Member Review

The Royal Abduls takes a deep dive into misogyny and also the complex challenges of living in the US with a Muslim name post-911. The main character, Amina Abdul, is a first generation American of Indian descent. A young post-doc scientist studying hybrid species in moths, she struggles with figuring out how to balance her passion for her work and her passion for her family and love interest.
Amina is not a particularly likable character, which is a point of success for the story. Koya could have made her a doting aunt or position her as a victim of the many tragedies she experiences in the story, but she does not. Amina is a realistic human being, and while readers may grow frustrated with her treatment of her love interest, the way in which she weighs the choices she faces seems true to life.
The book touches on misogyny and gender politics from a number of different angles by portraying male-female relationships in the workplace, women's prejudices against other women, and the differences between experiences of women and men in the workplace. There are about five adult male characters who have significant roles in the book and they did seem each to be representative of a "type" and thus to lack complexity and depth.
When Amina moves from California to DC for work, she develops a close bond with her teen-aged nephew, Omar, who is having his own struggles fitting in as an Indian-American with a Muslim name. His mother is a white American, however, his name and his skin define how he is viewed by society. At first he tries playing in to the stereotypes, adopting an Indian accent at school and collecting artifacts to prove his family's importance. When this has devastating outcomes, he tries to turn away completely from his heritage and considers changing his name.
A fairly large portion of the book is told from Omar's distinctively teen perspective. This adds an important angle to the story, an exploration of the choice many immigrants face--to fully assimilate and let go of all vestiges of the home culture or to maintain their practices from home--and how this choice is impacted by the social and political environment in which the immigrant finds themselves. Koya manages to truly embody these struggles of the immigrant experience through her characters and their experiences without ever preaching or even taking sides.
Readers may find themselves skimming through Omar's sections to some extent eager to get back to Amina's, not because of a flaw in the writing, but because, while Omar has little agency in his situation, Amina has a world of choices to make.
Amina's research into hybrid species is an interesting backdrop to the story as it underscores Omar's experience, the question of how the product of two related but different groups should be viewed, and the idea that this merging of different groups should be studied and handled with particular care. In Omar's case, the result is disastrous, but Amina's work seems to suggest that there is hope. Koya never makes that connection in any overt way. In fact, one of the successes of this book is that, despite exploring very difficult topics of immigration, misogyny, prejudice, terrorism, and family tragedy, Koya maintains a light touch and produces an entertaining and interesting story of the intersection of lives.