Stunning. A big, provocative cornucopia of a novel, full of important and striking material. American capitalism, racism, the complexity of second generation alienation, and the Muslim heritage. It’s a full plate and Akhtar does a remarkable job of marshaling his ingredients. Preachy? Opinionated? Yes, at times. But he’s earned it.

What an amazing genre-bending autobiographical novel by the Pulitzer Prize winning Akhtar. An insightful, intellectual and passionate look at our current national crisis.

This was much different than I expected it to be. As others have mentioned, it reads more like short essays/memoir vs. fiction.

I found the writing style to be very high-brow. I found myself reading an entire page, and realizing I had no idea what I read because the writing was so intellectual. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not an approachable book for the regular reader.

The topics in this are obviously very important and the author is very intelligent, but the heavy writing style got in my way of actually understanding and enjoying the book.

These days, I’m attuned to fiction that will take my mind off reality. Not necessarily easy or soothing, but novels that grab me with their drama (Against the Loveless World) or distract me with their lovely prose (Monogamy). It’s with some surprise then that I’m reviewing Homeland Elegies, a complex novel I’m still not sure I fully understand. Ostensibly, it’s about Sikander, a highly successful doctor from Pakistan who emigrates to America, and his son, Ayad, a playwright, who was born here. The novel focuses largely on their lives after 9/11 as Sikander’s fortunes begin to fall, Ayad finally finds success and the two men grapple with what homeland means to them.

Sikander’s specialty is a rare form of cardiac disease and through this, in the early 1990s, he’s flown to NYC to treat a wealthy businessman. That man is Donald Trump and after several trips and being wined and dined, Sikander forms an enduringly positive impression of Trump. He also acquires the man’s taste for escorts, something that prevails unbeknownst to his wife or son. Sikander’s feelings toward Trump don’t waver even when he runs for office and his racist, misogynistic views are publicly recorded. It’s a source of bemusement and frustration for his son, who cannot comprehend how his father admires a man who rabidly hates Muslims.

His father’s career provides financial security for Ayad’s early years as a writer. It is a chafed spot in their relationship—the son who diminishes his father’s beliefs while taking his money. It isn’t until Ayad’s late 30s that he finds critical success with a play centered around life in America for Muslims post 9/11. Money follows when an investment with a wealthy Muslim hedge fund manager frees him from its cares and moves him into the echelon of people who can discuss it as an academic subject. Suddenly, he goes from being the son who always needs a loan to the one helping others.

This synopsis says as much about Homeland Elegies as summarizing the ocean as “having a lot of water”. Yes, but within that water is a world teeming with a multitude of life forms, both simple and incredibly complex. So it is with this novel. It is fiction. It has a plot, fascinating characters, and a story arc that moves well and resolves itself in a timely manner. It also encompasses global themes of terrorism, immigration, academia, war, and capitalism, breaking each into shards that refract light onto the multiplied surfaces of each character. This comes in the form of Ayad’s reminiscences and his interactions with the key people in his life. In the present day he remembers a family vacation to Pakistan in 2008 where he found the culture, with its anger, its distrust of the media and anyone with an opposing view, to be eerily like America now. He’s friends with a man who made his billions after the housing debt crisis by repackaging that debt in a way to help people. A family friend opens a CIA funded clinic on the Pakistan-Afghan border in the 1980s to help wounded mujahideen, only to be killed by the CIA in the 1990s. The shards re-assemble into forms unlike what they were before, only to scatter again as Akhtar flips the script once more.

That these snippets shape shift from the global to the deeply personal, from the vast to the intimate is an astonishing literary feat. But here’s where it gets really meta: The author of Homeland Elegies is Ayad Akhtar. The same name and biography as the novel’s protagonist. Both won the Pulitzer Prize for a play about 9/11 and have parents who emigrated from Pakistan. Both struggle against being defined by their work. Is Akhtar Ayad? Does it even matter?

There is nothing familiar or safe in Homeland Elegies. Much as the Democrats were rudely awakened to their sleepy disregard of working-class America by the 2016 election so Akhtar disturbs the view of many of America’s cherished beliefs in itself. That he does it from within the safe circle of wealth and progressive politics makes its sting sharper. Not us! The educated, the liberals. We care! Numerous scenes take place at galas, in penthouse apartments, over cocktails at expensive restaurants. Muslims of all stripes debating amongst themselves and with their rich Christian and Jewish friends, trying to pin down where they land, who they are.

I’ve already mentioned I’ve passed on reading I’ve deemed “too hard” in 2020. In some ways, I welcome being challenged, but in others, it makes me tired. I feel as if I’m already working hard to stay psychologically afloat so reading that pierces my protective bubble of beliefs, perceptions, and judgements, reading that makes me stop and think is not my first choice. And yet, Homeland Elegies was as uncomfortable, but ultimately invigorating as an ice bath. Ayad’s journey made my synapses fire. Akhtar’s prodigious vocabulary meant I had to look up words (which I love). I finished the novel and had so many thoughts my brain was burning. THIS is reading we all need. Not all the time, but right now.

Literate, well written fictional memoir based on experiences from the author’s life. Although it centers on living as an American Muslim in a post 9/11 world, it is far reaching in its astute observations of many aspects of society including politics and economics. Profound, insightful, honest, poignant, relevant, thought provoking.

This book felt more like a series of vignettes than a novel. I enjoyed the author’s play Disgraced, which covered some of the same issues (including the position of Muslims in this country), but more succinctly and with more drama. I found many of the author’s insights informative, and it’s always interesting to get another perspective on this country.

There is no way for me to know how much of this book is autobiographical, but it certainly felt like he was working out some personal issues through book, including his relationship with his immigrant parents. I found his mother’s story particularly touching. I also liked the story of the fabulously wealthy hedge fund manager who perhaps had a secret agenda. And of course I cannot disagree with the author’s description of Trump who appeals to the “nasty, brutish and nihilistic” among us. 4.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Maddeningly glib and discursively self-indulgent, but with occasional flashes of brilliance. More of a collection of autobiographical essays about living as an Ivy-educated American-born-Pakistani ambivalent-Muslim Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright named Ayad Akhtar, who seems too minimally self-aware to be writing an autofictional novel about living in Trump's hypercapitalist and racist America.

Reads like late Philip Roth's self-important State of America novels (like The Human Stain or Exit Ghost), with political diatribes and literary provocations interleaved with overt misogyny, priapic sex, high-end boozing, and literal masturbation. As with late-period Roth, it's all just one-note haranguing that sustains the narrative momentum, but Akhtar doesn't have Roth's sense of structure or skill at pacing. About 100 pages too long, since he (or his authorial mouthpiece) doesn't know when to stop. Would have definitely benefited from a rigorous edit that could contain its explosive logorrhea.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown for sharing an ARC with me in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I started this one but it felt a little heavier than what I want in my reading life now. I think the premise is super interesting for someone who is very into politics and the current political climate with Trump at the helm of the free world. It reminded me of Between the World and Me with the lyrical writing on heavy topics about life in America. Perfect read for someone interested in these topics.

Beautifully written the authors writing draws me in and I find myself involved in the story the lives of the characters.A unique novel that reads like a memoir a book of essays.a view of America through the eyes of immigrants to the country.Highly recommend this novel this author .#netgalley #littlebrown

Although written as a novel, this felt more like a series of connected essays. For me, that helped solidify the complexities of being a Muslim in America, and particular a Pakistani. It also helped illustrated how American foreign policy has failed in many ways. If I had to make a “required” reading list for understanding other cultures, this would head the list.

Ayad Akhtar is an amazing writer; gifted and articulate at a level far beyond that which I normally read. Whether HOMELAND ELEGIES is memoir, fiction, novelization of someone else’s life or autobiography, I have no clear idea, nor am I convinced that it matters. The tale rings true for first generation children with immigrant families tethered to their disputed, unreachable homelands. Unreachable because they exist mostly in memory rather than reality. And the American children spend their lives defending those memories, their parents and those lives while striving to establish themselves as Americans in a country that (barely) tolerates their otherness. This tale is about Pakistani Muslims; in other eras it would have been Europeans Jews, Chinese Buddhists or Irish Catholics. I only say this to point out the universality of the book; it resonates beyond it’s subject matter. It is a book of our time but for all time and should be read by all. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley. Many thanks.

Ayad Akhtar's new novel kicked me in the gut, hard. The story seems close to autobiographical, which made it all that more gripping. Ayad's parents immigrated to the USA from Pakistan, where Akhtar was born. Akhtar's life story includes the extreme difficulties of being accepted in our xenophobic country before and after 9/11.

AA's description of religious and racial bias is not something new. Still, his insightful report of his mother's constant religious faith is surpassed by his story of how he deals with the concept of money. I felt like I was learning about the history and current forces of capitalism in America for the first time. Debt is the driving force behind this nation, and it began to pile up early. It now consumes many of us, especially with the COVID-19 devastation to jobs and market instability. He describes his need to turn to his father for many years to support himself as a writer.

This incredible novel was so powerful for me and helped me understand and see more clearly how we remain mired in the muck of politics and money. If only future generations could avoid the lure of materialism and the reliance on politicians, they will live happier and more fulfilling lives.

I loved Homeland Elegies, and it will stay on my most favorite list of books for 2020. I appreciate the advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley.

Homeland Elegies is a sort of hybrid book. While it's listed as fiction, the author is writing in a variation of his own voice about experiences that overlap significantly with the experiences of his own life. Homeland Elegies explores the evolution of Pakistani-American identity over the last twenty years. The book alternates between narrative and reflection, so in places it reads like a novel; in other places it reads like a collection of essays (it never really reads as fully fictional, but I don't think that was one of the writer's goals).

Homeland Elegies offers a detailed, thoughtful exploration of several topics: the separation of India and Pakistan; the evolving U.S. relationship with the group that would come to be known as the Taliban; the complexities of Pakistani-American life before 9/11 and the immense layers of complexity that 9/11 added to that identity. Akhtar is a thinker. He picks at details, unpacks and explores them; he draws connections across time and topic. If you like that kind of wondering about self and world, you will absolutely love this this title.

I received a free electronic ARC of this title from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions are my own.

Homeland Elegies was a revelation, a chance to see American culture and history and politics from the viewpoint of an 'outsider,' even if that outsider was American born.

Ayad Akhtar has written a novel with a strong narrative voice that reads like memoir. It's compelling storyline and conflicted characters engage the reader. It is also a novel of ideas, a dissection of social and political culture.

How Christian is America? Consider the commercialization of Christian holy days, the Christian based place names of cities, the King James Bible language and words that are woven in our writing and speech, how we do personal hygiene, dogs in every home.

The accumulation of wealth, buying sprees dependent on credit cards and interest, and the importance of corporate wealth and the power it wields is another theme. It's a Wonderful Life, that beloved Christmas movie, the narrator realizes, was really about money and power.

Central to the novel is the experience of living in a racist culture, especially after 9-11. When the narrator's car breaks down in rural Pennsylvania, the narrator finds himself vulnerable.

The narrator travels to Pakistan to visit family. Is returning to one's family homeland the answer? The anger that fuels people here is also found abroad.

"America is my home," the narrator affirms.

Homeland Elegies, this poem that mourns the country of our hopes and dreams, reveals our character like a mirror. It isn't pretty.

I was given access to a free galley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

This is sort of a strange hybrid of a book. I was never sure if what I was reading was fact or fiction since it is both fiction and non-fiction. Nevertheless, many parts were fascinating reveals of what appears to be the author's family's journey as immigrants from Pakistan and their experiences in the States. At times heart-breakingly personal, at others a political diatribe, yet others a treatise on American greed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Company for the ARC to read and review.

What to call this? Others have called it a memoir. But while the main character and author share a name, he states that this is fiction. But many of the book’s chapters read more like essays. Whatever form you want to call it, it’s an interesting book.
Starting back when his cardiologist father first met Donald Trump in 1993, we watch this father and son duo go back and forth. We also hear from his mother, his hedge fund operating friend, his girlfriend and countless relatives on what it means to be a Muslim in the US.
I loved the points made about being the child of an immigrant, of getting a bird’s eye view into why his mother and family friend supported the mujahideen, on Riaz’s and Mike’s takes on debt and capitalism. Surprisingly, the book spends as much time discussing capitalism as it does religion. I found this enjoyable, especially in the current contrast between Democratic and Republican beliefs in the best way to help Americans, especially Black Americans.
I do feel the beginning of the book would have been helped by a better editing job. It came across as discombobulated. Luckily, it got much more focused for the latter ¾ of the book and I enjoyed it much more.
My thanks to netgalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this book.

A novel written in the stye of a memoir, HOMELAND ELEGIES by Ayad Akhtar is the first person account of a first generation Pakistani American playwright, the son of doctors, born on Staten Island and raised in Wisconsin. He struggles between his identity as an American and a Muslim, and differentiates as we—Americans, and we—Muslims, throughout the book, never fully identifying as either, eventually feeling more Muslim if only because he is clearly not accepted as American. Adding to the conflict is his father’s professed love for America and his mother’s regret at depriving him the experience of growing up in Pakistan.

Politics and history are interspersed in the novel, perhaps to provide context for the reader, to aid in understanding of how they shape the feelings of the protagonist; or perhaps sometimes to demonstrate their seeming perfidy.

Mr. Akhtar writes beautifully: long, winding sentences that flow across the page with a soothing cadence despite the discord common in the book.

This book tugged at every heart sting of my soul and was so moving, raw and thought provoking. The characterization and story was spot on and still a current issue even though this is a work of fiction, the central events actually happened. This is definitely a re-read and to own book, and I can see this as an Oprah book club choice and a huge discussion in all book clubs. It is just wow and unforgettable.

Thanks to Negalley, Ayad Akhtar and Little Brown & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Also thanks for auto-approving me awhile ago so I can read more titles like this.

Available: 9/15/20

A beautifully written, and a very timely novel. Many people will see themselves with the characters. Highly recommend for those that liked Khaled Hosseini's books, and it's a great choice for book clubs.

This is a multi-layered, original work that is true to its title: an elegy to America from the perspective of a writer who is the child of immigrants. Akhtar is a gifted writer who has pulled together the myriad facets of American life and culture, added complex, relatable characters seeking to find their places in the modern version of the American dream, and crafted an unforgettable story. There are so many aspects to this novel that it is hard to distill into a brief review, as it is part autobiographical novel, part political history, part family saga, part treatise on the evolution of American ideals in the ages of Bush, Obama, and Trump. There were sections that I thought could have used some editing (such as his protracted explanation of contracting syphilis) but overall it is an engaging story and very much a novel for our time. I would recommend this book to readers who like any of the aforementioned genres, as well as anyone seeking to explore, through fiction, the struggle to understand one's place in our troubled times.