The first few chapters of Harbor are excellent. Page 1 finds Aziz Arkoun standing on the deck of a tanker, freezing, with his skin bleeding from the asbestos insulation he used as a blanket, getting ready to jump into the waters of Boston Harbor. Aziz is a refugee from Algeria, and the author conveys the disorientation of his early days in America with realistic specificity: his joy at encountering street vendors who speak Arabic; his concern about letting them know he is Algerian; the apartment where the guy from his home town lives with several sketchy characters.
In contrast to the vividness of the immigrant experience, the sections of the book that take place in Algeria are vague and unfocused (partly because Aziz is reluctant to remember what happened). In the later stages of the story, we see how the FBI almost willfully misinterprets the actions of our heroes, but this too is underdeveloped.
In contrast to the vividness of the immigrant experience, the sections of the book that take place in Algeria are vague and unfocused (partly because Aziz is reluctant to remember what happened). In the later stages of the story, we see how the FBI almost willfully misinterprets the actions of our heroes, but this too is underdeveloped.
No comments:
Post a Comment