Review: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Please read this book. Especially given where we are in our country at the moment with a presidential candidate who says such horrible things about immigrants. Given that we're a nation created by immigrants, I think this book is key to better understanding this key demographic. This book gives life to the immigrant experience in an incredible way. It gave life to the very topic that I've been seeing on the news for months.

Between the novels exploration of the immigrant experience and it's exploration of the fall of Lehman Brothers, it's a strong novel that also makes you think so much about poverty and wealth, family, how we treat other people and what we might do to find a better life for ourselves and our families. I think this is a book that can really allow people to better understand what it's like to leave your country and seek a life in America. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. And putting the life of wealth beside the life of an average immigrant, really makes those culture differences all the more stark.

The thing that I most appreciated about this book was how it focuses on the small details of life and how they come together in the lives of people. It really gave a great deal of texture to the story.

As I mentioned before, I highly recommend this novel. It's such a timely, charming and important novel!