The Last White Man

Hmmmm…This one left me quite perplexed at what exactly it was trying to convey. The story centers around Anders, who wakes up one day to find himself brown, and eventually in the whole world white people begin to wake up with their skin mysteriously darker, chaos ensues but it happens mostly off page. Much like Exit West this one centers around a budding romance, but I don’t feel like it worked here. It is clear he got inspiration from Kafka’s masterpiece, Metamorphosis and others that have followed similar formats. Man wakes up to find himself suddenly changed, but must go about his daily life. But in my opinion, Hamid did not lean into the absolute absurdity of it all and I felt like the message was muddled and the arc of the story suffered. Because what is the message here? That race isn’t real? Maybe, but if so I felt like this short novel did not go deep enough for my liking to get that message across, and it was wrapped up way too neatly. But this worked for a lot of people, so give it a shot and see for yourself.

[ID: The novel The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid lays flat on a gray fabric.]

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