Business Times of Edmond, Oklahoma February 2020 - Page 29

BOOK REVIEW
BY CAMERON BRAKE | BEST OF BOOKS
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid
Publisher: Riverhead Books; Reprint edition
(February 27, 2018)
Paperback: 256 pages
In Review: Exit West
O
ne need not be a professional
political pollster to know that
immigration is right at the center
of our current politics. You would be hard
pressed to go an entire day without hearing
or reading at least one hot take or headline
that deals with either the migrant crisis at our
southern border or the migrant crisis that has
so utterly divided Europe.
Immigration was a central issue in the
2016 Presidential election and it was the
beating heart of Brexit. As we are now in
another Presidential election year, expect
the daily deluge of immigration related
news coverage to increase. Make no mistake,
there is much to be gained from this wealth
of immigration-focused reporting. There
is, however, a danger in relying solely on
the nightly news for any issue as big and
complicated and important as immigration.
There is more to the story.
Like their journalist cousins, fiction
writers look at the world’s current migrant
crises in order to discover and report back
that which is most vital: truth. Mohsin
Hamid has done just that with his gorgeous
novel, “Exit West.”
Hamid takes us into the migrant’s world
via Nadia and Saeed. The book begins with
their first meeting as they attend a night
class for young professionals in an unnamed,
predominately Muslim nation. As we are
introduced to these two young, educated,
incredibly likeable individuals, we are also
given a window into daily life in a country
on the brink of civil war. Though the nation
is never named, the political reality in Nadia
and Saeed’s home is all too familiar. Militants
are slowly gaining strength and make ever
larger attacks on the established government.
We are not told if the conflict is driven by
religion, ethnicity, or political differences,
but, for Nadia and Saeed, these things are
ultimately irrelevant. As their romance
begins, their country collapses. Hamid’s
ability to bring these two people vividly to
life is uncanny. Though separated from
them by language, culture, and geography,
I felt as though I already knew them. Nadia
and Saeed are so utterly familiar. They are
unquestionably decent. And their world is
crumbling around them.
Once the militants gain control of their
part of the city, and the horrors of living
in an active war zone become clear, Nadia
and Saeed are forced to make an impossible
choice. When the conflict first began there
were rumors of doors that could, by some
unknown force, transport you to other parts
of the world instantaneously. A door in a
dentist’s office in Syria that once led you to a
storage room now takes you to a hotel lobby
in London or a backyard in Tokyo. There is
no way to know where it might lead until you
walk through it. Initially, these rumors were
dismissed as the fantasies of a people made to
live in unlivable conditions, but as the threat
of violence closes in on them, Nadia, Saeed,
and millions of other people from war-torn,
impoverished nations all over the world are
left with no other option. They must seek out
one of these doors.
Hamid’s use of magical realism is initially
jarring. I found myself imagining how the
world would react if, out of nowhere, portals
from Syria and Myanmar suddenly allowed
millions of people to appear instantly in
America or Western Europe. Eventually,
however, all of these magically induced geo-
political considerations take a back seat to the
relationship between Nadia and Saeed. It is
the most compelling love story I have read in
some time.
For a terrible cost, Saeed and Nadia
do find a door, and begin their migration
westward. Exciting as they are to think about,
these magical doors fade in importance next
to Hamid’s descriptions of Nadia and Saeed’s
transformation into migrants, and all the
conflict and hardship that new designation
brings. I leave this for you to discover, but
know that it is some of the most humanizing
writing I have ever encountered. With “Exit
West,” Hamid asks we temporarily set aside
our own opinions about what governments
should do about immigration. Hamid asks
that we first consider the individual migrant
before considering immigration. This is far
from easy, and there are few clean answers.
But if there is a good place to start, it is here.
“Exit West” is a timely, profoundly
gorgeous, deeply human story.
REVIEWER CAMERON BRAKE works
at Best of Books, Edmond’s independently owned
bookstore at 1313 E. Danforth in the Kickingbird
Square Shopping Center. 
February 2020 | The Business Times
29