American War – Omar El Akkad

I have shared this anecdote before, but it is worth sharing again at the beginning of this review. Years ago I wrote a short story, and after having a friend look it over they accused it of being cliche. I asked them if they could give a specific example of a similar story (and this was a person that, by their own admission, didn’t really read), and they kind of blew me off.

They weren’t wrong. A cliche can also be a feeling. Case in point, I have never read any other stories like American War. It may be the most cliche story I have ever read.

Reading this reminded me of every conversation I have ever had with anyone left leaning about modern American politics and the north / south, secular / religious, liberal / conservative divide. The book is the echo of every conversation I had since about 9/11 till America finally left Afghanistan just a few years ago. It is about

The notion that the American civil war never really ended, but merely went on an extended hiatus, is not a new one. It is older than me. They’ve told us as much with the repeated notions that ‘the south will rise again.’ And I think the people who really do believe this are some of the most painfully stupid people in the USA.

Now imagine a novel full of them.

These people do exists, but they are a minority in the USA, and you will meet a whole lot of people whose opinions are actually much more nuanced. But in this novel, the dunces have the better of it.

So a couple of spoilers below:

Nothing in the book is all that surprising. Not when the main character becomes what is ultimately a terrorist, and not when the same character is later waterboarded. Like I have said, cliche. This story is the (rather simple) product of those people who spent the period off the Iraq/Afghanistan war saying to themselves “I could make a set of circumstances that would make these simple Americans understand empathy!”

The plague in the story never sat well with me. The book kind of just hand waves away that an American president used biological weapon on his own people. Nothing in the novel hints at the possibility that this might be a conspiracy theory. It is sold as cold hard fact. There is no such parallel in reality to such a horrific event, and certainly nothing in history. My inner John Maynard Keynes was screaming at this point. Would the world in the 21st century just accept that from the USA? Even a waning USA? Later in the novel, the main character goes the ‘eye for an eye’ route and releases a similar biological weapon in the north.

I pride myself on being very left leaning, and I think this author would think that of himself too. But I think we would disagree on every other political point. This is made worse by the fact that the author is a close friend of a close friend. I might actually have to meet this guy one day.