The Good Immigrant

December 15, 2018
Immigrants offer affecting personal essays about adapting to daily life in the United States while also retaining their identities forged by foreign cultures.In 2015, editors Shukla (The One Who Wrote Destiny, 2018, etc.) and Suleyman (Outside Looking On, 2014) published a similar book in the U.K. Suleyman has since relocated to New York City and taken charge of this current collection, the title of which plays on the toxic assumption that all immigrants should be perceived as "bad" until they demonstrate otherwise. The editors do not explain how they decided on the order of the essays, but many readers will agree that the first, Porochista Khakpour's "How to Write Iranian-America, or the Last Essay," qualifies as both the most inventively written and most memorable. Besides Iran, the other nations in the anthology are spread across the world, from Africa to Asia to Europe to Latin America. The contributors also explore topics around the generalized immigration experiences of both Muslims and Jews. Because some of the essays are ripped from the headlines, Donald Trump's xenophobia and immigration-related presidential policies figure in, as well. In fact, the fear spawned by the hatred of Trump and the Republican Party is palpable throughout. In that context, "Return to Macondo," by Puerto Rican writer Susanne Ramírez de Arellano, offers the especially poignant--and angry--perspective of a marginalized woman who "never bought the American Dream. It was a visceral reaction. This dream always had the rank smell of bullshit to me. I didn't believe it, no matter what new toothpaste or amazing trip to the moon they were selling." The author biographies at the back of the book will help readers find talented immigrant authors previously unknown to them; some of the more well-known contributors include Khakpour, Alexander Chee, Daniel José Elder, Teju Cole, and Nicole Dennis-Benn.As in nearly all collections, the quality varies, but there are no weak links in this well-curated book.

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Essays of emotional depth and astutely communicated intellectual insight come to listeners almost entirely in the voices of the writers themselves. Familiar cultural commentators like Korean-American Alexander Chee, Haitian immigrant Jim St. Germain, and Pakistani-American Fatimah Ashgar are joined here by those who may be less well known: Eritrean-American hiker Rahawa Haile, Nigerian immigrant and literature professor Chigozie Obioma, and French-Algerian film director Yann Demange among them. Each essay reveals both American attitudes toward the world and the writer's personal experiences with moving between cultures. Pacing varies widely among the authors as they share their own work aloud, and some speak with accents that may strike ears attuned to American English as thick. However, part of the high value of this audiobook is the direct experience it provides with these voices. F.M.R.G. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

The U.S. immigrant experience is profiled in 12 eye-opening essays in this collection edited by novelist Shukla (The One Who Wrote Destiny) and poet Suleyman (Outside Looking On). Representing a range of ethnicities, such as Nigerian, Puerto Rican, and Jamaican, the contributors all tell stories that are unique to their own truths. If there is a similarity among them, it's that they are residents of a country divided by extreme political beliefs; navigating this landscape is at the heart of each essay. A companion volume to the UK collection of the same name, this U.S. edition is most powerful when describing the conflicting feelings of living in a free, democratic nation while still labeled an "outsider." For example, Nicole Dennis-Benn details her journey from Jamaica to Long Island, NY, to a writing career, all while exceeding (or bucking) expectations. "Return to Macondo" is Susanne Ramirez de Arellano's look at Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory not always seen as American, but as a place still haunted by its colonial past. VERDICT These insightful essays from well-known and upcoming writers will appeal to both adult and young adult readers.--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL

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