Book Review: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Imagine a snow globe; the outer glass is this world, rigid yet fragile, fighting a never ending war. Inside it are tiny speckles of snow which are its people, who themselves are fighting the battles of love, independence, freedom and most importantly the mere desire for survival.

                                    image courtesy: Goodreads

The conflicts and the unrest unraveling in a country teetering on the edge of war, the struggles and challenges faced by its citizens mixed with realms of mystic realism told in an absolutely emotional and extraordinary way: that would be my definition of the novel ‘Exit West’ by Mohsin Hamid. 

Being one of the best books of 2017, with even the former president Obama  adding it to his reading list for that year, Exit West was a book waiting to be read and I was beyond excited to read it. The book was so irresistible that I was literally not able to put it down, finishing it in less than two days. 

The story begins with a gentle and caring guy falling in love with a fierce and independent woman in the midst of turmoil and tension in an unnamed country. Maybe the reason for not naming the country is due to the fact that when undergoing such unrest and conflicts, all the countries would be more or less facing the same challenges and following the same routines. As the war takes hold of the country and shakes its foundation, so does the love affair that starts to bloom between the protagonist Saeed and Nadia. There is a saying in my native tongue that roughly translates to “what gets conceived in fire will not wither in the unbearable rays of the sun”. Although this holds true for the most part of their relationship, the mental stress and emotional trauma caused by the war had a dramatic effect, forever altering their personalities. 

Although I have read a few novels belonging to the genre of mystic realism (basically all the Murakami novels), I was quite surprised by seeing the mix of mystic realism in the background of war. And I must say that it indeed augmented the overall mood, exemplifying and underlining the sad truth that the lives of people during a war is just about the same everywhere, regardless of the part of world you are in. The author was successful in conveying the struggles one undergoes during such times and how much effect such an environment can have on one’s relationship with others. 

Without even putting on a label, Saeed and Nadia tried to make their relationship work and they succeeded for the most part. The war took away many of their belongings, from his mom, the city they grew up in, to even the love they had for each other. The black exits that people paid to getaway by weren’t just portals through which they can escape but rather abysses which hardened peoples mind and took away their emotions, transforming them into mere animals that ran around fighting for their survival. 

This book draws a conclusion that there never are any winners in wars, but just sides with lesser deaths, casualties and losses, along with cities, towns and perhaps even people who have been altered, whether mentally or physically forever. 

-Rithin