The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich

 

I read this book after hearing two close friends talk about Native American languages and their preservation (or lack thereof). It was truly significant to hear them talk about the communities they are part of and the challenges they face. So I decided I should read something by one of their great (mainstream) story-tellers. 

The Night Watchman was a beautiful read, mixing capitalized History with non-capitalized family histories. I honestly loved reading about these characters and their attempts to stop their economic decline, physical disappearance, and the dispersal of people and traditions. 

Also, discovering the figure of Senator Watkins, someone simultaneously able to contribute to the end of the dark McCarthy era and to the demise of thousands of Native American people, was eerily fascinating (and scary). 

What remains after reading this book is the beauty of these people, the parallels between so many of their small problems and the small problems I am exposed to, the uniqueness of the governmental campaigns and policies they have been subject to for centuries, and the profound admiration I felt for so many of the characters, whether they were night watchmen, ghosts (spirits?) or amateur boxers. 

White Teeth – Zadie Smtih

This is the book that started my love-hate relationship with Zadie Smith. Seriously, if you are 25 and have a degree in English literature, you should be worried about making ends meet, not getting stuck in a dead-end job and making sure that your flatmate has left you the money to buy the kitchen foil, instead at that age Zadie Smith had just finished writing one of the best British novels of the last 30 years!

Archie’s family is really interesting to begin with, but Samad’s is even better. Probably I’m saying this because I’m an immigrant myself and have questions about my roots, but the upbringing of Magid and Millat is somewhere between hilarious and astonishingly fascinating. And I can absolutely relate to Samad completely disregarding so many Bangladeshi customs yet constantly defending the memory of his supposedly glorious grandfather.

The last few pages, summarizing the lives of the main characters after the epic FutureMouse conference, give the reader hope for the future of Willesden/London/the UK/humanity as Alsana and Clara join their husbands at O’Connell, a place that in my mind is so seedy that it’s actually kind of charming.