By Omar El Akkad
This book is probably not the best to pick up right now, especially if you live in the United States and find yourself regularly terrified by current events. With that in mind, I think it's still a great book and would recommend it to everyone.
American War is Omar El Akkad's debut novel, and since he outlines precisely how the Second American Civil War will begin and end, I'd say it's a pretty ambitious one. In his universe, set in the years following 2075, climate change has reshaped the geography of the United States and forced the government to ban the use of fossil fuels. In response, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi secede as the Free Southern State and kick off Civil War 2.0. Meanwhile, the nation-state system has seemingly come to an end worldwide: Mexico has annexed Texas, and China and the Bouazizi Empire (formerly the Middle East and North Africa) are the new global superpowers.
Within this universe, the novel follows Sarat Chestnut through her childhood and early adult years in the Free Southern State—we see her leave home with her family, grow up in a refugee camp, and join the southern resistance. Sarat's character develops as the book progresses, shaped by her relationships and her experiences with war. The characterization of her relationships, especially with her sister, are to me the highlight of the book. Each chapter is concluded with a government document from the post-war future, providing a more clinical contrast to Sarat's lived reality.
The premise of the war makes it difficult to avoid making a moral judgement in favor of one side or the other. Writing from Sarat's perspective in the south, therefore, challenges concepts of identity and truth, and what it means to have the moral upper hand while using drone strikes and offshore prisons (the parallels do tend to be a bit on the nose). El Akkad does a fantastic job of creating both a complex universe and compelling plot line in just over 300 pages. I felt the transitions between the political "big picture" to Sarat's life could be a bit jarring in the beginning, but I didn't notice it as much as I became more immersed in the universe. If you can get past the general uneasiness any dystopian fiction brings nowadays, I'd give this one a try. Based on the trend of my reviews, though, I'm starting to think I should be reading some lighter fiction.
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