This will make you think

Exit West
von Mohsin Hamid

Bewertet mit 4.5 Sternen

"We're all migrants through time." (S. 209)

My opinion: This story is full of sort of mental prods and you get all these thoughts while reading, that you should take more time to do it and that all these sentences deserve far more value than you can give them.
Style: The style of the author was sort of in motion. While reading it I felt I was moving around too, not really belonging anywhere. That is, in my opinion, managed by writing just looooong sentences, one sentence actually stretched on over two pages!
It's a style you just like or don't, and for me, it was fitting. But if you don't like long sentences, this is probably not the book for you.
Characters/Style: The storyteller is all-knowing, so it's neither Nadia nor Saeed telling us their story. That is partly helpful because the author can bring in all his thoughts and isn't tied to one character, but it's also not so great because in some situations, you can't really connect to the characters.
Saeed and Nadia are both nice people. I could understand them and really grew to like them throughout the story. I connected to Nadia a bit better in the middle of the story.
Plot: The story is initially about two things: in the first part of the book, war and flight, in the second part of the book, the characters' relationship. And as subtopics, there's for example being a migrant and natives and so on.
The plot is really interesting, even though I don't get the main idea behind the story: relationship or flight?
But that didn't matter to me, because I just loved all these ideas and thoughts that came while reading and that was amazing.

Conclusion: It's a great story because of all these thoughts you can have if you really value these sentences. The style you have to like or you can't enjoy the book.
I had a wonderful experience reading this book and can only recommend it!

"[...] for personalities are not a single immutable colour, like white or blue, but rather illuminated screens, and the shades we reflect depend much on what is around us." (S. 186)