Harbor

HARBOR

by Lorraine Adams

 

Award: LA Times Winner 2004

 

Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2006

 

Date Read: November 6, 2021

 

There’s a lot to unpack in this novel that focuses on one aspect of the immigrant experience in America. Coming from Algeria, the men depicted here are desperate to start a new life in America that they risk everything to come – surviving in inhuman conditions as stow-aways on ships at sea for over 50 days. This was the experience of Aziz, Ghazi, Rafik and the three brothers. Others among them were luckier, winning the lottery, such as Mourad, Aziz’s brother.

 

Regardless of how they get there, the U.S. does not open her arms to receive them but they have to claw and fight for their survival. The one thing they have going for them is each other and at times, they don’t even have that. Yet, the U.S. is a blank slate in which they can begin a new story and imagine a better future.

 

Almost before he has a chance to do anything, Aziz racks up tremendous debt in hospital, trying to heal from the wounds he arrived with that resulted in surgery for his badly injured feet. I was never quite certain how those wounds came to be. 

 

Rafik is the only person Aziz knows in Boston and the first person he turns to once he can stand on his own thanks so an Egyptian who mercifully took him in and helped tend his wounds. Rafik, although a friendly face, leads a precarious existence as he dabbles in the illegal – stolen merchandise, credit card theft, drug dealing and surrounding himself with dodgy people in general. Aziz is put out by his behavior as is Rafik’s live-in girlfriend Heather.

 

Ghazi and Aziz become fast friends and even faster condemners of Rafik’s behavior. In a move that will result in their downfall, Ghazi steals a key to Rafik’s storage unit and he and Aziz set out to determine exactly how illegal Rafik’s endeavors really are. Once there, they don’t find anything that they didn’t already know, which confuses them.

 

In flashbacks, we learn of Aziz’s service in the Algerian army and a group of fundamentalist Islamists who kidnap him to fight on their side. Aziz is never really sure which side he is supposed to be fighting for and after injuring his arm, manages to escape their clutches. Returning home to his family, he knows he needs to escape Algeria before his kidnappers find him.

 

Aziz is a gentle soul who is looking for his own measure of peace and security. Yet, for all his innocence (those inspiring messages on coffee cups were life for me), he and his cohort of exiles are caught up in a weak FBI raid that was really trying to nab two people they knew to be involved in a terrorist cell. The FBI is so incompetent that they catch Aziz and Ghazi and the three brothers but the two who were legitimately involved slip by without any consequence.

 

While reading this, I often thought of Behold The Dreamers and the immigrant experience portrayed there. Both of those novels ended up with the characters right back where they started. As much as I wanted Aziz to succeed and settle down, maybe after all the complications and heartache, he was happy to be home? I ultimately doubt it, though. Going home would be the death of hope for him.