Tomorrow is our Girly Book Club meeting for the Austin chapter and we will be discussing this month’s book: American War by Omar El Akkad

I will be honest when I say I struggled with this book. As I’ve mentioned in my book goals I am trying to read books that I wouldn’t choose for myself. Last month’t GBC pick was one that was already on my TBR so I didn’t have to worry about that but this month’s book was not a book I would have chosen. Add to that the fact that there are so many conflicting reviews on Goodreads and all over the interwebs it was rough to get into wanting to read this one. This is not the typical dystopian book that I have read.

American War by Omar El Akkad 1/2

The Good

The idea of a second civil war is not that far fetched to me. I am sure some people think that it is but there is a lot going on in this country that could trigger some ridiculous in-fighting. I appreciated the bits of “government information” breaking up the parts of the book, they helped to make sense of a few things I wasn’t fully understanding. I think the book did a good job of helping us see how a person who is suffering can go from feeling hopeless to feeling vengeful. We have seen it, we know it exists. I think from experience we have seen people who hold on to their ideals no matter how ridiculous they are and I feel as though he did a great job of showing that in the stubborn characters who truly believed they were fighting for the right thing because that was how it always was. Also, the idea that climate change ravages the world and the things it described about how the country fairs environmentally were eerily prophetic. There are a lot of thinly veiled pokes at the political climate and I’m here for it.

“All these old men want it to be like it was when they were young. But it’ll never be like that again, and they’ll never be young again, no matter what they do.” – Omar El Akkad

Think about this quote. Have you heard something like this before? Thought this at any point?

The ehhhh

First, the idea that the second civil war would be a result of people fighting over fossil fuel is not believable for me…race, maybe..inequality…sure. But fossil fuel? No. Guys, I disliked Sarat, a lot. I also found it extremely hard to believe that with everything going on around them that Dana would continue to behave like a complete ditz obsessed with her looks and social life. I’ve never been in a situation like the ones presented here but I feel like it would be hard to imagine. I wish they had completely left out the whole Marcus and Sarat aspect. It felt like it was thrown in there to soften things up but I just didn’t feel like it really fit. Further, I could’t really grasp the idea of the Middle East coming together enough for the empire they claimed in the book but I could easily see China being a country that we would need to go groveling to for aid.

Would I recommend this book? It depends on the person. I think some people could read this and love it and some could take it the wrong way (looking you goodreads reviewers who swear this is an attack on Americans).

I am looking forward to the opinions from our book club meeting. I’ll share those with you in next month’s Show us Your Books link up!

Have you read this book? What did you think?

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