Exit West

I know this will be a very controversial review. I really did want to enjoy this book. However upon finishing it I feel very underwhelmed. Over a year ago I finished the reluctant fundamentalist and really enjoyed it but I had many issues with this book. I hated the writing style of this book. It made the reading experience pretty tedious. I hated the bits when the perspective would sporadically shift to some random person in a random location for a page and then go back to the main narrative. It made the feeling of certain chapters jarring and the shift was irrelevant to the wider plot. I wasn't invested in the relationship between Nadia and Saeed and so moments that were meant to be heartwarming and/or heartbreaking lacked sincerity for me. I think Mohsin Hamid can certainly write and some interesting points were raised in this book about emigration and identity. However I wasn't overly convinced about the device of the doors and so this book can only receive a run of the mill 3 out of 5 stars from me.