Tanjil Rashid
The Doctor & the President
In his preface to Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman wrote: ‘The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.’ What made America great, what gave it such vitality, was its heterogeneous quality, the fact that it was, as Whitman saw it, ‘a teeming nation of nations’. For Ayad Akhtar, whose spirited autobiographical novel Homeland Elegies consciously invokes Whitman, the country has strayed from that ideal under Donald Trump. Where Whitman glorified multitudes and celebrated contradiction, the Trumpian right insists that to be American is to be one thing only. Far from making America great again, this undoes precisely what made the place exceptional.
Trump has interested many writers, but few have pursued their fascination to the point of enlisting him in an elaborate fictional conceit. Homeland Elegies depicts Trump as a one-time friend of Akhtar’s father, a Pakistani cardiologist in Milwaukee who treats the future president. Dr Akhtar becomes seduced by the art
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma