Connecting Pachinko, a family saga of Korean migrants in Japan, to travel in Iceland was a bit of a reach. Linking Exit West: A Novel , the second read of this trip, to our travels is no challenge at all.
Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid opens in a fictional war-torn country and follows the arc of the romantic relationship between the two main characters, Nadia and Saeed. As intense fighting breaks out in their city, Nadia and Saeed clearly cannot stay and so they look to magical doors, popping up all over the world, to transport them away together.
This is a story of human migration, and Hamid helps his readers understand what it is to try to start again in lands that do not want you. His prose is clear, and at the same time, lyrical. I re-read The English Patient way too many times in high school (weirdly without ever watching the movie), and Hamid’s beautiful, poetic language, which refuses to look away from destruction and loss, made me think of The English Patient throughout the course of this read.
I will avoid delving into American politics, but this is a book that shows deep empathy to the plight of a refugee. Rich and I are the most willing of travellers– we carefully and excitedly craft our route, we have loving families to whom we can return back at home, and our American passports act like our own personal magic doors taking us wherever we desire and back again. Businesses welcome us almost anywhere we go because we have money to spend.
And yet, there are still challenges. It’s cold; it rains; we get ripped off in the Market on up-charges with our lunch. Sometimes we are tired and cannot find a bathroom. We are sure the locals are laughing at us and our Rainbow flip flops.
I cannot imagine fleeing home in order to survive, only to be met with disgust. The trauma! The toxic stress! How can humanity be both so resilient and so cruel? (See: Our visit to the Dohany Street Synagogue and Memorial Gardens.)
This novel is absolutely of this historical moment. It belongs on the “woke” book club list (Looking at you, SDP Office of Talent). Read it.
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