he grapples with myth, media, racism, his own mortality, and still manages to push past established forms of poetry. It’s impressive in scope, but the breadth can leave the reader forgetting the ground covered because there was too much of it. Brown conveys a disdain for the world around him that embraces and encourages racism and violence, but also exudes a confidence about his own abilities to navigate the terrain. This is a book from a grown, tired man, and is filled with the heartbreak and the fortitude he’s earned. He introduces, too, the “Duplex” form in his poetry, described by Jeannine Hall Gailey in her Barrelhouse review of The Tradition as “a sonnet-like series of couplets that include repetition.” The repetition accomplishes a layering of experiences and voices, making his experiences feel that much more echoed in the lives of others, as though he is not alone. These stories are from a
Read more