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A review by torts
Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
3.0
Satisfying for its conformity to my expectations of chick-lit/murder mystery. Fun but occasionally frustratingly facile. Not that it's stupid or poorly written. It's actually original for its damaged/borderline Asbergers-y protagonist. And it was engaging enough to keep me guessing about the "answers" to the crime and the protagonist's origins and how they were connected. Maybe a little too predictable romance-wise, but that part was kind of like a guilty pleasure to the reading. Good ol'fashioned heightening of melodrama.
It's more mentally engaging if you try to think about the implications of its female author also having an Arab-American identity. And publishing this book after 9/11. Like how there might be commentary on "de-realization" of Arab-Americans in the look into her origins (plane crash, jungle, adoption...) and the essentialization/hysteria of all crime being "terrorism" after 9/11. Or how maybe it's just a struggle to assert her humanity/regular-person-ness by publishing something so blandly genre-conforming.
It's more mentally engaging if you try to think about the implications of its female author also having an Arab-American identity. And publishing this book after 9/11. Like how there might be commentary on "de-realization" of Arab-Americans in the look into her origins (plane crash, jungle, adoption...) and the essentialization/hysteria of all crime being "terrorism" after 9/11. Or how maybe it's just a struggle to assert her humanity/regular-person-ness by publishing something so blandly genre-conforming.