Exit West

An affecting sorta-magic(al) realist novel about the refugee crisis.

It uses a brilliant gimmick - magical doors that teleport people instantly around the world - to explore the tragedy and humanity of modern migration. That said, similar to Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, another book with an evocative magical-political gimmick (in that one, Oppenheimer and other nuclear bomb scientists are magically ported from 1940s Manhattan Project to 2003 New Mexico), Exit West starts strong - VERY STRONG - and then takes a plot twist that feels cheap and like a too-early highway exit. That is, it's such a great idea and it has so much potential, but it doesn't feel fully explored - in fact, it feels like the central refugee crisis gets wrapped up halfway through the book.

The story starts in an unnamed city in an unnamed Arab country that feels very much like Syria. Saeed and Nadia are twenty-somethings courting each other while the chaos of civil war encroaches. As things become increasingly dire, rumors spread of these magical doors. The doors - Narnia-like - open up to other parts of the planet: from a kitchen closet in Aleppo, you can step into a public bathroom in Mykonos. Doors are fiercely fought over, hunted for; they appear randomly; any door can become a magical one.

This is such a clever gimmick. First of all, it eliminates - crazily, but geniusly - one of the defining characteristics of the story of the refugee: the long journey. What if you didn't need to walk for miles, or struggle onto flimsy, unsafe boats, or huddle in the backs of trucks? What if you could just step through a magical portal? Mohsin Hamid incisively shows how this would only accelerate the crisis rather than fix it: the logistical nightmares of refugee camps and endless, perilous uncertainty would still be there. The reactionary nativist forces would still be there. The cross-planet informal networks of migrant rumor mills on Whatsapp and Facebook would still be there. Things would just move faster, much faster. Genius point 1.

Genius point 2 is, of course, how the doors represent the reality of this globalized, inter-connected in-everyone's-face world.

Anyway, I crushed this book in a couple marathon listens; it's very, very readable. But it does leave you feeling unsatisfied; so much more could have been done with this. Also, Mohsin Hamid's writing is intentionally detached, remote, even aloof. I think this is meant to make it feel like a fable or morality play (which, of course, it is). Mostly, this works well - but sometimes, it felt like the prose was both purple AND aloof; not a good look.

And now, for another affecting gimmick about the Syrian refugee crisis, this old Save the Children ad. GENIUS.

Oh yes, and for ANOTHER political spec fic gimmicky book: The Mirage, about an alternative history/parallel universe where the UAS (United Arab States) are besieged by “Crusader” terrorists on Nov. 9 (11/9). Exit West bends more towards literary fiction, whereas The Mirage is more airport spec fic.