American War

American War by Omar El Akkad
Published: 2017
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 12:22 (352 pages)

This is one of the books nominated in the Canada Reads 2018 competition. I’m not a huge fan of how the Canada Reads debates are structured, but it’s a good resource for finding some noteworthy Canadian novels, which I’ve been meaning to focus on a little more.

This story takes place at the end of the 21st century in America. After climate change forces a ban on fossil fuel across the country, the southern states break away from the union and start the second civil war. The protagonist, Sarat Chestnut, is just a child when this happens, and we follow her as she’s uprooted from her home and forced to try to find room in a refugee camp. The story spans the entirety of the war and beyond, which is an interesting perspective when typically a story would focus on just a key battle or moment within the war.

Nativism being a pyramid scheme, I found myself contemptuous of the refugees’ presence in a city already overburdened. At the foot of the docks, we yelled at them to go home, even though we knew home to be a pestilence field. We carried signs calling them terrorists and criminals and we vandalized the homes that would take them in. It made me feel good to do it, it made me feel rooted; their unbelonging was proof of my belonging.

The characters in this are quite complex, and it does a great job of showing how good people can be twisted to do evil things. It explores the idea that violence just spawns more violence by providing terrorist organizations with ample ground for recruiting, allowing them to cut civilians off from the news of the outside world and use the deaths of their family and friends to fuel their hate and need for vengeance. Here that takes place within the United States, which I think can maybe drive the point home a bit easier for a western audience.

I liked this, but I didn’t love it. Maybe the characters were a little too unsympathetic, or maybe the world was a little too closed off around these characters, but I found I wasn’t that invested in the story. I also didn’t feel like I was reading a story set over fifty years in the future when almost no advancements in technology seemed to have occurred. Although sadly, the main conflict didn’t seem too crazy to me. Two years ago I would have thought the idea of a disagreement on fossil fuels starting a civil war in America to be ridiculous, but I think this last year or so has made the ridiculous seem plausible. You know – stupid people, large groups.

Interesting and thought-provoking book. I will probably read a couple more of this year’s Canada Reads books, although probably not before the debates take place at the end of this month.