Scott F reviewed Down with the Poor! by Teresa Fagan
Dull take on a worthy subject
2 stars
A problem with some of these social-justice-y novels is that while they might have an important point to make about oppression and alienation, that doesn't mean they succeed in situating that point within an interesting story. This novella's main plot event — the narrator, who is herself a racialized immigrant to France who works as a translator for applicants for asylum, assaulting a refugee — is already made clear at the beginning. So all that's left to be revealed is what led her to do such a thing. But when we get to that part, there isn't anything very surprising or notable there, either.
This book gave me a somewhat greater appreciation for elements of the refugee experience, and the writing was good on a textural level, but plot-wise, it felt like a stagnant pool, lacking the dynamism of storytelling that would have made it more than the sum of …
A problem with some of these social-justice-y novels is that while they might have an important point to make about oppression and alienation, that doesn't mean they succeed in situating that point within an interesting story. This novella's main plot event — the narrator, who is herself a racialized immigrant to France who works as a translator for applicants for asylum, assaulting a refugee — is already made clear at the beginning. So all that's left to be revealed is what led her to do such a thing. But when we get to that part, there isn't anything very surprising or notable there, either.
This book gave me a somewhat greater appreciation for elements of the refugee experience, and the writing was good on a textural level, but plot-wise, it felt like a stagnant pool, lacking the dynamism of storytelling that would have made it more than the sum of its parts.