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rthresher28's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
show_no_mercy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
While I enjoyed most of the essays in the book the problem with the format is that they are all short and I found that I struggled to be really immersed in them because they were over too quickly.
mastersal's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of short stories written by immigrants and children of immigrants in the UK - this was something that I was very interested in reading. The collection of essays is diverse coming from a variety of backgrounds. The quality of the essays vary as well as the authors are not all writers - some are actors, activists, authors and poets.
This made for an interesting read - like with collections of essays - some landed and some missed.
Individual ratings follow:
NAMASTE - 4 star - good fun to start the collection.
A GUIDE TO BEING BLACK - 4.5 stars. Excellently written - see example “While being black can be a shared experience, not all black experiences are the same.”
MY NAME IS MY NAME - 5 stars - very poetic. This left a lump in my throat
YELLOW - 3.5 stars. Not as moving or well written but still I learned quite a bit.
KENDO NAGASAKI AND ME - 3 stars. A more specific personal essay about the bullying and racial slurs the authors felt. I liked it and it highlighted the need for diverse representation but I didn't know the names of the characters or actors so I was a little lost.
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY - 3 stars
Seemed more positive about the immigrant experience and living in a small community, even if it was not multicultural. A nice hopeful little essay. Nothing particularly new for me and not greatly written. Fans of the actor will probably enjoy it more.
IS NISH KUMAR A CONFUSED MUSLIM? 2 stars - it was ok but I didn’t see much insight or point here. The essay stretched the point being made
FORMING BLACKNESS THROUGH A SCREEN - 4 stars
Essay ended a little abruptly but was really good. Exploring identity through the American pop culture monolith since you have little which is home grown and specific to you - yeah that hit close. Just wish the essay has been a little longer tbh.
BEYOND GOOD IMMIGRANTS - 3.5 stars
“But the horrified furore around Chua’s parenting memoir show that beneath the Western awe at Chinese educational attainment is a profoundly uncomfortable fear of a seemingly alien culture.”
I think I like these serious essays more which quote more than personal facts and put the experience into a larger narrative and context. The essay was good but I didn’t follow all the actors names so it got a bit specific
YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! STORIES HAVE TO BE ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE - 5 stars
“Speaking to Nabila, she told me she had never written about an Indian heritage … character before. … nobody has ever explicitly given her permission…”
This made for an interesting read - like with collections of essays - some landed and some missed.
Individual ratings follow:
NAMASTE - 4 star - good fun to start the collection.
A GUIDE TO BEING BLACK - 4.5 stars. Excellently written - see example “While being black can be a shared experience, not all black experiences are the same.”
MY NAME IS MY NAME - 5 stars - very poetic. This left a lump in my throat
YELLOW - 3.5 stars. Not as moving or well written but still I learned quite a bit.
KENDO NAGASAKI AND ME - 3 stars. A more specific personal essay about the bullying and racial slurs the authors felt. I liked it and it highlighted the need for diverse representation but I didn't know the names of the characters or actors so I was a little lost.
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY - 3 stars
Seemed more positive about the immigrant experience and living in a small community, even if it was not multicultural. A nice hopeful little essay. Nothing particularly new for me and not greatly written. Fans of the actor will probably enjoy it more.
IS NISH KUMAR A CONFUSED MUSLIM? 2 stars - it was ok but I didn’t see much insight or point here. The essay stretched the point being made
FORMING BLACKNESS THROUGH A SCREEN - 4 stars
Essay ended a little abruptly but was really good. Exploring identity through the American pop culture monolith since you have little which is home grown and specific to you - yeah that hit close. Just wish the essay has been a little longer tbh.
BEYOND GOOD IMMIGRANTS - 3.5 stars
“But the horrified furore around Chua’s parenting memoir show that beneath the Western awe at Chinese educational attainment is a profoundly uncomfortable fear of a seemingly alien culture.”
I think I like these serious essays more which quote more than personal facts and put the experience into a larger narrative and context. The essay was good but I didn’t follow all the actors names so it got a bit specific
YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! STORIES HAVE TO BE ABOUT WHITE PEOPLE - 5 stars
“Speaking to Nabila, she told me she had never written about an Indian heritage … character before. … nobody has ever explicitly given her permission…”
jwilsonleary's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.75
This book is a great place to start when learning about different people, cultures and how we are all essentially human with different stories.
thebobsphere's review against another edition
4.0
Frequent followers of this blog know I was born in Canada. My parents moved there, from Malta in 1974, mainly for political reasons ( that’s a story for another day). The first 9 years were spent in an North American Indian reservation. The remaining 4 years were spent in a small town in Ontario. That’s were problems started for me.
The first sign was when on my first week, some of my classmates heard my parents speak in Maltese and behind their backs made turkey noises at me, indicating the rapid fast guttural inflections of the Maltese language. Other incidents cropped up : children saying Maltese are stupid (how would they know!) even my fourth grade teacher making fun of my mother’s accent and when National Geographic dedicated an article on Malta during the second world war and published a picture of twin girls who resembled elaborate plum puddings. The flak I got for that! Once I got fed up at one particular nasty comment involving Maltese and the ovens in Auschwitz and retaliated. I was the one who got into trouble.
On returning to Malta in 1992, I found out that other problems occurred but I don’t want to make this whole review about me.
The reason behind my rather long spiel is because the 21 BAME authors, journalists and actors in The Good Immigrant all speak about their experiences in 21st century Britain as children of immigrants. Rascist slurs, being ignored or bullied and cultural appropriation all feature here. In fact the title itself comes from the fact that immigrants have to earn their right to be a British citizen proving themselves, be it in a baking competition or in a TV programme. That is how they become ‘good’ immigrants.
However, the main emphasis is on language: how certain foreign phrases are ingrained incorrectly in culture, how in the language of media the representation of BAME characters is poor, even when it comes to fashion there are prejudices and assumptions.
Generally with such a varied collection, the quality will vary but it’s pretty consistent. Obviously there will be some favourites. I laughed LOUDLY at Daniel York Loh’s Kendo Nagasaki and Me which speaks about Asian representation on TV, Nikesh Shukla’s essay on British bastardization of Indian culture, Namaste is brilliant. I could relate to Chimene Suleyman’s My Name is my Name ( all those years of my surname being pronounced as Pis-ZANY) , Sabrina Mahfouz’s Wearing Where You’re at: Immigration and UK Fashion is an insightful piece about fashion trends and also about skin color.
The Good Immigrant creates an awareness, sometimes through humor, sometimes through more tragic events but it does succeed in giving these contributors voice and helping us realise that both U.K. and U.S. cultures have to start paying more attention. In Bim Adewumni’s essay What We Talk About When We Talk About Tokenism she states that there are slow steps being made, but they can take everyone back just as easily. Personally I see this anthology as part of that progression. Considering the events that have been happening in 2020 alone, I see The Good Immigrant, which was published in 2016, even more relevant than ever.
The first sign was when on my first week, some of my classmates heard my parents speak in Maltese and behind their backs made turkey noises at me, indicating the rapid fast guttural inflections of the Maltese language. Other incidents cropped up : children saying Maltese are stupid (how would they know!) even my fourth grade teacher making fun of my mother’s accent and when National Geographic dedicated an article on Malta during the second world war and published a picture of twin girls who resembled elaborate plum puddings. The flak I got for that! Once I got fed up at one particular nasty comment involving Maltese and the ovens in Auschwitz and retaliated. I was the one who got into trouble.
On returning to Malta in 1992, I found out that other problems occurred but I don’t want to make this whole review about me.
The reason behind my rather long spiel is because the 21 BAME authors, journalists and actors in The Good Immigrant all speak about their experiences in 21st century Britain as children of immigrants. Rascist slurs, being ignored or bullied and cultural appropriation all feature here. In fact the title itself comes from the fact that immigrants have to earn their right to be a British citizen proving themselves, be it in a baking competition or in a TV programme. That is how they become ‘good’ immigrants.
However, the main emphasis is on language: how certain foreign phrases are ingrained incorrectly in culture, how in the language of media the representation of BAME characters is poor, even when it comes to fashion there are prejudices and assumptions.
Generally with such a varied collection, the quality will vary but it’s pretty consistent. Obviously there will be some favourites. I laughed LOUDLY at Daniel York Loh’s Kendo Nagasaki and Me which speaks about Asian representation on TV, Nikesh Shukla’s essay on British bastardization of Indian culture, Namaste is brilliant. I could relate to Chimene Suleyman’s My Name is my Name ( all those years of my surname being pronounced as Pis-ZANY) , Sabrina Mahfouz’s Wearing Where You’re at: Immigration and UK Fashion is an insightful piece about fashion trends and also about skin color.
The Good Immigrant creates an awareness, sometimes through humor, sometimes through more tragic events but it does succeed in giving these contributors voice and helping us realise that both U.K. and U.S. cultures have to start paying more attention. In Bim Adewumni’s essay What We Talk About When We Talk About Tokenism she states that there are slow steps being made, but they can take everyone back just as easily. Personally I see this anthology as part of that progression. Considering the events that have been happening in 2020 alone, I see The Good Immigrant, which was published in 2016, even more relevant than ever.