Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - What Strange Paradise

Title: What Strange Paradise
Author: Omar El Akkad
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: July 20, 2021

T H R E E • W O R D S

Memorable • Contrasting • Necessary

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Nine-year-old Amir is the lone surviour when the overfilled boat carrying him and other refugees capsizes. He comes to on a beach where he must evade the military to ensure his safety. Eventually he will be rescued by Vanna, a 14-year-old, who is determined to keep him safe, despite their differences. What Strange Paradise looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.

💭 T H O U G H T S

What Strange Paradise wasn't on my radar until it was chosen for the 2022 Canada Reads longlist in January. After being shortlisted, I immediately placed a hold for it at my library knowing I wanted to read each of the five books before the debates in late March.

Omar El Akkad sets aside the cultural, historical and political aspects that drive people to leave their homelands, seeking refuge elsewhere, and instead focuses on the stories of the people at the center of the crisis. What really stood out for me is the writing, and powerful nature of two children brought together. The contrasting nature of the Greek island - with its fancy hotels and beaches masking the crisis - was a tool very well utilized within these pages. This is by no means an easy book to read, and at times made me feel uncomfortable, bringing to life the struggle, the fear, the barriers, and the injustices these people face. El Akkad succeeds in making the reader uneasy by humanizing and really bringing to life the real lived experience, and inching me closer to the crisis.

As heartbreaking as the story is, there are glimpses of hope and kindness sprinkled throughout. I believe this to be incredibly powerful, as it demonstrates that people can be facing the most dire circumstances but still find it within them to be kind. For examples really stand out, firstly the pregnant lady on board the ship who takes Amir under her wing, and Vanna, who will do everything in her power to help Amir.

What didn't work for me was the structure. The alternating chapters didn't carry the same weight, and at times it felt disjointed. I found myself much more invested in and wanting more of the before chapters compared to the after ones. For instance, I wanted so much more from Amir's connection with the pregnant lady on board the ship. Because of this lack of character depth it didn't pack the emotional punch I had been anticipating. And then there was the ending, which definitely left me disappointed.

Yes - this is definitely a book that needs to be read. No - it's not the emotional journey I was expecting. And yet, there is no doubt this book has left me with lots to think about. With such cinematic tools, I am left to ponder if there wouldn't have been more value in this as a movie.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• all Canadians
• educators

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Maher shrugged. 'Books are good for the soul,' he said. 'Books will ween you off cruelty.'"

Content Warnings

yavin_iv's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Another Aspen Words Literary Prize 2022 longlist read done! I've actually had El Akkad's previous book, American War, on my TBR (and actually on my physical bookshelf, as I own that one) for years now, but for some reason it has never quite made the jump from "TBR" to "currently reading." I felt a little guilty reading this new one first, with his backlist title staring at me from the shelf. But, ah well, here we are.

On an unnamed/imaginary island, the remains of a dilapidated fishing boat wash up on the beach...along with the belongings and bodies of the passengers, Middle Easterners and Africans who had taken any chance available to them, desperate and treacherous as they may have been, to rescue themselves from the untenable realities of their home countries. In a miraculous turn of events, one young boy was a lone survivor of the boat's disastrous journey. Amir flees from the beach he washes up on and is found by a teenage girl who lives on the Island, Vanna. Though strangers, with no common language, Vanna decides to help Amir, to guide him through the island and deliver him to his best chance for a safer future.

The story is told in alternating chapters, that of "before" and "after." The "before" follows Amir's prior life, how he ended up on that boat, and the details of the harrowing journey itself. The "after" follows Vanna and Amir and they traverse the island and attempt to keep out of sight of the military sent in to oversee the refugees' landings. It's really interesting because you know the "ending" of the before storyline already, and the after storyline is truly not that heavy on plot, but despite that, El Akkad manages to write the dual storylines with intensely rising tensions. The tension of each builds very differently, stylistically (due to a foreshadowed unpreventable tragedy or the being chased/time running out feeling), but in parallel, with the final result being a reading experience of incredibly claustrophobic dread, a sense of impending doom on every page. Long story short, it was a very heavy reading experience, a lot to process. But it was spectacularly written, to convey that depth of sense and emotion. Relatedly, in the words and interactions of many (really, all) of the characters (no matter their affiliation to the refugee crisis that the book is built around), there is so much deep-seated (and understandable) anger/rage and fear and resentment, born of myriad types of helplessness/lack of control, from the daily to the administrative to the governmental to the military/orders, to those more immutable reasons, like age and gender and country/language of origin, etc. The way El Akkad brings to life how hope has curdled for some and remains for others, yet all continue their fight(s) for a future/survival because, truly, what other option is there, is visceral. A profound reading experience.

With perspectives that include Amir, Vanna, a refugee camp leader, a military law enforcement official with a long history of involvement in government-backed violence against civilians, and a number of snippets of other passengers on the boat with Amir, this novel covers a gamut of realities of the lives of those involved in refugee crises. This one has clear roots in and connection to the current Middle East/Syria/Turkey/Greece situation, there are shades of many in this one example. Some of the perspectives, at times, veer into a sort of satirical and sarcastic commentary while others border on an almost painful naivete/fragility, all while remaining entirely authentic. It was an emotional juxtaposition tough to grapple with at times, but in the way that makes for great contemporary and representative literature. Primarily, El Akkad deftly illustrates the predatory way governments (and in some ways, freelance smugglers, though with the grain of salt that they too are facing whatever challenges make human smuggling their best option) take so much advantage of those with limited options/opportunities. The way he writes how the law, the world, see and treat those struggling for just a chance at something even remotely better as less than human, the way that somehow their "law-breaking" becomes their dominant trait, as opposed to any more human characteristic, is heartrending. Relatedly, the commentary on the parallel morality of soldiers, who must "break" morals to "keep peace/other morals," is affecting in its calling out of so much hypocrisy.

Finally, I cannot close this review without a quick note about the ending. I am willing to bet that the way it ended is a major reason it made this longlist. It was....so unexpected. I missed all the references in the titles and a few small moments/name references along the way that alluded to it, so it hit me right in the solar plexus. Like, for real knocked me breathless. I am going to try to keep this as vague as possible, so as not to spoil anything. But it was such a crushing feeling after the building of tension and hope throughout the rest of the novel, which is such a profound way of communicating the reality of this crushing tragedy to the reader through the medium of this fictional narrative. If you have read this one, let me know what you thought of the ending... Did you see it coming? Did you know the book was so "meta" going into it? Did you find it as affecting as I did or did it pull you from the narrative (as it kinda did for me before I went back through it in my mind and realized what had happened/what I had missed)? What a reading experience!

"Every man you ever meet is nothing but the product of what was withheld from him, what he feels owed.”

“She has seen so many over the past year: alone, malnourished; orphaned by war or by sea; made into the undercurrents of themselves, broken in ways that rendered them unable to continue as children and yet a part of them left childlike forever.”

“Conscience, brother, is the enemy of survival.”

“But the two kinds of people in this world aren’t good and bad - they’re engines and fuel. Go ahead, change your country, change your name, change your accent, pull the skin right off your bones, but in their eyes they will always be engines and you will always, always be fuel.”

“One should try to believe in things [..] even if they let you down afterward.”

“But it was clearer now, so much so that Amir could differentiate between the voices, and in doing so imagined those beneath him not as a single impossible organism but as individual people, bound by their confines but solitary in their fear.”

“…like all soldiers, they maintain a subconscious ledger of who they are free to hurt and who they are obliged to protect…”

“What beautiful rebellion, to feel into another, to feel anything at all.”

Content Warnings

marabdelmageed's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is a masterpiece. It is beautifully written, thought provoking, and it stirs up deep emotions. It is, most importantly, such an amazing critique of the refugee crisis. Not only is this work impactful on the individual reader, but it truly has the potential to impact a generation. This is the kind of book that should be taught in schools.

Content Warnings

morriganslibrary's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

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