Immigrant Novels

One of my absolute favorite things about reading is that it takes you to a new world.  This is not news to anyone who cracks open a novel with even a little anticipation, but it's always pure magic.  I can lead many lives all at once: imagining being a train with a murderer, sitting in a tiny dingy school in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, or traveling all over the world on an epic birthday trip.  


Lately, I've been enjoying books that expose me to the immigrant experience.  I am not an immigrant but am the descendant of immigrants and the wife of an immigrant.  It's not something I have first-hand knowledge about but because so many people I love have lived through an immigration, I want to understand it better: enter books.  

Stories that detail what it's like to move to a new country, where you may or may not be welcome, make the reader more empathetic.  It happens subtly and without guilt.  Reading about the first trip to a grocery store where you don't understand the packaging and process or how a kid who gets bullied and still manages to find friends gives my imagination the spark it needs to really consider what it's like to be on the outside of a culture.  Using my brain like this is good.

Just because these books are important, doesn't mean that they can't also be captivating and well written.  There is something about traveling to a foreign land, whether it's America, the moon, or exploring the New World that is just appealing to the human sense of adventure.  There is a desire to know what is in the world outside of us.  At least there is in me.  

If an author can tell a story of immigration that makes the unknown seem adventurous, then I am all in.  My least favorite kinds of immigrant stories are the ones that overtly tell you "this was difficult" and don't convey the little details that are so challenging. 

feelings are v. important 

Here are some of my favorite immigrant stories:
Exit West (of course)

Here are some that I want to read:
Americanah (I know, I know, I should have read this by now)

 Have you read a novel that highlights the immigrant experience?  Can you add to my list?  Please?



Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Recap: February Edition

Image
February was interesting...a short month, with very weird weather.  I got a little bored with one book and a little frustrated with another so I wasn't sure how many I would actually finish.   ***disclaimer****  It really doesn't matter how many books you finish in a month.  I would shamelessly post one if that was what I felt up to reading.  One of the things I love about reading is that I can control how many books I read in any given season.  And believe me, there were seasons with 0...I'm looking at you, newborn mom years.  Please don't feel pressured to read more--that is when the magic of reading is dimmed.   My number this month is 5 and that seems like a lot.  But it's also kind of cheating because two of them were audiobooks that I had started months ago.   Here are the books I read this month: Belong to Me This was the frustrating one.  I did not enjoy this.  I was outright annoyed by some of the characters and plotlines.  With
Read more

August RWLB

Image
 Here we are again! I remembered this recurring post! Yay for me! Yay for you! Reading I'm 50% through two very good books right now.  I started Empire of Pain a while ago and I am riveted every time I pick it up. It's dense though, and a little depressing--like, how did we let this happen??? I should finish it up in the next two weeks but we'll see. This one requires lighter reads sprinkled in now and then so it may take me a little longer. I'm in no rush. The other book I'm currently reading is 11/22/63  by Stephen King. I read this before bed each night and it is fun! There are definitely some creepy vibes and few scenes I needed to read in the safety of daylight, but mostly it's thought-provoking and plot-driven in the best way. It's nearly 900 pages so I didn't expect it to be a quick read, but still, I'd love to finish by the first week of September so I can move on to King's new release that's getting a lot of love from people I follo
Read more

What I Read: March 2022

Image
 The saying goes that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This March was pretty lion-y all the way through. 🦁🦁🦁  Here's what I read while I tried to stay warm and navigated my way through a month marked by college auditions for my oldest and our family's reckoning with COVID. 1. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was our March book club book but I had bought it the second it came out because I was just coming off a high from The Night Watchman . The Sentence tells the story of Tookie, a Native American woman who works at Louise Erdrich's bookstore . Louise Erdrich herself was a character (one of my favorites). Anyway, Tookie is haunted by a ghost in the bookstore and ghosts from her past. This happens at a time marked by riots and racism and the pandemic. It's a lot. Erdrich's writing hits me hard. I love the graceful way she illuminates things I had no idea about. I love the characters she creates and captures. I love the worlds sh
Read more