If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE GOD LAUGH by Bianca Marais deserves a spot in your “to be read” pile. The story takes place in South Africa in the mid-1990s as Mandela is elected president.  There are three narrators: Delilah, a former nun and aid worker; Ruth, her flamboyant, alcoholic sister who is about to get a divorce; and Zodwa, a young Zulu girl struggling with her sexual orientation and an unexpected pregnancy. Originally from South Africa, Marais intertwines the characters’ stories with the changes in that country, its racial conflicts and attitudes, and the growing AIDS epidemic. The white middle-aged sisters, who had been estranged for decades, reunite at their family home and are forced by economics to learn to live together. Delilah carries guilt and regret for past actions, saying “the past wasn’t a place you could just walk away from; it was something you carried with you your entire life, and year upon year as your arms got weaker, the burden just got heavier and harder to bear.” Ruth sees signs in everything and alludes to her “belief that I’ve been having a lifelong conversation with the universe just as profound as the one she’s [Delilah’s] been having with God.” One of those signs is a pair of knitted blue booties and the subsequent abandonment of a newborn baby on their porch. The decision to foster this black child is not an easy one and the story is full of loss and hardship mingled with love and courage. There’s a thread of feminism, too, with comments on “it was a girl’s duty to grin and bear it. No matter what any man did, she absolutely wasn’t to make a fuss. … a dysfunctional way to be raised.” Yet, the sisters and Zodwa persevere and find their way in this well-written second novel.  As Ruth says, “Maybe we’re all born with that piece of us missing and our life’s journey is about finding it. Finding the one thing that makes us whole.”

Fractured Lands

FRACTURED LANDS by war correspondent Scott Anderson employs six narratives following a Kurdish physician and an activist from Iraq, a dissident from Egypt, student from Syria, an ISIS fighter and Libyan Air Force cadet. In explaining “how the Arab world came apart,” Anderson traces the history of the region and its’ dictators from the early 1970’s, noting in particular the instability states with artificially drawn boundaries and America’s role in Iraqi politics, particularly the invasion, which he says led to the Arab Spring revolts. 

In the last third of the book, Scott also discusses the rise of ISIS and subsequent migration of people and terrorism to Europe and beyond. He argues, “it is fitting that the turmoil in the Arab world has its roots in the First World War, for like that war, it is a regional crisis that has come quickly and widely … to influence events at every corner of the globe.” What is unique is how he has chosen to tell this troubled history through the life stories of six individuals and their families.  Certainly heart-wrenching at times and a much needed perspective to humanize a complex and difficult situation. 

Erik Love, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, also attempts to bring greater understanding in ISLAMOPHOBIA AND RACISM IN AMERICA (from New York University Press). He writes about hate crimes in America and how “many South Asian Americans are Muslim, but many others are Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist …. [and] many Arab Americans are Christian, Jewish or agnostic, but race exposes them to Islamophobia all the same.”  Much of his work focuses on defining what he calls “the Middle Eastern racial category” and use of terms like “Muslim American” to replace “Arab American.”

As part of his research, Love has travelled and met/spoken with leaders of advocacy organizations in the United States, conducted content analysis on documents like brochures and websites, and also built a large database with information on “Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian American advocacy organizations.” He writes about whether Islamophobia should be described as racism, noting a long history and parallels with other forms of racism. Several sections describe the work and past strategies employed by these civil rights advocacy groups, as well as a look towards the future and possibility for change.