5 Books Without Western Lenses
As a bookworm who grew up in Eastern Europe, I often feel the need to take off the Western lenses that are put on me by everything I consume daily. Getting a real grasp of the surroundings won’t happen if I keep seeing things in one color. In other words, I am terrified of being monochromatic.
So this is a reminder (that I often need to send to myself too) of the importance of taking a different perspective and the value of acknowledging a different narrative than the one most of us are used to. Here are five books that help me do that.
©Ferdinando Scianna / Magnum Photos via Vogue
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
A book about memory, nostalgia, rigorously sheltering you within the shared past. The novel follows the story of a psychiatrist who has a clinic for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Each floor of the clinic is a recreation of a different decade which invites the patients to travel back in time to their memories from that time period. Traveling across countries and decades, from Communism to Brexit, the book explores the 20th century of Europe in a cynical, authentic, and challenging manner. The book is a great portrayal of the memories of a post-socialist country intertwined with stories from the West as well, yet not through their perspective. Oh, it is also the first Bulgarian book that was nominated for and won the International Booker Prize!
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
After being mesmerized by the movie Memoirs of a Geisha (only to find out later that the author of the book is American and I, in fact, did not have an actual Japanese experience), I was determined to dive deeply into the world of Japanese traditions with a truly authentic read from their culture. The first Japanese laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Yasunari Kawabata, tells the story of a man who is running away from mundane life and finding himself in an isolated place within the snowy mountain in the company of a geisha. In this cold environment with cold porcelain people, sadness lingers and hangs from the rows like Babylon's gardens during a harsh winter. A book about enduring love which is already over from the start. Different traditions, complex characters, and values, the novel sets you in a storyline you are definitely not used to.
What the Day Owes the Night by Yasmina Khadra
It is a well-known fact (right?) that love during war stories are one of the most perennially heinously romantic reads one can decide to break their heart with. This novel is not only a perfect tool for this aim, but it also extensively describes the colonial division in Algeria during the time period of their civil war. By portraying the societal division between Muslim and Christian, Arab and European, Khadra’s book is a bold example of personal choices, cowardice, silence, and what these can bring. All of this makes the protagonist’s story a burden that aches in your heart and ultimately reminds you that you should always speak your feelings before it is too late. A book that tells the story of ethnic-based discrimination from the lenses of the colonized.
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Although written in the West (to some extent) about the experiences of the protagonist there, the lenses you will borrow are African-American. Through the protagonist - a Nigerian woman who immigrated to the USA for her studies, we see the portrayal of Blackness in America and its range through the concept of identity and the way it is developed in America. The book further explores the theme of love, shares stories about wistful immigration and longing, and is generally a therapeutic book to which anyone could relate. Unraveling the complexity of identity and multiple races within a society, this book is an absolute masterwork for anyone brave enough to listen to the voices of minorities.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
During this one-frame story, a Pakistani man shares some of his past as well as a drink with an American stranger. Exploring the journey of a Muslim in the United States around the time of 9/11 through a dramatic monologue, the book portrays the experience of immigrants who are enchanted with American life and are dealing with the heartache of the dissociation with your homeland at the same time. A romantic storyline is part of the main story as an epic allegory that further helps the reader understand the torn heart of an immigrant coming from a country of great mistrust to America. Mysterious and filled with tensions, this novel keeps you on your toes even after the last page.
A selection from three continents following stories about the complex past or present choices of either underrepresented groups, or ones you are not used to hearing in their own words. While I am a big consumer of popular Western culture, how rich would my views be if I only read what everyone around me read as well!?
