192 pages
English language
Published Sept. 24, 2022 by Penguin Publishing Group.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change
One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.
Hamid's The Last White Man invites us to envision a future - our future - that dares to reimagine who we think we are, and how we might …
From the New York Times bestselling author of Exit West, a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change
One morning, Anders wakes to find that his skin has turned dark, his reflection a stranger to him. At first he tells only Oona, an old friend, newly a lover. Soon, reports of similar occurrences surface across the land. Some see in the transformations the long-dreaded overturning of an established order, to be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders's father and Oona's mother, a sense of profound loss wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different shading: a chance to see one another, face to face, anew.
Hamid's The Last White Man invites us to envision a future - our future - that dares to reimagine who we think we are, and how we might yet be together.
I don’t know what to do with this book. Some aspects were great. Some were really infuriating in ways I can’t decide if he meant to be. Maybe I just don’t want to read a book that’s about white people’s feelings about not being white, which is what the vast majority of this is.
While I appreciate the ambition of his what-if scenarios and their imagined social implications, this one felt thinly sketched to me, and the complete absence of religious takes on the phenomenon at the center of the story was a little jarring, considering its miraculous and clearly non-scientific nature.
I don’t think Hamid’s writing is for me. I enjoyed Exit West well enough, but I guess after one book his style is starting to grate on me. There are a lot of short sentences and clauses with a lot of repetition in them. It hurt my brain to read that page after page.
I did like some of the dialogue and passages here around race. There are some really horrifying reactions from people to this widespread skin changing.
But I did not care for Una or that relationship at all. I wish the book had focused on Anders and the way this played out for him given how short the book was.
At least it was quick!
Much like Exit West, I found this obvious but competent. It’s exactly what you would expect based on the synopsis, except maybe a bit more literary. I wasn’t blown away by anything but there were a few moments I appreciated. It’s short so I might recommend it as an example of literary fiction if someone is curious.
