Customer Reviews

American Dervish: A Novel

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Title explanation: A dervish is a person who gives up everything for Allah.

In 1990, Hayat, from a Pakistani family, is in college. The death of his "aunt" Mina causes him to reflect on her story, and on events that occurred as he was growing up. It tells of his parents' less-than-happy marriage, and the different ways in which his parents shaped his views, as well as of Hamad's immersion in the Quran, with the resultant initial rigid set of beliefs that spur him to actions that he is ashamed of later in life.

Mina Ali is his mother Irshad's best friend from Pakistan. After an arranged marriage to a husband who allows his mother to abuse her, followed by a divorce when Mina is in the maternity ward, Irshad and Naveed (Hayat's father) persuade Mina's parents to allow her and her 2-year-old-son, Imran, to stay with them in America.

How do I describe this one without spoilers? As a reader who is always interested in other cultures, but especially fascinated by stories of other cultures living in America, this was a mind-opener. The parallels here between fundamentalist Christians and their strict, close-minded sets of beliefs and hard-line Muslims are equally full of intolerance.

Mina is a lovely, intelligent woman, and the choices she makes based on her religion are rather tragic in consequence.

Seeing how Hayat's beliefs were whittled and shaped reminds me of my own spiritual growth, and will likely remind you of your own.

I loved the characters and the story. I felt very invested in Mina, and her story is one that will resonate with you as well, dear reader.

The story of Nathan, Naveed's best friend and colleague, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is bittersweet.

There are injustices here, and adultery, and women whose potential is quashed. It is sad in places, hopeful in others, but very real and impactful.

I highly recommend it.

QUOTES

"Hayat, her intelligence has been the curse of her life. When a Muslim woman is too smart, she pays the price for it. And she pays the price not in money, behta, but in abuse."

"I know that you won't understand why I burned your Quran, but there was a reason. It's because you're different. You can't live life by rules others give you. In that way, you and I are the same. You have to find your own rules. All my life I've been running away from their rules, Hayat. All my life. You will be the same. Don't ask me how I know it, but I do."

"So what do I do? I ask her, like any normal person would, 'Why, Najat, does your husband beat you? Hmm?' "

Mother was absorbed in the moment, as if reliving it.

" 'Because we need it,' she says. 'Because it's something about our nature. Something that needs to know its limits.' My jaw hit the floor, Hayat. I looked at her and thought to myself, this is an insane asylum . . . "

Writing: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Plot: 5 out of 5 stars

Characters: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Reading Immersion: 4.5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 4.6 out of 5 stars

By taking us into a community that most of us don't know, except as stereotype, and seeing it through a child's eyes, this book has the vitality and vibrancy of something entirely new. American Dervish brings us into the heart of a Muslim boy in the Midwest who is trying, like all children, to make sense of the world he lives in. His immigrant parents are caught between assimilation and the pull of their culture of origin. The boy's own journey into emotional and spiritual discovery opens a door on absolutist thinking -- one of the more pressing issues of our time. The joy is that the door to transcendence is also opened, and the characters are so well realized that story feels entirely authentic.

While this is an adult book I would recommend it to any parent looking for an excellent read for a teenager. It is a treatise on keeping an open mind.

This story of a Pakistani-American boy growing up in middle America is a very entertaining read. The author has brought together several characters who play a very important role in the upbringing and formulation of religious opinions of Hayat, the main character. This story about a quirky family and their house guest Mina reveal very insightful and disturbing underlying issues which Pakistani American immigrants have and are still facing as a community in the US. I found the book very well written and hard to put down.

A Pakistani family--Naveed, the father (a physician); Muneer, his wife; and Hayat, their son--live a seemingly mundane life in Milwaukee. Then Mina, the life-long best friend of Muneer, and her son, Imran, come from Pakistan to live with the family after Mina's divorce. Mina meets Nathan, a colleague of Naveed's; Hayat's insecurities surface when he feels his own relationship with Mina is being threatened; and thus, the collision begins.......

This book is exquisitely written! We are treated to glimpses of Islamic history and the Quran, enmeshed with the superlative plot. Strong character development is @ the helm of this terrific tale. Ayed Akhtar is a DIALOG GENIUS. The dialog so aptly evokes the personas of the cast of characters that their personalities are virtually tattooed on their foreheads. I can't remember when I last encountered such incredibly concise, descriptive dialog.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT: The author leaves adequate possibility for a sequel at the end of the story, i.e.,Hayat's post-pubescent relationship history and the uncertainty of Mina and Nathan's ultimate involvement...nmr

Hayat Shah - the only son of Pakistani Muslim parents living on the outskirts of Milwaukee - is very likeable, the type of person you can imagine sitting down and talking to way into the night. In the first few pages of the novel, he is getting ready to share his life story to a young Jewish woman with these words: "You may not like me very much if I tell you what happened..."

But we do. As readers we do like Hayat as he reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of his story, which begins when his mother's best friend Mina departs from Pakistan and her controlling ex-husband with her small son. Hayat - at the cusp of adolescence - develops a serious crush on Mina, who encourages him to immerse himself in the Qur'an. Pretty soon, Mina falls for a Jewish doctor - the partner of Hayat's father and his new sense of purpose merges with his growing sense of "love" and confused feelings of betrayal.

It's not only an intriguing but also a timely premise, as thoughtful Americans strive to gain greater understanding of "what it means to be Muslim." And I believe the book has much to offer a young adult or mass market audience who likes a linear story with an educational twist. The story has an interesting protagonist, a story arc, and has much to say about the push and pull of secular, mystical, and religious Islam, the evolving role of women, and the confusion that accompanies growing up Muslim in America.

However, like many plot-driven made-for-TV movies, American Dervish doesn't dig nearly enough, not providing its characters with enough of an inner life, and sacrificing depth for a fluid story line. The result is often platitudes and melodrama, with messages strongly telegraphed.

Here is Hayat's mother, speaking to him: "Listen to me and never forget what I'm telling you. If you give yourself to filth and garbage, you will become filth and garbage. You will become the sum of what you desire...Promise me you won't end up like him." And here is Mina's Jewish suitor, Nathan: "The way he has those people beholden to him. It's revolting and immortal. And it has nothing to do with real Islam. Nothing at all." Or mother talking about her friend Mina: "I keep telling her the fact that Nathan's Jewish is a good thing. They understand how to respect women, behta. They understand how to let a woman be a woman, to let her take care of them."

Ayad Akhtar - an actor, playwright and novelist - is obviously striving to contribute to Muslim-Jewish (and Muslim-American) understanding, which is a very worthy goal and a good thing. But by leading the reader to conclusions and by simplifying premises, the book just doesn't rise to high literary standards. In a world where "unhappiness hovers" and "nerve ends teem", the novel is ultimately lacking. (2.5)

American Dervish is a terrific coming of age story. What makes it particularly stand out is that the protagonist, Hayat Shah, a 12-year-old Muslim boy isn't simply the victim of selfish parents or bullying schoolmates. He has a petty and vindictive side, too, and the novel focuses on the lifelong guilt he feels over one particularly cruel act that he's convinced changed the course of his "auntie's" life. The auntie, Mina, comes to America to live with Hayat's family after her arranged marriage in Pakistan fell apart because of her meddlesome and overbearing mother-in-law. But when her husband divorced her, he threatened to take custody of their son when the boy turned seven. To help her escape that fate, Hayat's mother, who was a childhood friend of Mina's, lets her and her son come live with them at their home in Milwaukee. Through Mina, a brilliant and religious woman, Hayat learns about Islam and the Quran for the first time. Hayat's father, Naveed, lost his faith after his sister died when the two were teenagers and he has nothing but contempt for the religious Pakistanis in their town, whom he sees as ignorant, backward, and hypocritical. Mina uses the Quran to teach Hayat how to appreciate every aspect of life and to live with ultimate humility before God's graces. She makes him want to become a "hafiz," someone who memorizes many verses of the Quran. Hayat believes that if he does, both he and his parents will get into heaven - a possibility that fills him with great hope because he worries that otherwise his father's philandering and drinking will make him burn in hell. The beautiful Mina is more than a religious inspiration to the naïve Hayat. At 12, he still does not know what sex is, isn't even sure if women have different parts than men, and when he starts having wet dreams, he doesn't know what's happening to him. Without understanding anything about sex, Mina is his first crush - a situation that becomes all the more complicated when he catches Mina in the middle of the night naked in the bathroom and on the verge of touching herself. As aroused as that image of her makes him, he doesn't use it for his own masturbatory fantasy, but instead tries to become more devout. But when Mina meets and falls in love with his father's partner, Nathan, Hayat does all he can to destroy that relationship, out of jealousy and because Nathan is Jewish. When Mina herself realizes the relationship with Nathan won't work because of their religious differences, her family's objections, and her son's desire for a father who isn't white, she settles for a marriage to a weak and mentally unstable but domineering Muslim man, and Hayat has to deal with years of guilt for sabotaging her one chance at happiness. Hayat's mother is a particularly strong character. She suffers the constant humiliation of her husband's affairs and opens up to her son about far more than she should, but when Mina lashes out at Hayat for trying to poison her son's mind about the prospects of a Jewish stepfather, Hayat's mother comes to her son defense and lets her best friend know she'll kill her even she ever touches her son again. Overall, this is a courageous book and one that offers a not very flattering look at the anti-semitism and misogyny of a small group of Muslims who use the Quran to justify their hatred of the Jews and, in some cases, men's right to beat their women. But this community of Muslims is no different, I suppose, than the Christian right when they use the Bible to justify homophobia. Here, Mina, provides the thoughtful counterbalance, by showing the goodness and humility the Quran can inspire when interpretations of it aren't use to justify mean-spiritedness and cruelty. There is a lot of wonderful moral complexity to consider here. Is Hayat responsible for Mina's fate or is Mina the one who set the ball in motion by filling his head with verses from the Quran and leading him to a mosque that would never accept Jews? Did Hayat's one sabotaging act truly alter the course of Mina's life or did she make free choices along the way? It's a lot to ponder, and the author deserves considerable accolades for embedding these issues inside a highly entertaining and moving story with so many great, fully rounded characters.

AMERICAN DERVISH is a beautiful novel. With luscious prose, Akhar tells the story of Mina Ali through the eyes of the young narrator Hayat Shah. The novel takes on so many relevant issues and Akhar handles them all with sensitivity and authority. A great love story, highly recommended.

This was an excellent book. As a coming of age tale of a young Muslim boy (Hayat) it tells the story of a first crush and that boy's learning about love. His parents' marriage is shaky at best and his mother talks to him about the most inappropriate things; he is only 12 and yet she shares with him of her husband's affairs. The household is refreshed when Mina enters - Mina is Hayat's mothers dearest friend from Pakistan. She is escaping an abusive father and an embarrassing divorce. She brings a breath of fresh air into Hayat's life and he promptly falls in love with all of his 12 year old heart.

If one reads deeper though, this is a tale of the harm that untutored religious zeal and child neglect can cause a family. Not child neglect in failing to feed and clothe but child neglect in failing to nurture, teach and keep from children that which they are too young to know. Add in some harsh religious stricture with no balance and a young brain can come to some very dangerous conclusions.

It was a book I found hard to put down and I read it over the course of two days. The writing is compelling, the characters fascinating and the story universal. Love and regret are found no matter the race or religion. Not to mention the sacrifices a woman will make for the sake of a child. A truly fascinating look into a lifestyle so very different in some ways and yet so very similar in others to our own.

After hearing the author, Ayad Akhtar, interviewed on an NPR program--Diane Rehm? Terry Gross?--I wondered if I really wanted to read this book since I feel somewhat overdosed since 9/11 because I am so tired of religions that battle each other, so tired of what I think are really mean-spirited Israeli policies, and truly wonder how any country government by Islamists can possibly be good for its citizens, and so tired, in this country, of the religious fundamentalists targeting people who don't agree with them. But something about that interview convinced me to spend the money for a copy.

And what a good decision that was.

I think I read a slice of this novel in a One Story edition.

Hayat Shad is a young American who parents migrated to the United States from Pakistan. In the brief prologue, in first person as is the rest of the novel, Hayat has enrolled in a college course titled Survey of Islamic History taught by Professor Edelstein. The irony of that! He has received a call from his mother telling him that she has heard from Mina, his mother's friend whom we soon learn also migrated to this country with her young son to get away from the family of her former husband, back in Pakistan.

The rest of the novel unfolds in wonderful first-person narration.

Hayat's parents quite obviously should have divorced. His father is a researcher and friend to Nathan, a Jew. The father does not believe in anything in the Quran (Koran). He is a womanizer and an alcoholic. The mother is very angry at her husband and uses her son as a sounding board, telling this child about his adulterous father's trysts, about what a mean man he is.

Then comes the dynamics when Mina and her young son live with them for a period of time. Unlike Hayat's mother who has little use for the Islamic religions, Mina embraces it and draws Hayat into the Quran.

I really don't want to tell much more of the story. I know I wouldn't want to read a review that does that. But things become quite difficult for these people--and it is all around religious beliefs or a lack thereof.

I highly recommend this brilliant novel.

And as I wrote for a title of this "review," it should be required reading of all of us because it does so much more with the difficult issues around these three competing religions than anything else I know about.

Wow, I don't understand all the bad reviews! I think this novel is excellent! As a Jew who came to Islaam my own self, and now knowing Muslims as I do, , I can relate to all the dynamics the author describes. Like Mina says in the novel, it all depends on your "intentions." Suspend your "intentions" for reading American Dervish until you've finished the book.