Late on a spring night in the Mojaves Yucca Valley, Driss Guerraoui is killed in a brutal hit-and-run.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami (The Moors Account) artfully infuses her crime saga with tremendous empathy.
The chapters intimately detail the way these characters walk through and relate to the world.
Credit: April Rocha
They function symphonically, enhancingThe Other Americans tapestry of alienation.
InThe Other Americans, crime breeds clarity.
Efrains conscience eats him alive as he decides not to come forward, for fear of being reported.
Pantheon
Lalamis scrupulous construction lendsThe Other Americansa page-turning excitement.
But each gets a moment that strikes like a thunderbolt: electric, resounding, and precisely delivered.
And I was nine years old again.
It didnt matter, it hurt the same every time.
His final moments can only be mourned and debated and left in a fog, triggering lifelong traumas.
But Lalami does what she can: She grants him the power of fiction.
The author seems uncomfortable, in her rushed final act, with wrapping the book up.
The conclusion reads unusually, tentatively hopeful.
Let it settle, though, and it feels, if not satisfying, at least appropriate.
