Harbor

What's the title?

Harbor

Who wrote it?

Lorraine Adams

When was it written?

2004

Would I recommend it?

Yes

What's it about?(non-spoilers)

It's about Aziz, an Algerian refugee to America. It's about him trying to make a new life for himself in Boston. It's about his past in war torn Algeria. It's about his old friends, his new friends, his so-called friends, what their stories are and how they effect Aziz.

What did you think? (spoilers)

I loved this book. It's definitely my favorite read of the year so far.

This is not a comfortable read by any stretch of the imagination. It's incredibly graphic. You see the trials that Aziz and his friends go through in America, and, for me, as someone who has never had to go through anything like that, the degradation and the fear and the horror of it left me heartbroken, wondering how any person could live through that. Then Adams started exploring Aziz's history back in Algeria, and it was even more horrendous and more heartbreaking and more devastating. I found the resilience of humanity demonstrated in this character overwhelming.

None of the characters in this book are perfect - even Aziz, who is one of the most endearing characters I've ever read. He has a very complicated past. He's made, while understandable decisions, really abhorrent decisions. Yet the whole time I remained completely sympathetic to his plight and the plight of those around him. Whenever a character in this novel would make a bad decision, I found myself heartbroken for them. I found myself often thinking "No, I want better for you!"

I ended up being sympathetic to and invested in nearly every POV character, even characters that at first introduction I thought "Oh, you're the worst and I hate you." Particularly I felt this way about Heather. Heather is the wealthy daughter of a Virginia businessman and seems to be hanging with these refugees to piss off her rich parents and seem interesting. Not exactly a character I'd want to grab coffee with in real life. But Adams refuses to leave Heather as a stereotype, and as the story explores Heather's complex humanity, I found myself coming to really care for her and hoping for her happy ending.

Another thing I really appreciated about the book was that not only does it make compelling the stories of our main POV characters but also the stories of their antagonists. There are bad people in this story, but, with the exception of two characters, none of them are evil. I found myself sympathizing with the law enforcement characters even while they were making the main characters' lives incredibly difficult. I was still incredibly frustrated with them and wanted them to go away, but I understood their motivations. They were trying to do their jobs. They were trying to serve their country. I could see their point of view even while I disagreed with it.

For instance, our law enforcement POV character, April, introduces the readers to her pain in the butt deputy, Mark. As he speaks, I understood why April disliked Mark. He comes off as a by-the-book stickler and know-it-all. He also happens to be the law enforcement character who has the most accurate picture of what's going on with the refugees and the position that law enforcement needs to take. If I were looking at the world through April's eyes, I'd want Mark to stay out of my way, but provided with my omniscient reader's perspective, I just want April to do as Mark says. It's a clever use of dramatic irony.

I will say that sometimes the writing was a little bit difficult for me. Adams has a tendency to drop the reader straight into whichever character's POV and doesn't bother with orienting the reader to the change. It's very much a sink or swim approach. As difficult as that approach could be at points and as much as I felt like occasionally things were going over my head, it was very effective at building intimacy with these characters. Every time I was dropped into a new POV it forced me to immediately inhabit that character, and that created intimate connections between me and these characters. So while I would understand this approach setting people off, I grew to really appreciate it. I don't know that I would've been able to handle that kind of writing in a different story, but, in this particular story at least, it worked.

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