Reading, “Behold the Dreamers”
A Novel by Imbolo Mbue
This novel took me on a journey, not one to review, only describe. I understand ‘review” as a factual summary, an evaluative analysis, and a conclusion.
This novel does not have a clear conclusion and my experience of it has not ended. I don’t think it will. I think anything I touch from now on about African immigrants will build on it. I’m not in a frame of mind to analyze it any more than I would analyze a long walk in the afternoon.
“Behold the Dreamers” is about an immigrant family that comes to New York City, America from Cameroon in the 2000s. We see some high-flying years and then a big collapse, through eyes of a hard-working husband, Jende, and his wife, Neni. That’s part of what I enjoyed, seeing something I already new in a different way.
They do not represent “the immigrant experience.” In fact, the husband and wife themselves do not experience life in New York City, America in the same way. That’s one of the main dynamics of the story, their different experiences along the same path.
The ride they took me on, separately and together, was not predictable, even when it felt like it might be. The ending did not end anything and does not feel like an abstract morsel of distilled wisdom.
Is immigrating anywhere a great idea, especially to an America that has become distinctly ungenerous? It’s all how you look at it, what you value most. Now I know how one family looked at it and what they value most.
They changed and my idea of The Dream and how it works got bigger. I appreciate it.
Tom Nickel writes about new media technologies and other topics he has little if any standing to write about, such as modern literature.
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Tom holds a Black Belt in Learning and is active in both physical and extended realities (XR). He also writes some, more here.
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