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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing,
By
This review is from: Cockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Rawi Hage's Cockroach is an intriguing tale narrated by a more self-aware Gregor Samsa as he tries to navigate through the immigrant community in contemporary Montreal. He's a dark and twisted man--there is nothing light-hearted about this novel, but its bitter, black humor is compelling. The novel is not for the faint of heart--sex, drugs and violence (though none of it gratuitous) fill the pages. Kudos to Hage for drawing a bleak picture, while never giving us a bleak novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good New NEW WORLD FICTION,
By
This review is from: Cockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"Cockroach" is excellent and bears level amounts of tempering with noir, gee real literature, and easy readability for a good time. Follow this Canadian immigrant author RAWI HAGE and read everything he writes! "Cockroach" concerns a young male protagonist in exile from Iran who has come to make a new life and found a hard time of it in Montreal, Canada. The best he can do is get on the dole, and down into the vice and dope underworld, and end up waiting tables at a middle-Eastern restaurant. His scrimping for a few crumbs to eat is reminiscent of some of Henry Miller's work. This is a talented and gifted author on his way UP UP UP. Rawi Hage is the cat's pajamas: Please sir, one more!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" for Today's World...,
This review is from: Cockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Set in Montreal and narrated by an Arab immigrant, some readers might call "Cockroach" an allegory; one exposing the trials and lives of impoverished immigrants. In "Cockroach," the protagonist, like the hero of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," takes on the form of an insect. In "Cockroach", however, the transformation is psychological rather than physical - the narrator envisions himself as the insect rather than actually becoming one. Further, no one other than the narrator sees him as an actual insect. However, the narrator might argue he is treated, by non-immigrants, in the same manner as other unwelcome vermin - reviled and avoided.
Moving between reality and his imaginary life as a cockroach, the narrator provides the reader brief glimpses into the lives of individuals with whom he interacts. Like the narrator, most are immigrants who struggle against poverty and a world they do not control. All carry burdens of their former lives; all are impacted by their past. Under psychiatric treatment because of attempted suicide, it is only during his sessions that the reader is given details of the narrator's life prior to immigration. Rawi Hage uses vivid imagery to draw the reader into the immigrant's world, one of poverty and survival. The narrator lives in filth, like the cockroach; his apartment teams with real cockroaches, living in filth and surviving off the crumbs he scatters. The narrator also lives off crumbs; the crumbs he can scavenge from society whether these are his welfare payments or the ill-gotten gains of theft. It is during his most stressful moments that the narrator takes on the persona of the cockroach. His desperation is palpable. He continually compares himself and other immigrants to cockroaches, telling how, in the end, they will overrun the world and survive. "Cockroach" is not an easy, light read; it is not fun or entertaining. "Cockroach" does require concentration and should be read with as few interruptions as possible. The novel has a definite psychological leaning; the writing is so vivid that it will propel the reader into its ugly world. Rawi Hage is a skilled wordsmith; as a result, the reader easily visualizes both individuals and their situations. The text contains some profanity and some graphic sexual scenarios and innuendo. Although I did not particularly enjoy this work, I felt it deserved four stars since it is a very well written book. Had I not read "The Metamorphosis" in college, I probably would have upped the rating to five stars since I would have also viewed this book, in which an individual "becomes" an insect, as a very original piece.
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