Review_ Exit West

Published_ February 2017

Author_ Mohsin Hamid

Publisher_ Penguin Fiction

Everyone likes to read or hear stories of people like themselves, right? While Nadia and Saeed’s names are easy to pronounce, mine is not. Having said that, I cannot say that we are entirely dissimilar. However many cultural references we may share, as a reader it is with the humanity of Nadia and Saeed that I can deeply relate to.

The traits that make up their character landscapes make them seem like any one of us. This, for the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) is perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of the novel. They are easy protagonists too, seeming to walk in and walk out of the novel without any damage, sharing with readers but a sliver of close to two years in their lives. This illusion is precisely due to the way Hamid introduces them and then removes them from our imagination. But as easy as their narratives lives may seem, it is a perilous journey for the protagonists who find themselves in situations of conflict and near death experiences. They have to flee their homeland, only to arrive at new homelands as displaced people. Experiencing situations that thrust them into extreme physical, psychological and emotional turmoil. Through all the trauma, there is economy and restrain in the storytelling, its light but full.

The tale Hamid tells is one that carries echoes of a time that is achingly contemporary, in the book there is the phenomenon of the doors, portals that instantly open up to other countries all over the world. The ones that lead to wealthy destinations in the constructed ‘West’ are heavily guarded by armed men, whereas those not in the ‘East’ (Hamid never employs this term, but there is an implication of less desirable destinations) are left unguarded. News travels quickly, and people are crossing these thresholds faster and in greater numbers. This occurs so uncontrollably that governments assume a passive position. Governments, armed forces and lawmakers all take a second position in this novel, as if hidden behind a smokescreen, we hear of them but we don’t see them. The people take up center stage, carried by the hands of two lovers who travel incredible distances in search of safety.

Hamid steers clear of political definitions, denominations and branding, there is no mention of the words refugee or asylum seekers, but the bulk of the storytelling accounts for much political symbolism throughout the novel. We don’t know where Nadia and Saeed’s homeland exactly is, and this –to all accounts- is unimportant.

In the realities of the contemporary political climate, the detail of someone’s identity is of utmost importance, not only for legal matters but also to fuel hateful statement like ‘go back where you came from’. Our world has assassinated the antiquated word ‘globalization’ and replaced it with social media, personal identity politics acting as a decoy most of the time.

In this novel, countries and languages are also undisclosed, which makes them places that only the displaced person knows, and longs to return to. Perhaps Hamid is using yet another semiotic device with the concept of transnational doors, creating a Utopian panorama that blurs the boundaries between nation states and political borders. Everywhere in the novel, in every country we are placed in, cell reception is excellent and the internet is abundantly available. Exit West holds up a mirror, undoubtedly reflecting contemporary life where social media functions as a parallel universe that doesn't exist on its own, but is deeply intertwined in the lives of its consumers.

L.E.G

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