Stephanie Jane recenzis The Other Americans de Laila Lalami
Not as compelling as I had hoped
4 steloj
The Other Americans is an interesting portrayal of the intersection of a number of lives, brought together as the result of a seemingly random hit and run accident. Through the novel we read numerous first person chapters from a large cast of characters, getting to know their thoughts and experiences from both before and after the man was killed. I liked the idea of the multiple viewpoints, but would have preferred that there be fewer of them because not all the characters were strongly defined so I sometimes forgot whose words I was reading.
The novel moves across genres so at the beginning it felt like it might become a whodunnit, then it was more of a slice-of-life family drama, then we swooped into a romance. I thought these changes worked well and allowed Lalami to explore a wider variety of social issues than perhaps a more traditionally genred novel …
The Other Americans is an interesting portrayal of the intersection of a number of lives, brought together as the result of a seemingly random hit and run accident. Through the novel we read numerous first person chapters from a large cast of characters, getting to know their thoughts and experiences from both before and after the man was killed. I liked the idea of the multiple viewpoints, but would have preferred that there be fewer of them because not all the characters were strongly defined so I sometimes forgot whose words I was reading.
The novel moves across genres so at the beginning it felt like it might become a whodunnit, then it was more of a slice-of-life family drama, then we swooped into a romance. I thought these changes worked well and allowed Lalami to explore a wider variety of social issues than perhaps a more traditionally genred novel might have done. Not everything is given the attention that perhaps I would have liked though. For example, near the beginning, we learn that Nora has synaesthesia and I thought it would be be interesting to gain a greater understanding of this condition through the novel. However it isn't mentioned again so that was a dead end. Like with the number of narrators, I felt that greater concentration on fewer avenues might have made for a more compelling read. I did enjoy The Other Americans, but wasn't as gripped by it as I had hoped.