Cover Image: A Beginner's Guide to America

A Beginner's Guide to America

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Member Reviews

A different look at being American is offered "For the Immigrant and the Curious," in Roya Hakakian's A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO AMERICA. Hakakian, a Guggenheim Fellow and teacher at Yale University's THREAD program, is herself an immigrant, arriving in 1985 from Iran. In her latest book, self-described as "part memoir, part reportage, and part a work of imagination," she offers suggestions for immigrants and refugees who often struggle with the practical experiences of learning English, taking public transportation, going grocery shopping, and separating from family. However, Hakakian also provides the opportunity for native-born Americans to reflect upon the many privileges we take for granted and the importance of civic responsibility and service. In a recent NPR interview she explains wanting to "somehow show the America that most native-born Americans can't see, the small signs of democracy that may be invisible to those who have never lived elsewhere." A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO AMERICA, called "highly recommended for all" by Library Journal is a thoughtful, compelling read.

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Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. This book is better for Americans to read, so that they can get another viewpoint from an immigrant’s perspective. All immigrant stories are different, and this one is biased towards the author’s personal experience. I did not like how the author puts her own opinions in the narrative, like writing a veil is oppressive for her. It doesn’t strike me as a guide to immigrants, but more like a memoir. I would leave it up to teachers if they want to use this book, but it’s more for adults anyway.

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I fall into the Curious category and if you do too, this book is an important read! Hakakian has a beautiful way of sharing the immigrant experience, expressing love for the United States, all while also shining a hard light on it. To love this country is to question it, critique it, and ultimately to hold it to its ideals. Even if, as Hakakian reminds us, those ideals weren’t written with most of us in mind. Every section of this book hit me with a reminder of how little I understand of the immigrant experience and reminded me about the privilege I carry with my blue passport. Every section also made me laugh, not always because it was funny but because Hakakian has a wit, even when discussing tough topics like immigrant bans, that I truly appreciate. Overall, I am incredibly glad to have read this book and highly suggest you check it out!

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Attractive premise on the immigrant experience here in America, but it left me unsatisfied.

The author is an Iranian immigrant but she writes a generic immigrant “how-to” guide. The content seems obvious to me so I expect there to be humor, which I find lacking. I struggle to determine who she is really writing this book for - the American, to learn how the immigrant experience feels? Or a guide for an English-speaking immigrant? If for the former, I have learned much more from fictional immigration stories specific to individuals.

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