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This book came out last year, in 2017, and I want to know how the hell I missed it? I am glad I did not, because, in this year of #MeToo, there has been a glut of fiction, involving women being threatened by men, whether personally or by political extremism. "Fruit Of The Drunken Tree" held such promise, and delivered so little, I was beginning to get down on fiction.
"Behold The Dreamers" restored my faith. It is a dark portrait of two families pursuing the American dream--one hoping to have it, the other hoping to maintain it. What is interesting here is, while the families are on opposite ends of the economic spectrum--especially in Manhattan--their dynamics are not all that different. The wives are really nasty pieces of work who know how to play the power game with each other, while the husbands are naïve and stupid. This adds tension to the notion they are supposed to be the breadwinners and protectors, when it is the wives who are the real cutthroat brains behind everything.
This first novel. by Imbold Mbue, turns the whole "America Is Great" myth on its head, and I love the criticisms of both sides of The American Dream she dishes out. There are no easy answers, and one family gives up on The American Dream, and retreats back to their original country, and I am not so sure they were wrong.
Everyone has the right to dream. But here, it is shown, those dreams do not necessarily come true. Even if the seem to.
Yes, a dark message, I now. But a welcome change from those platitudes of empowerment. Which will only get one so far.
This book will be tough for many to swallow. But I applaud Mbue for the courage of her convictions, in writing it.
Highly recommended, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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