Like so many other American novels, from The Great Gatsby to The Bonfire of the Vanities and beyond, The Other Americans uses the device of a car accident to throw together characters who wouldn't otherwise run into each other. Every short chapter here is narrated by a rotating cast of characters, each of them sealed off from one another by misunderstanding and sometimes justifiable fear.Īll of this makes for a somewhat ungainly novel, and, yet, whenever these separate stories intersect and the characters find common ground, the effect is heartening: You feel like the promise of America can still come through after all. Lalami conjures up a murder mystery, a cross-cultural romance, an immigrant saga, war stories and family dramas. The Other Americans is an ambitious political novel that relies on old-fashioned storytelling to get its messages across. Laila Lalami's new novel is called The Other Americans and it's likely to jump start some timely book group discussions about the American experiment specifically, about how different types of people feel less visible in this country because of their ethnicity, class, race or citizenship status. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Other Americans Author Laila Lalami
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