A review of Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
In Arabic, ʿālamīna (worlds) is the plural of the word “world” (alam), but here it doesn’t signify the physical worlds alone, as a broken plural would, but rather refers to the worlds inhabited by people, i.e., living and livable worlds. And interestingly, this is the prevailing theme that Mohsin Hamid’s book Exit West explores: diverse worlds populated by variegated people — with dissimilar cultural and civilizational values, languages, and religions — constantly transgressing into each other due to widespread nuisance and burgeoning terrorism.
The story circles a young couple: Saeed and Nadia. Nadia used to (and throughout the story) wear a flowing black robe; this robe was a façade and, as it unfurled later, served as a disguise to undo society’s reprehensions. Saeed, initially, with a studiously maintained stubble, was also not a zealous religious adherent — neither in substance, nor with a degree of hypocrisy. They met in a classroom and did not speak to each other immediately. And only when Saeed noticed a beauty mark on her neck did he endeavour to talk to her.
Though the initial world (country) of the story is not mentioned explicitly, a reader can guess at it by the mention of religious hypocrisy, moral policing, and a city teetering at the edge of the abyss, either it is Pakistan or a country like Afghanistan. This looks like a clever trick by the author to universalise this fictional setting.
Saeed and Nadia fall in love immediately amidst the deteriorating environment, brimming with refugees occupying public spaces, full of militancy and its counterforce, slaying each other while the city and its citizens suffer and in this topsy-turvy world, both love-birds remain animated and their entanglement increases with each passing day. This is perhaps normative psychology under threat – to embrace what could make the cul-de-sac more livable. Mohsin writes, “In times of violence, there is always that first acquaintance or intimate of ours, who, when they are touched, makes what had seemed like a bad dream suddenly, evisceratingly real.”
Notwithstanding, it was pretty difficult for them to remain in touch, since the mobile signals were mostly dysfunctional and being seen as an unmarried couple could cost them their lives. Despite all the trials and tribulations, they stayed together and stealthily enjoyed moments of intimacy — sans lovemaking — sporadically. Then, unfortunately, one fine day, as was common in those days, a stray heavy-calibre round passing through the windscreen of the family’s car takes a quarter of Saeed’s mother’s head. This makes Nadia, who had no kin around, live with Saeed in their house without any formal relationship; they dwell like brother and sister.
This predicament, and the burgeoning restrictions and living conditions made it clear they couldn’t live in this city anymore. But to leave this battlefield was almost impossible for Saeed’s father, given his age and frail health, so his father nudged them to leave this city through a rumoured door, which had the mysterious power of transporting them to novel worlds (read: countries) with better conditions, comparatively. Before the departure, he took a promise from Nadia that she would travel with his son like a comrade and would never leave his side no matter what.
They then, by paying a travel agent, go through such a speculative door and this will not be the single time they travel through it. Throughout the book, they ferry many countries, including the UK, USA, Greece and so on. With each episode, we see a new way of being otherized by the natives. Which again is understandable. Given the neoliberal world, with its so-called limited resources, it is not easy for the hosts to welcome unwanted, unsolicited guests. This otherness extended beyond the shadows of economics to their social lives, encompassing values, religions, languages, communication habits, community and group ties, leisure activities and much more.
Further, these adventures not only change them — Saeed and Nadia – physically due to stressful conditions and pathetic treatment, but also morphes their chemistry into a decidedly diffuse and undefined relationship. In a way, the shifting external world morphes the internal world too; as if, with each storm, they experience a different sky. Ultimately, the scatter will be too great to be reconciled.
While the theme is promising, the execution remained subpar. Hamid employed long and convoluted sentences, explaining far more than needed, describing the environment through an all-knowing third-person point of view; it felt like the author thinks his readers are stupid and need this omnipresent dictation. Then we see sporadic entries of sub-narratives which don’t make sense in the main narrative. As a reader, whenever I started to resonate with the main plot, another unrelated, incomplete story upended my stream of thought.
Also, the book contains many clichés. Moreover, the characters were not fleshed out very well. Saeed and Nadia fell in love without mentioning the events that led to it. And then what exactly changes their outlook towards each other.
The end again felt quite abrupt. Nadia left Saeed, with whom she travelled the world and promised lifelong camaraderie and then, in the end, met again half a century later and left each other again for an indefinite time. Insofar as the theme is concerned, the book’s hype in the West is not completely illogical, given the politics around immigration, but the execution could have been far better and more pristine.
