Here's our next book, Homeland Elegies, by Ayad Akhtar, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist. This is his second novel. A couple of you have read it, and know that it is presented in a "personal essay" style but is officially fiction. This wasn't a big distraction for me, even though I would have preferred a straight-up memoir. Will be curious to hear what y'all think.
(Ayad had THIS to say about this minor style controversy over "truthiness" in an NPR interview.)
Homeland made the top-10 Best Books in 2020 for the NYTs Book Review. I listened to it on audio, and loved it, especially listening to his Trumper father. Going back in for a print read, interested to see if I like it as much this time. I mainly recall finding it very timely, and loving the dad and Ayad's experience when he came into new wealth at one point. If nothing else, an engaging and often funny story about belonging in our fractured, bigoted country.
If you already read this, a book I found similar and loved even more, was Family Life, by Akhil Sharma. An immigrant, coming-of-age memoir (100 percent this time) that shares the "outsider" theme. It was devastating in parts, and also hilarious. I was surprised when we went to hear David Sedaris about eight years or so ago, and he held up this book as the one he was pitching during his tour (apparently something he often does, selling copies during intermission.)
I also mentioned another title I devoured recently, a non-fiction book called Perversion of Justice, by Julie Brown. Julie was a reporter for the Miami Herald who had worked forever on the prison system in Florida. She implored her editor to let her dig into the Epstein story, and he finally let her after the Harvey Weinstein case broke. I was hooked at the first sentence and blew through it. Fascinating accounts of her work tracking down the young victims and getting them to go on the record, as well as lurid stories about Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew and tRump.
Our next Zoom meeting is Thursday, December 1. See you then!
(I remember seeing this image, below, on Instagram several years ago and kept it. Supposedly from David Sedaris' book shelf.)
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