Behold the Dreamers - United States (New York City)

Publication Date: Aug 23, 2016

Pages: 400

Date Started: Aug 12, 2018

Date Finished: Sep 16, 2018

I read this book for the library book club to which I belong - it wasn't a book I suggested and I'm not even sure who did suggest it, but I am so glad that it was selected. I tend to read mostly fiction, mostly by white male authors and mostly centered in the United States/England (maybe Canada, Ireland or some Scandinavian country thrown into the mix) so reading a book by a young African woman from Cameroon was something that is definitely outside my wheelhouse. (I like throwing that word out whenever possible - apologies!).This world is so big and there are so many stories that need to be heard. This is one of them.

I travel a bit for my job, just domestically with an odd trip to Toronto or Ottawa, Canada thrown in. And in the course of those trips I get to talk to cab drivers, Lyft drivers and hotel staff (not just the ones when you check in, but those that are in housekeeping or catering) and the overwhelming number of these people are immigrants - hardworking and humble. Often doing the types of jobs that most people born in America do not want to do as they feel it is too beneath them. These immigrants work long hours and work hard, and probably don't get paid enough. And that's just the hotel staff that I have interacted with. There are probably hundreds of stories like that in any city that I don't even think about: fast-food workers, landscapers, bus boys in restaurants, janitors, health-care workers, migrant farmers who pick cherries in Michigan and salad in California, and scores of other workers in the United States.

I try to talk to these workers, find out where they come from, what made them want to come to the United States (specifically the city we are in) if they have family back home, etc. The amount of time I have to talk to them depends on where we are and what they are doing - a cabbie driving me has more time to talk than a hotel worker who is setting up food for our company event. I don't know if these workers are legal (like Neni) or have overstayed a visa and are trying to obtain asylum (like Jende) but I do know that they come to the United States because the job opportunities are better in the United States than they are in their home country. And in spite of all the problems our country has had in the past and is currently having, they WANT to be here.  I find that inspiring and a bit humbling. Of all the countries they might choose to go to they choose the United States.

And Jende and Neni's story resonated with me when I thought about why they came to the United States, and why initially, both fought so hard to stay here. Neni wants to become a pharmacist and Jende has a good, steady job driving around a Lehmann Brothers executive. All seems to be looking bright for them. But we soon learn that Jenede's asylum fight is not going to end well and Neni will not be able to return to school to pursue her dream of becoming a pharmacist and ultimately, the family will need to return to Cameroon.

Jende loses the drive and the hunger to continue to "fight the fight" and resigns himself to the fact that he will not be able to win asylum and slowly becomes to accept that he and his family must return to Cameroon. Eventually, he looks forward to the return and is happy that he will be back home among friends and family, and given the amount of money they have saved up, will go back a wealthier man than he was when he left.

Neni, on the other hand, does not want to leave America and all that she has learned to love and all the potential that is within her reach (for herself and her children). Her feelings are probably best summed up by this passage:

“They would lose the opportunity to grow up in a magnificent land of uninhibited dreamers. They would lose the chance to be awed and inspired by amazing things happening in the country, incredible inventions and accomplishments by men and women who look like them. They would be deprived of freedoms, rights, and privileges that Cameroon could not give its children. They would lose unquantifiable benefits by leaving New York City, because while there existed great towns and cities all over the world, there was a certain kind of pleasure, a certain type of adventurous and audacious childhood, that only New York City could offer a child.”

I won't spoil the book by revealing what happens next, but I would be interested to learn if Ms. Mbue has any plans to write a sequel - to follow the next chapter in the family's life.

Here are reviews by Kirkus Review,  NPR review and - the Atlantic which may be more eloquent than me. All in all, this is a good book and I think people should read it to try to get a better understanding of what many immigrants have to go through to come to this contry, and how they feel. We have a lot to learn from them and this book is a good start.