Behold The Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
Award: PEN/Faulkner Winner 2017
Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2017, Dublin Longlist 2018, Oprah Book Club 2017, PEN/Open Book Longlist 2017
Date Read: April 3, 2020
If there was one word to sum up this brilliant novel by Mbue, that word would be probably. Amidst all the tragedy and hardship here, probably is the single word that comes to mind for me.
Would Jende ultimately have been denied asylum? Probably. Would Cindy still have died if Neni hadn't extorted her for money? Probably. Would Neni have ever completed her studies if they had stayed? Probably not. Even if Jende had gotten his papers, would he have been able to get a better job? Probably not.
At first I was completely disappointed that Jende gave up and wanted to move their family back to Cameroon but over time, I realized that he was probably right. He could spend his years ruining his body doing back-breaking work and never quite get ahead. The wild card would have been Neni. With her dreams of becoming a pharmacist, had those dreams materialized, they could have lived a comfortable existence. But that existence was just so far out of reach. There is a difference between quitting and facing reality.
What also fascinated me was how people behaved in ways I wouldn't have expected. Neni extorting Cindy. Jende hitting Neni. Clark putting his family first after Cindy's death. In some of these cases, these characters got to experience the baseness of desperation. In all of these cases, these characters grew, for good and bad. Behold The Dreamers is a perfect example of why I love this project.
Date Read: April 3, 2020
If there was one word to sum up this brilliant novel by Mbue, that word would be probably. Amidst all the tragedy and hardship here, probably is the single word that comes to mind for me.
Would Jende ultimately have been denied asylum? Probably. Would Cindy still have died if Neni hadn't extorted her for money? Probably. Would Neni have ever completed her studies if they had stayed? Probably not. Even if Jende had gotten his papers, would he have been able to get a better job? Probably not.
At first I was completely disappointed that Jende gave up and wanted to move their family back to Cameroon but over time, I realized that he was probably right. He could spend his years ruining his body doing back-breaking work and never quite get ahead. The wild card would have been Neni. With her dreams of becoming a pharmacist, had those dreams materialized, they could have lived a comfortable existence. But that existence was just so far out of reach. There is a difference between quitting and facing reality.
What also fascinated me was how people behaved in ways I wouldn't have expected. Neni extorting Cindy. Jende hitting Neni. Clark putting his family first after Cindy's death. In some of these cases, these characters got to experience the baseness of desperation. In all of these cases, these characters grew, for good and bad. Behold The Dreamers is a perfect example of why I love this project.
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