The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Submission by Amy Waldman

July 13, 2012

The Submission by Amy Waldman
Publication date: August 16th 2011
Genres: Contemporary, Debut, Fiction, Literary
five-stars

submission

 

An anonymous competition to design the 9/11 memorial in NYC. A panel of 13 judges including the widow of a man who died in one of the towers. A winner who turns out to be a Muslim. With these straightforward facts begins a book that is anything but straightforward: Amy Waldman’s debut novel, The Submission.

Even at first glance it’s clear that the opportunity for drama is all over this plot but without the right touch it could easily become a treatise for one side or the other or a simplistic piece of fluff. Waldman avoids both these perils and produces a book of such depth and complexity I read it twice. While there are the key players, it is the supporting cast that enhances and enriches the plot- even when the characters are of a type to make you grind your teeth. The emotions such characters engender keeps the story taut from beginning to end.

We meet people like Asma, a Bangladeshi native living illegally in NYC who loses her husband in one of the towers. On the surface this is a woman who can’t read or speak English and so, is devalued and ignored. And yet we see the crystalline clarity of her mind and her desire for answers even from her own religion

The men who killed Inam believed it was an act of devotion, one that would get them to paradise, she told the imam. Everyone said so. How could the same paradise make room for both them and her husband?

We feel her confusion and pain but even the unsympathetic characters are written with such depth, layers and flavor that they read as real, not caricature.

Waldman gathers this diverse cast around a theme that still evokes strong emotions, represents the viewpoints of each with almost journalistic neutrality, and makes the reader care deeply about the outcome, even as we watch the situation devolve into the increasingly common forum of American discourse- the volume of what you say is more important than the content. She creates this level of involvement through a masterful use of language. Sentences as simple as “The janitor began pushing his supply cart and sadness across the cluttered room…” resonate and linger. This ability to evoke strong emotion distinguishes The Submissionas something to be savored and read carefully. From its opening chapters, with the horrified reactions of the jurors at their choice, to the subsequent actions of the winner, notions of right and wrong are challenged.

There are treasures on every page of this complex, complicated tale. Right up until the poignant last sentence.

five-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 5 Star Books
  • By Amy Waldman
private life
The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma
delicious foods
Delicious Foods: A Novel
Brain on Fire
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
vintage
Vintage: A Novel
headmaster's wager
The Headmaster’s Wager
unbecoming
Unbecoming
mountains
When These Mountains Burn
osmond
Mrs. Osmond by John Banville
diamond lane
The Diamond Lane
hollywood
Hollywood Women: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
monster
Good Morning, Monster
Hijacked by Your Brain
Hijacked by Your Brain
takedown
5 Star Week: The Takedown
duchess
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: A Memoir
dilettante
Dilettante: True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster
door
A Door in the Earth

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, contemporary life, debut, Farrar Straus Giroux, Manhattan, social issues

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2022

Copyright © 2022 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in