American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar - BOOK REVIEW

Title:  American Dervish
Author:  Ayad Akhtar
Publisher:   Little, Brown and Company, an imprint of Hachette Books
Release Date:  January 9, 2012
Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN 10:    0316183318
ISBN 13:  9780316183314
The Book Depository / Amazon

January, 2012 Indie Next List

 Goodreads description:

Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes.

Mina is Hayat's mother's oldest friend from Pakistan. She is independent, beautiful and intelligent, and arrives on the Shah's doorstep when her disastrous marriage in Pakistan disintegrates. Even Hayat's skeptical father can't deny the liveliness and happiness that accompanies Mina into their home. Her deep spirituality brings the family's Muslim faith to life in a way that resonates with Hayat as nothing has before. Studying the Quran by Mina's side and basking in the glow of her attention, he feels an entirely new purpose mingled with a growing infatuation for his teacher.

When Mina meets and begins dating a man, Hayat is confused by his feelings of betrayal. His growing passions, both spiritual and romantic, force him to question all that he has come to believe is true. Just as Mina finds happiness, Hayat is compelled to act -- with devastating consequences for all those he loves most.

American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life. Ayad Akhtar was raised in the Midwest himself, and through Hayat Shah he shows readers vividly the powerful forces at work on young men and women growing up Muslim in America. This is an intimate, personal first novel that will stay with readers long after they turn the last page.

My Take: 

Title explanation:  A dervish is a person who gives up everything for Allah.

In 1990, Hayat, from a Pakistani family, is in college.  The death of his "aunt" Mina causes him to reflect on her story, and on events that occurred as he was growing up.  It tells of his parents' less-than-happy marriage, and the different ways in which his parents shaped his views, as well as of Hamad's immersion in the Quran, with the resultant initial rigid set of beliefs that spur him to actions that he is ashamed of later in life.

Mina Ali is his mother Irshad's best friend from Pakistan.  After an arranged marriage to a husband who allows his mother to abuse her, followed by a divorce when Mina is in the maternity ward, Irshad and Naveed (Hayat's father)  persuade Mina's parents to allow her and her 2-year-old-son, Imran, to stay with them in America.

How do I describe this one without spoilers?  As a reader who is always interested in other cultures, but especially fascinated by stories of other cultures living in America, this was a mind-opener.  The parallels here between fundamentalist Christians and their strict, close-minded sets of beliefs and hard-line Muslims are equally full of intolerance.

Mina is a lovely, intelligent woman, and the choices she makes based on her religion are rather tragic in consequence.

Seeing how Hayat's beliefs were whittled and shaped reminds me of my own spiritual growth, and will likely remind you of your own.

I loved the characters and the story.  I felt very invested in Mina, and her story is one that will resonate with you as well, dear reader.

The story of Nathan, Naveed's best friend and colleague, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is bittersweet.

There are injustices here, and adultery, and women whose potential is quashed.  It is sad in places, hopeful in others, but very real and impactful.

I highly recommend it.

QUOTES

"Hayat, her intelligence has been the curse of her life.  When a Muslim woman is too smart, she pays the price for it.  And she pays the price not in money, behta, but in abuse."

"I know that you won't understand why I burned your Quran, but there was a reason. It's because you're different.  You can't live life by rules others give you.  In that way, you and I are the same.  You have to find your own rules.  All my life I've been running away from their rules, Hayat.  All my life.  You will be the same.  Don't ask me how I know it, but I do."

"So what do I do?  I ask her, like any normal person would, 'Why, Najat, does your husband beat you?  Hmm?' "
Mother was absorbed in the moment, as if reliving it.
" 'Because we need it,' she says.  'Because it's something about our nature.  Something that needs to know its limits.' My jaw hit the floor, Hayat.  I looked at her and thought to myself, this is an insane asylum . . . "

Writing:  4.5 out of 5 stars

Plot:  5 out of 5 stars

Characters: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Reading Immersion:   4.5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING:   4.6 out of 5 stars

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Author Website

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Disclosure:  I  received a  complimentary ARC of this title from the publisher through Shelf Awareness to facilitate my review.  No other compensation was received and I was not required to post a positive review.