Dreams and America

Book 4 of 2018

Reading usually is a good escape for me, even the heavier reads that feel more real than fictitious. I didn't necessarily feel different about Behold the Dreamers but it struck a chord in reality in a way a book hasn't in awhile.

I was reading on the night of the 2018 State of the Union instead of watching the speech. I found it would be important to read a story by an immigrant, about immigrants, as a form of rebellion against the current administration (which I've decided to refer to as "that man" instead of anything resembling his name or an honorific). Toward the end of the evening, after the speech ended and after I had taken a break to see social media, I read a line on page 299 about a Trump hotel. The gist was one character saying that when he made enough money, he would take everyone to dinner there.

I found myself suddenly weeping.

I wept because of what he said during the speech that night about immigrants and their families. Because of what he has said so many times not just since being president, or running for president, but also the "birther" narrative he trumpeted in 2011, and the shady and racist real estate dealings he engaged in over the course of his career.

I wept because this book is about a family truly trying to do their best in attaining the American Dream. Sure, they were not perfect. The husband and father, slightly misogynistic and selfish. The wife, sometimes too gossipy for her own good. But he was also hard-working and loyal; she was also smart and courageous. They were working their way up to their dreams, but the collapse of the American economy, combined with the inherent privilege of his employer, and layers and layers of fear associated with being honest with the wrong people, slowly knocked them back down.

And it shouldn't have been that hard.

The story took place in the late 20-oughts, right before and in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Any time has been hard for immigrants in America, but economic issues exacerbate problems; and then I couldn't escape the thought of how this family would feel 10 years later, in even a better economy.

This book was powerful, multi-layered and complex. No one character was wholly good or wholly evil, but a combination of forces, choices, and the systemic structures meant to prop the privileged and knock the oppressed, made the difference between the characters' abilities to live into their dreams or not.

I have many earmarks and maybe they'll appear here one day. For now, I recommend this book, and all of its emotion, and for us to do whatever we can to stop the train of nationalism and racism from destroying more dreams.

~MJ