Laila Lalami
The central event in The Other Americans by Laila Lalami is the fatal hit-and-run of a Moroccan restaurant owner in California. The narrative unfolds through a series of several first-person points of view, including the point of view the dead man, Driss Guerraoui. He is survived by his wife and two daughters. The novel focuses on Nora, his youngest daughter, as she struggles to make sense of her father’s death and of the secret she unearths about his life.
Lalami sustains suspense by a piecemeal revelation of the central event and the characters through their various narrative threads as they shift backward and forward in time and rotate from one voice to another. In the process, the speakers disclose their struggles and challenges. They provide details of their background, their relationships, their connections with each other, their shattered hopes and dreams, and the unrelenting memories of the past that continue to haunt. Gradually, a picture emerges of each speaker and of the events leading up to and including Guerraoui’s death. Sometimes the same event is seen through multiple perspectives, with each perspective providing additional detail, a new piece to the puzzle.
In addition to the multiple speakers, Lalami addresses multiple themes in the novel—racism, xenophobia, othering, sibling rivalry, family dynamics and secrets, cross-cultural relationships, Iraqi war veterans, PTSD, the precarious position of documented and undocumented immigrants, post 9/11 life for Muslim Americans, adultery, love, drug and alcohol addiction, and alienation—all of which are set within the vicissitudes of small town life.
A panoply of voices illustrates different manifestations of fractured lives. Whether it is the African American female detective who is having to adjust to life in a small town, or an Iraqi war veteran with anger issues, or an immigrant who feels a stranger in a strange world, or a business owner whose business is failing, all the characters experience alienation in one way or another.
Lalami’s strategy of gradually unfolding the various mysteries and secrets piecemeal makes this a compelling read in many ways. But her choice to to cover such a wide range of subjects precludes the possibility of fully developing any one subject. She barely skims the surface before shifting gears. And while the use of multiple voices allows for different points of view, some of the voices sound disconcertingly similar. A few of the backstories proved to be distracting since they weren’t relevant to the main narrative and did little to contribute to its development.
The slow unraveling of layers of truth sustains reader interest. The story, itself, is engaging. But Lalami’s range of issues is, perhaps, too broad, resulting in a diluted focus and weakened narrative threads. Although a worthwhile read, the novel was somewhat disappointing. That may be due, however, to expectations being too high for the author of The Moor’s Account.
Recommended.