Love Thy Neighbor by Ayaz Virji

As you read those words this week, what ideas and traits did they bring to mind?  Courage ... Grit ... Resilience? All dispositions we try hard to foster in our students and ones which are certainly exemplified by Ayaz Virji, author of LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. His book relates far too many stories of bias and prejudice which he, his wife, and, even sometimes, his young children experienced.

Having graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine almost 20 years ago, Virji spent close to fifteen years in private practice in Pennsylvania before deciding to move his family to Dawson, Minnesota (about three hours from the Twin Cities). As chief of staff and head of the medical clinic, he answered a call to ease the doctor shortage in rural America. The family are the only Muslims in the area, but they become a part of the community - the children (Faisal, Imran, and Maya) settle at school and Musarrat, his wife, opens her own business. Having felt welcomed and accepted, Virji's reaction to Trump's election is even more emotional when he learns how sixty-five percent of that Minnesota county voted for Trump. Gradually, he realizes that the situation is an opportunity for learning - about the voters' motives (e.g., high medical bills, animosity towards Clinton) and about religion.

Pastor Mandy, an intern at Grace Lutheran Church in Dawson, invites Virji to speak to the community. They title the talk "Love Thy Neighbor" and this book, co-written with Alan Eisenstock, relates the content and context of that lecture. The text is very informative; Virji uses statistics as well as passages from the Bible and from the Quran to support his points about terrorism being separate from Islam, about the role of women, and about Sharia Law. He begins by saying, "I want to talk from love and humanity and diversity. These are the premises of your faith. You know that very well. These are the premises of my faith. These are the premises of every faith."
 

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It is worth a read and made me think of other memoirs that prompt readers to reflect on their life's purpose, including Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture and Khizr Khan's An American Family. 

Internment by Samira Ahmed

INTERNMENT by Samira Ahmed is a must-read novel set in the near future where seventeen year-old Layla Amin and her family – all American citizens – are sent to an internment camp that, ironically, lies not too far from Manzanar. Surrounded by an electrified fence, Layla and other detainees are forced to live in surplus FEMA trailers, eat at the Mess, attend meetings at the Hub auditorium and listen to limited information from their media units.  When Layla first arrives at the camp and sees all of the guards, guns and watchtowers, she muses, “I wonder what else they’ve built.  What else can they do to us when America isn’t looking?”  Gradually, a small group of teens begin non-violent resistance actions and manage, with the help of a few sympathetic guards, to get the word out about what is happening at Camp Mobius.

It’s a disheartening and disorienting experience; one where finding an inner strength is a constant battle.  As Layla’s friend, Ayesha, says, “Hope is basically faith, right? It’s intangible. You literally can’t grasp it.  That’s why it is easier to doubt than believe. That’s why it’s easier to give up than persists. … it actually is important to question, because searching for the answer can strengthen our resolve.  But holding on to hope isn’t easy. It’s work.”  

Best-selling author Samira Ahmed’s work will definitely prompt discussion. Her comments are uncomfortable and harshly critical at times; plus, some of the characters’ actions (meekness of adults, risk-taking of guards, cruelty and physical violence of the Director) can feel unrealistic. However, given actual recent actions of the government like housing undocumented immigrants (including children and babies) under a bridge in ElPaso, it seems essential to foster these discussions. I can envision developing a unit that shares resources like this map of the world’s religions or this list of other books (some for younger readers) advocating social justice.  

INTERNMENT received well-deserved starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Connection, and School Library Journal. I would like to include many more quotes here, but encourage you to read the entire book instead. Meet the author at 3pm on Sunday, March 31st at 57th Street Books in Chicago.

Silent Hearts by Gwen Florio

Set mostly in the early 2000s and post 9/11, SILENT HEARTS by Gwen Florio is a recently published novel that explores parallels and contrasts through the intertwined lives of two women. Liv is an American expatriate in Afghanistan with her professor husband and Farida is an educated Pakistani who is newly married to the son of an Afghan businessman whose trade involves drugs and guns. Yes, despite clear differences, both women are often defined by their husbands’ roles and impacted by the men’s emotions: “Liv thought of her life in the sheltered embrace of the college campus, first as a student, then a researcher and Martin’s wife. Of the things in that universe that depended upon the whims of men. A door held open for her, or not. A date. A promotion. In this world [Afghanistan] a woman’s very life could turn on whether a man had had a bad day.”

With Farida acting as translator, Liv interviews Afghani women about their life experiences, preparing reports for an NGO named Face the Future. Both Farida and Liv display resilience and develop a mutual regard for each other, even bonding over Alice and Wonderland, the story of “a girl whose curiosity led her to ever-stranger places, who did her best to adjust to incomprehensible circumstances, but who inevitable called stupidity what it was.” Gwen Florio is a prize-winning journalist who has reported from Afghanistan and she movingly conveys the difficulties and dangers there as well as explaining cultural and religious differences. SILENT HEARTS received a starred review from Library Journal, has a helpful discussion guide here, and is definitely recommended for book group discussions.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy which was provided in exchange for this honest review.