The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️
I first saw this book in a magazine’s list of book recommendations a while back. When it popped up in my little library (someone in my neighborhood reads the same kind of books I like) I grabbed it.
The premise is that Anders, the main character and a White man, wakes up one day to find himself a Black man. He has an immediate reaction of shock and an identity crisis ensues. But as it turns out, this is happening all over.
The plot follows Anders as he navigates through life with his new appearance and rekindles his relationship with Oona, a past girlfriend. The book also explores their relationships with their parents – Anders with his dying father, Oona with her prejudiced mother. And in the midst of all of this, we see what happens in society as others change, too.
With this surreal premise, Hamid explore themes of race relations, identity, loss, grief, and change.
The book is a short and engaging read written in a surreal, stream of consciousness style with lots of run on sentences. If you love magic realism and explorations of identity, especially when it’s being challenged, you’ll enjoy this book.
Link to buy The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid 🔗
Leave a Reply