I have read several of Hamid’s books and love his languidly written prose. This is a very interesting idea with our main character becoming a black man overnight. His father and his girlfriend’s mother find it difficult to look at him but the story changes when, for safety, he moves in with his dying father. Very moving about how the father feels he has lost his wife all over again as he can no longer see her in his son. Realistic portrayal of his girlfriend’s mother and her conspiracy theories. Ultimately a little unsatisfactory.

Mohsin Hamid writes moving and thought provoking novels and this latest has an interesting concept where forced change (in this case a white man Anders awakes one morning to find his skin has turned dark) makes him question everything that’s gone before. Initially the only person he tells is his friend Oona. As the novel develops Anders realises this is happening to other people and the narrative then swaps between him and Oona.
The plot concentrates on their experience of both physical and emotional change, particularly the reaction of their immediate family, then how society reacts to this strange occurrence where unexplained change is perceived
as a threat.
The changing relationship between Anders and his father is moving and realistic, as is Oona’s mother’s discomfort and refusal to accept what is happening.
Many complex issues are explored, not least racial inequality. I think the author was right to concentrate on a couple of main characters as the reader feels drawn in and shares their predicament and unease from the start.
I love the thoughtful way Hamid writes and can see this book deservedly winning awards.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for an ARC

A powerful and moving novel…. One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.

Intriguing concept, well written but somehow not quite great. Provided something to think about, certainly but it felt rather hurried in some ways.

I just want to start this review off but mentioning the formatting issues when I got this on the Kindle app. It wasn't major enough to stop me reading but it did interrupt the rhythm I had when I was reading it.
I was a HUGE fan of the reluctant fundamentalist and Exist West but this book seemed to fall a little flat for me.
I loved the prose but the way Anders tried to adapt to being brown seems unrealistic.
Overall it was enjoyable in some aspects and reminded me of the classic Mohsin Hamid writing.

I have read all of Mohsin Hamid's books, Moth Smoke being my favourite.
On reading the first section of the Last White Man, readers will immediately recall Kafka, where the protagonist wakes up to find himself transformed into an insect.
In the Last White Man, the main character wakes up in brown skin and immediately encounters negative sentiment. A strange thing is happening as all other people are waking up losing their white skin and transforming into black or brown bodies.
The novel explores the feeling of being Other and seems to be set in Trump's America at the time of the pandemic and racial tension.
I thought it was an interesting idea,.
The writing style was different to how the author normally writes. Overall a relaxing read.

A very dry book, whose story seems easy to imagine from the beginning, but takes strange turns that you don't expect instead. It certainly provides a lot of food for thought, but you can also just read it for the love story told between the metaphors, if you don't want to try so hard.

Un libro molto asciutto, la cui storia sembra facilmente immaginabile dall'inizio, ma prende strane strade che invece non ci si aspetta. Sicuramente fornisce parecchi spunti di riflessione, ma si puó anche semplicemente leggere per la storia d'amore raccontata tra le metafore, se non si ha voglia di impegnarsi tanto.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

The opening chapter of Mohsin Hamid’s “The Last White Man”, as the lead character Anders wakes to find his skin having turned brown and the fear and anger which results, strongly evokes Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” in which the protagonist awakens to find himself transformed into a giant beetle. This is no bad thing, and I think “The Last White Man” can be taken as a modern, prescient updating of that story as Anders and the affected people fight for the acceptance of a society which he now thinks shuns and distrusts him.
His coolly disinterested girlfriend, Oona, sees him as “utterly different” which initially distresses her; a telling moment occurs when their lovemaking feels almost like infidelity. Anders feels palpably threatened when out in public, hiding his appearance as best he can. Anders sees his work colleagues start to treat him differently in a way that is almost imperceptible, but real. Soon, events take an ugly turn as riots and lynchings occur.
Mohsin Hamid uses a stylised, and, admittedly, sometimes infuriating writing style. Paragraphs are formed of usually one sentence, heavily punctuated; sometimes this results in punchy, rhythmic text, other times it can be tiring getting to the end of the paragraph. I haven’t read any of Hamid’s previous books so I don’t know if this is his “thing” or not, but once I had got used to the style it became easier to read. The style does not detract from what is a very well-written novel with many powerful moments, but it does demand close attention.
“The Last White Man” is, at a basic level, a story of what white people would do if they suddenly became Black. This may sound heavy-handed and clunky, and in the hands of a less skilled novelist it would be, but Hamid has managed to transcend such an obvious literary device to create a timely work of genius that challenges how we view anyone who is different.

This was a well written book with a good storyline, easy to follow narrative and well developed characters. A good thought provoking read, but in my opinion not as good as some fo thw authors previous work.

TITLE: THE LAST WHITE MAN
AUTHOR: MOHSIN HAMID
PUBLISHER: HAMISH HAMILTON
ISBN: 9780241566572
PUBLICATION DATE: 11.08.22

PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION:
“One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.”

NO SPOILERS

I have read Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, both of which I thought were intelligent, informative (oh, so informative) and beautifully written. I considered Exit West to be a novel but The Reluctant Fundamentalist was a “sort of novel”. I cannot put The Last White Man into either category. It is fiction, I suppose speculative fiction but it is not a novel.. What it is, is good; very, very good. I read it in a day.

The publisher’s description tells you all you need to know about the “plot” but it does not tell you this is a book about otherism and being unseen, and stepping into someone else’s shoes. It is about how it is not the way we look which makes us who we are but how others treat us based on the way we look.

“The way people act around you, it changes what you are, who you are…”

Hamid writes in perfectly punctuated, paragraph long sentences which flow with a steady rhythm and verge on stream of consciousness. I like it though I know some will not.

As a person who was born brown, I read it a little from a welcome to my world stance. I wonder how those who are white will read it?


Thank you to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for the Advanced Review Copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

I would struggle to be able to review this book due to issues with the file/download. The issues stopped the flow of the book. The issues are:
- Missing words in the middle of sentences
- Stop/start sentences on different lines
- No clear definition of chapters.

I have only read one other of Mohsin Hamid’s novels: Exit West, which I read 4.5 years ago when it was long listed for the Booker Prize. I found that to be a multi-layered book that I enjoyed more the further I got into it.

Unfortunately, my experience of this new book was rather the opposite. It is written in a very different style to Exit West and that is either going to work for you or it isn’t. But more about that in a bit.

When Anders wakes up one morning to discover that he has, overnight, gone from being a white man to being a dark-skinned man, he turns to an old friend, Oona. As other people start to have the same experience as Anders, the narrative skips between Anders to Oona. Anders’ father and Oona’s mother are also key figures as we see them as individuals and society as a whole reacting to this strange event that is unfolding around them. For some, it is frightening, for others it is liberating. It challenges perceptions:

”…maybe the fact that Anders no longer looked like Anders allowed her to see her relationship with him in another way, or maybe the fact that Anders remained Anders regardless of what he looked like allowed her to see the Anders in him more clearly.”

Some see these changes as something that has to be fought against and it isn’t long before there is violence on the streets. This is an area where the book did not work very well for me. There are numerous episodes where we hear about what is going on around our main characters and these external events occasionally impinge directly on their lives, but the way they are written brings no sense of danger or threat, no sense of unease. The focus remains on Anders and Oona (and their respective parents) as their relationship develops.

And I think a lot of this is down to the writing style here which will, I am sure, work really well for some readers and less well for others (like me). The book is written in paragraph-long sentences, often very long sentences. I’ve read quite a few books that take this kind of approach and it can work really well. At times, the writing here felt like it was aiming for Jon Fosse’s “slow prose” that I read a lot of fairly recently in his Septology. Except, for my tastes, it doesn’t quite get there and instead of creating a rhythm and a mood for the book, it becomes a distraction, especially in a book where such dramatic events are unfolding.

Ultimately, I felt that the story and the way that story was written were fighting against one another here. As I say, I am sure others will see the book entirely differently, but that is how it played out for me.

My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.