In this masterful book, Dina Nayeri approaches the issues surrounding the current refugee crisis (though perhaps it should be more correctly termed the “ongoing” refugee crisis, since one of the things Nayeri explores is the way in which the more things change, the more they stay the same) from a variety of perspectives. I’m often skeptical of memoirs for the exact reason that I feel the vast majority of people simply don’t have the perspective on their own lives to really understand them, but Nayeri not only has that perspective on her own life, she has a collection of lenses that she uses to view the refugee as a cultural and historical figure. One might even say that she reveals a multitude of identities. There are, I think, three main strands she’s weaving here. There’s the story of her own experience when her family was forced to flee Iran in the 1970s and the way those experiences made her the person she is now; this is Nayeri as memoirist. Then she journeys in the present day to explore the current refugee experience, visiting camps, talking to refugees, telling stories that are often heart-wrenching and painful; this is Nayeri as journalist. Then she writes at length about the very ideas that underpin everything about refugeeism, exploring ideas like the nation-state, concepts of immigration, cultural identity and perspective; this is Nayeri as essayist, though it wouldn’t take much arm-twisting for me to say philosopher so insightful and thought-provoking are these sections of the book. That’s not all the ways she’s writing, not all the identities she inhabits, but those are the main ones and as she flips back and forth between those perspectives/personas throughout the book, she creates a really fascinating, emotional experience. This is a book that inspired a lot of emotions in me; sorrow, frustration, anger, despair, hope. Nayeri is, in my opinion, in complete control of this book as a lived experience. She’s an incredibly deft writer, able to change perspectives from one page to the next, the way an optometrist switches lenses to try to help you bring the eye chart into its best possible focus and it’s this that really elevates this book from being what I might call a good book about a current issue to what I will definitely call a genuinely great work of literature. The Ungrateful Refugee is a book everyone needs to read, because Nayeri will challenge you, dazzle you, enrage you, make you think and then break your heart. A key theme of The Ungrateful Refugee is that refugees owe the countries where they take refuge nothing, no more and no less than any other citizen of the world. But now that she’s created this astonishing work of art, I think it’s the world that owes Nayeri quite a lot. Attention for one thing, but that’s honestly just the beginning. 4 stars.
tl;dr – deftly written, thoughtful and multilayered exploration of the refugee crisis is an absolute must read; not just a timely book, but a great work of literature by any measure. 4 stars.