Book Review- Wajahat Ali's Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on how to Become American

Thank you to LibroFM and Recorded Books Inc for a copy of Wajahat Ali’s memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful recommendations on How to Become American.

Wajahat Ali grew up in the San Francisco Bay area to parents who immigrated from Pakistan. In Go Back to Where You Came From, Ali writes about being raised in America and the difficulties that his family faced with assimilation in their new country. Ali details that despite being born in the United States, he has always been seen as an outsider, an immigrant.

This impact was most profound when his parents were arrested for financial crimes shortly after September 11th, with elements of their arrest appearing to reflect the distrust that Americans have towards muslims. For a majority of his childhood, Ali lived in upper-middle class comfort, but the arrest of his parents thrust him into financial worry. He was nearly finished with college at the time and suddenly found himself in charge of the family business and caring for elderly grandmothers. I am the same age as Ali and as I was listening to him tell his story, I kept imagining our parallel lives in the years following the fall of the twin towers. I can’t imagine the stress he faced, both from the strain of his parents in prison and from his social position in American society. As a white American, I felt that his perspective was important to hear and to try to understand- to listen.

Ali’s story takes an interesting twist as he struggles to get his life back on track, becoming both a lawyer and a playwright. Boldly producing his play on the anniversary of September 11th, it features a Pakistani- American muslim family in conversations that include the terrorist attacks. Ali got started running his play locally, in the reception rooms at Indian restaurants, building a following that included bigger donations and eventually, an off-broadway run.

I found Ali’s journey in the first part of his life ( hey, we are only middle-aged, lots more to come) to be inspiring and surprising. Ali has a sharp sense of humor and a keen eye for observing human behavior. Go Back to Where You Came From is an important memoir for people, especially those who have white privilege, to read and absorb. I grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in Los Angeles and I feel that Ali helped me better understand the immigrant experience that some of my friends and their parents might have faced living in the United States.

Book Review- Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties: A Book

Thank you to LibroFM and Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties: A Book.

Klosterman examines some of the key cultural, technological, and political events of the nineties with a specific focus on how this decade shaped the people who came of age during this period.

I am the audience for The Nineties. I graduated from high school in 1995 and I vividly remember every key event that Klosterman mentions in his book, including the OJ Simpson trial, the Clinton scandal, the Los Angeles Riots ( happened a mere fifteen minutes from my home), death of Kurt Cobain, Oklahoma City Bombing, et… But I must confess that I had not given much thought to many of these events in many years and Klosterman’s analysis brought me right back to that era of my life, but with the benefit of distance.

As small as this seems, I was most struck by Klosterman’s dive into how movies shaped the nineties attitude. Klosterman reminded me of a attribute associated with people of my generation, a general vibe of not-caring, but even more, the desperation of showing others how nonchalant you can be, as if it was a contest. I’m not sure how much of this is actually true, but it is certainly reflected in the pop-culture of the nineties. Klosterman uses the example of the film Reality Bites to reflect the worst of this attitude.

I have not watched Reality Bites since I was a teenager, but at the time, I loved the film. Klosterman points out that the film has aged poorly with the protagonist, Lelaina played by Winona Ryder, choosing the wrong love interest, a slacker played by Ethan Hawke, who berates and belittles her choices., including her dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker.He doesn’t show her much attention and is negative towards the good guy, played by Ben Stiller, who tries to date Lelaina, while showing nothing but love and support. But of course, in nineties fashion, the actual good guy loses, because he cares too much, and because Lelaina is culturally programmed to find the detached, aloof guy, far more appealing. In fact, she spends much of the film quite desperate to get his approval. The nineties teen me was in full-on approval mode for Lelaina’s choice, but now, the forty-four year old me living in 2022 is horrified by this choice. Again, I’m not sure if the films of the era truly reflected my own life, but I can see how the messaging impacted the way I viewed relationships and motivations. It was toxic.

Klosterman narrates his own audio book and I found his voice to be pleasant and easy on the ears. I appreciated this time hop back to my teens and although some uncomfortable revelations were experienced, I enjoyed Klosterman’s keen observations. This book would be fascinating for many people, but it will have special meaning if you were old to remember the nineties.