The Other Americans is a multicultural novel set in California. The central narrator is Nora, from an Iraqi family, whose father was walking from his restaurant and was killed by a driver. She thinks it makes no sense and wants the police to investigate the crime in depth. There are many other narrators though, both male and female, who are all connected with her or the death, though the connections are not always immediately obvious. There is the hispanic witness of the collision who is undocumented, and is reluctant to come forward. There is the cop who served in the middle east when he was in the army, and who is attracted to Nora. And so on. Each narrator has their own perspective, and the different perspectives add together to make the story. We see the interplay of ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality, family and romance. This is an impressive work with its complexity and contemporary relevance. There is some mystery, although the identity of the person who was driving the car that killed Nora’s father is pretty easy to guess about half way through. The problem with the book is that the characters are not so intriguing, and many of them are rather one dimensional, and the family revelations we get as the story progresses are not that surprising. There is not a strong political message in the story, although there is a theme of the importance of going beyond stereotypes. So this is a worthy novel that takes some effort to finish.

© 2020 Christian Perring

Christian Perring teaches in NYC

Categories: Fiction

Keywords: Fiction