AMERICA DECONSTRUCTED

A debut essay collection about the immigrant experience in America.

Authors Sohan and Adin showcase a wide variety of experiences in this book; some are about relatively recent arrivals to the United States, while others are about people who have spent decades stateside, and they hail from such places as Afghanistan, Kosovo, India, Nigeria, England, and Mexico. However, the stories’ narrators aren’t clearly identified, and it would have been helpful to know, at a minimum, their full names. (The acknowledgements thank “Naseer, Parag, Myra, JC, Roselin, Azim, Sam, Benedict, Liti, Francisco, Ifeyinwa & Chidiebere, Lisian, Molly and Jose for sharing your life with us.”) However, the essays, while sometimes-unpolished, employ unique and effective narrative voices, and each adds a valuable contribution to the book as a whole. In “I Saw a Ripe Mango I’d Like to Pluck,” a Nigerian couple share the story of their long-distance courtship, while “I Love You Even Though You Are Old School, Mom!” is about the cultural gaps between generations. The English-born author of “I am Moo-Hay and French Because of My English Accent!” contends with more culture shock in the transition from Cornwall to Ohio than many non-English-speaking immigrants do (“It felt like I was from a different planet and was being introduced to the concept of washer and dryer”). Several themes repeat throughout this truly wide-ranging collection: immigrants who learned English in their home countries finding American speech to be a foreign language (“I think there is a difference between knowing a language and having an accent”); families finding ways to strengthen bonds, despite distance; and people who immigrated decades ago thinking that it’s more difficult for today’s immigrants to succeed. Many essays effectively express an ongoing sense of difference (“I am reminded each time of being a refugee, except now I am an American passport-holding refugee”), although other authors express a desire to assimilate (“I’d rather be in India if I were to live in a place that felt like India”).

A diverse set of stories about finding a home in a new country.