sorayah11's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
kbecker40's review against another edition
2.0
Read for the BTP in nonfiction. Review to come later.
ajt87's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book Lalami brings up lots of really good points about being a citizen but not feeling like an equal citizen. I felt her chapters on borders, assimilation and gender (she named it inheritance) were my favorites.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 5/5 is the final chapter. I didn’t think it wrapped up the book well and felt a bit tacked on. She also in that chapter mentions other facets of conditional citizenship and I wish she would have written a few more chapters and explored those ideas.
The only thing that keeps me from giving it a 5/5 is the final chapter. I didn’t think it wrapped up the book well and felt a bit tacked on. She also in that chapter mentions other facets of conditional citizenship and I wish she would have written a few more chapters and explored those ideas.
maddyb001's review against another edition
4.0
This book covered a variety of topics well. I wish that the essays were more chronological to better illustrate how the author's life experiences changed her perspective on American citizenship and place within society.
jaclyn_sixminutesforme's review against another edition
5.0
Laila Lalami’s essay collection, CONDITIONAL CITIZENS (@pantheonbooks #gifted), has been a particularly striking read in the lead up to the 2020 election in the US. She grapples with what it means to be an American at the moment, and what her own experience has been since moving from Morocco for graduate study. This is an infinitely complex question, particularly when also considering race and religion and class and caste, which Lalami discusses in these essays. Her examination of borders particularly struck me, including the way people are “othered” as part of the process inherent in articulating any border. The way she draws on personal experience and policies and judicial decisions was striking and poignant. She also engaged in discussions around whiteness and caste which I think readers of recent nonfiction like Isabel Wilkerson’s CASTE or Claudia Rankine’s JUST US will find thematic overlaps in. I think this adds an interesting lens to some of these broader discussions. To use her own wording, there is much in these essays that “disturbs the silence” around many of these topics, while also engaging in these conversations raised in many texts that have come out this year alone.
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I can’t recommend this enough, and it’s prompted me to get to Lalami’s fiction as a priority (@sumaiyya.books assures me I will also love it!).
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I can’t recommend this enough, and it’s prompted me to get to Lalami’s fiction as a priority (@sumaiyya.books assures me I will also love it!).
lauryl's review against another edition
5.0
Really well done. Combines historical facts and personal stories that make the book really engaging. Some of the themes are similar to others I’ve read this year but a fresh take and a good read.