How Much of These Hills is Gold, C Pam Zhang
This book ended up surprising me. I am normally not a fan of gold rush era literature or even literature set in the Midwest, and this book was both. The distinguishing factor, I think, was that the point of view and focus of this book were different: the protagonists were two Chinese American children who had lost both of their parents and were struggling to find their way, both literally and figuratively, in their new lives without their parents to guide or help them. They each deal in different ways, with one taking the more traditional route of working and saving money, and the other running away to become an outlaw, their paths only crossing again years later. Zhang dealt with themes of immigration, belonging, sex work, and trans identity in this novel that blended Chinese and American cultures together to question who is ‘American’ and what being ‘American’ means, a discourse whose importance is understated today, especially as people willfully misunderstand and ignore the history of immigration and colonization in the United States. This novel also shows why representation and reading things from different perspectives is so important—it gives you new and interesting ways to see and think about things from, not to mention it gives a more complete understanding of history and the world. I would like to find out more about the author’s thoughts on the ending of her novel, because it is one that leaves the reader (or at least me) with feelings of hopelessness and despair. But maybe that’s the point.
Best of Friends, Kamila Shamsie
Best of Friends is Shamsie’s latest novel and explores the intricate topic of female friendship, specifically how friendship grows and changes over the years. Zahra and Maryam were best friends growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, dealing with the innocuous problems of growing up as well as the more latent issues under the surface of Pakistani culture, which is what causes the first major rift in their friendship. The reader finds them again in London in (almost) present day, grown and with families of their own, and still navigating the complicated terrain of maintaining friendship among all the mundane things that come with being an adult. Shamsie’s deep dive into female friendship was an exposé of sorts—the reader got to see and empathize with the things that friends forgive each other for, as well as the ways in which we love, appreciate, and care for our friends even when we aren’t in their presence. And finally, the reader also got to see how this specific pair of best friends was able to move through the rift of their adolescence and a new fissure in adulthood without letting it break them, which is not only significant, but also realistic. All too often we think of a fight as relationship ending when it comes to friendship, and that simply does not have to be the truth. Shamsie’s prose is once again striking, as are her ways of observing and describing the world around us.