This is not a book I will recommend for my school library or curriculum. I think there are some interesting ideas here, but the text is both too complex and too reductive at the same time - it is not something that high school students would enjoy, and I hardly enjoyed it.

I was intrigued by the concept of this novel and even more impressed with the execution. This was an ejoyable read that probed deep issues and I quite enjoyed it.

The premise of this book caught my interest immediately, and the magical realism reeled me in. Mohsin Hamid is wonderful, and I expected nothing less than a wonderful book from Hamid. Unfortunately, I didn't love the ending, but I'll keep this spoiler-free and just say this was extremely well-written and left me thinking.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC. This story supposes a world in which people's skin has turned dark and we follow the life of Anders as this occurs to him as he deals with how people view him differently due to this change. There are many interesting ideas in the story but there was something missing in it, for me.

3.5 stars, rounded up

This was an interesting novel rooted in magical realism where individuals intermittently wake up with darker skin. We follow the story of Anders, who was the first person in the town the story is based, to change skin tone. Throughout my reading experience with this novel, I felt a bit confused and uncertain of what the overall message that the author was trying to portray rather than just the obvious commentary on racism and colorism. Personally, I found part one of the novel to be the best portion of this novel. In the end, I connected quite personally with the aspect of this novel commenting about being a cross-cultural child, which might not initially be the first thing that people think about when reading this novel.

The theme relating to cross-cultural children was highlighted in the following quotes:
- “the more he looked the less white he seemed, as though looking for his whiteness was the opposite of whiteness, was driving it further away, making him seem desperate, or uncertain, or like he did not belong, he who has been born here”
- “maybe Anders’s father was a connection to the distant past for Anders, to traditions with which Anders was not yet familiar and would not now ever be familiar”
- “Anders and Oona did not speak too much of the past, but Oona’s mother, the girl’s grandmother, did so far more, and tried to impart a sense of how it had been, of what they had really come from”
Throughout this story, there are allusions to assimilating or combining multiple cultures together. The first quote reminded me of how it felt growing up as a minority, and how I used to wish I just looked like all of the other kids. It also reminded me of the fact that while I was growing up, I would never feel American enough, even though I was born and raised here and didn’t have anywhere else I could call home. The second quote highlights the fact that so many traditions are not passed down and are unfamiliar to first-generation kids. Finally, this third quote highlights the fact that some of the closest understanding of culture comes from older generations, especially grandparents. Not until I was much older did I realize that most of the Indian customs and history were taught to me by my grandparents, which further brought on my curiosity and questioning to this day of my family members of how things were and how history shaped my family’s part of the world.

Additionally, in the advanced reading copy, there was a letter from the author which I wish has been in the finished copy of the book. This letter described how after 9/11 his (and the lives of many other brown people) changed in how they saw their own white privilege. “I had always been a brown man with w Muslim name. That had not changed. I had lost something profound. I was saddened and angered and confused by my loss. But it took some time for me to understand what it was: I had lost my whiteness. Not that I had truly been white. But I had been white enough – as a relatively well-paid, university-educated inhabitant of cosmopolitan cities – to partake in many of the benefits of whiteness”. I felt as if this context was a bit helpful to understand the perspective of the author when writing this novel.
Overall, this was an interesting novel that made me think during the reading process and afterward as well.

A huge thank you to Riverhead Books for the gifted physical copy and NetGalley and Penguin Group for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest opinion!

Race and injustice are at the forefront of The Last White Man, a novel about a white man who wakes up "brown." Hamid's latest is an intense character study that gives readers the opportunity to contemplate who we are, how we might be, and the impact context has on our behavior.

If you're looking for a fast-paced narrative or an explosive plot, this isn't for you. If you've enjoyed Hamid's previous work, Exit West, you will like enjoy the prose here, even if it takes some time to settle into this well-written, meaningful, and challenging story.

Thanks to Penguin Group Riverhead for providing a copy via NetGalley.

An uncomfortable look into the lives of characters who wake up and have lost their whiteness (to some their whole identity.)

Reminds me of Recitatif in ways, how much of your reaction as a reader is based on your own perception of the impact of whiteness, racism, privilege.

An easy to follow, yet difficult read.

This was a very interesting short novel with a very unique premise. At times the story became very uncomfortable for me.

The Last White Man is an interesting look at a changing world and the attitudes therein regarding color and relationships. The author never fails in bold views regarding the human condition.

There are a lot of directions that Hamid could have taken this story of skin color metamorphosis, but I think his subtler take is very effective. Anders and Oona are confused by their change in skin color, but they go on. Others do not. Hamid is not most fluid reader, but his voice was effective for the story.

Absolutely beautiful book. As with previous titles from Mohsin Hamid, the writing was skilled and confident and a joy to read. In this book, his skill with language was to the point where the structure of the sentences was able to convey the breathless anxiety that came over the people in the book as the events unfolded. I found myself holding my breath and was absolutely unable to put it down. Despite this being categorized as a dystopian title, the events were painted in such a realistic fashion that I felt like I was there. The events felt completely believable as the characters wrestled with the changes in their world, which I believe ultimately made it a better place, which is rarely the case in this sort of novel. A must read.

This volume is just the right length and was a very interesting sociological/relationship story. For me, this book was much more successful Exit West.

Such a strange book but jam packed with situations and commentary to make you think. First of all, I love the nod to Kafka at the beginning. And from there, you’re given a stream of consciousness writing style that really drops you in the middle of the action.

The author really pushes the reader to confront the inherent prejudice and privilege white people have without bashing it. He just makes the reader sit in it and watch it unfold and witness the characters internal and external changes.

While this wasn’t my favorite recent read, I walked away with new ideas and thoughts and was forced to really think about the story.

What a great premise. Hamid has such a unique way of writing and approaching social commentary that is compulsivly readable, tangible, and accessible.

One day Anders wakes up and he’s gone from being white to dark. Slowly every other white person follows suit.
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This book is smart, well written, and provocative. I expect nothing less from Hamid, and he delivered. The way people interact with race in this book makes the idea of “the white gaze” feel tangible. I loved the negotiations around racial politics and the nuances therein. The ways that hierarchical vacuums needed to be filled. The rage. The ways different characters saw things unfold on their own timelines. Just brilliant.
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The end of this novel didn’t work for me. I won’t say more, but I felt it went with an easy out that left me wanting so much more. I respect that Hamid made a choice for the end, it just wasn’t the choice I wanted.

He writes of a society in which every white person , initially Anders but then everyone else, turns brown.
He explores their initial fear and uneasiness, but then their gradual acceptance over years, of the situation.
Personally I found Oona’s ( Anders initial girlfriend and subsequent wife and mother of his child) to be the most interesting character.A last holdout, symbolic of far white resistance and extremism,anger, fear of violence( and joyous when it initially occurs) and finally when she herself turns brown accepting of the situation and even tender with her brown granddaughter. Interesting, thought provoking. Frankly, I was not a fan of the writing style of the author.

An allegorical novella that begins like Kafka’s Metamorphosis and moves gradually into something more American and more contemporary. The elongated sentence structure is at first jarring and even frustrating, but it lulls one into its rhythm and pulls one through the story, creating the sense of a single unbroken narrative. As with Hamid’s other works, The Last White Man is cerebral and heavy on social commentary as well as genuinely compassionate. I can see it being used in high school and college classrooms as both a literary study and a philosophical discussion starter.

Thank you to Mohsin Hamid, Riverhead Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Exit West was released in 2017, I spoke with author Mohsin Hamid about migration and his incorporation of magical portals to propel the story. The novel went on to win numerous literary prizes, including the Aspen Words Literary Prize, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.

Mohsin Hamid’s newest novel is titled The Last White Man. It imagines a world where—one by one—every white person’s skin color turns darker and it explores the chaos and complicated emotions that follow.

I recently spoke with Mohsin Hamid about The Last White Man and how his own experience after 9/11 inspired it. Here’s our conversation.

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid presents a wonderfully simple meditation on race, discrimination, and skin color. Anders is a white man who awakes one morning to discover that his skin is darker and he becomes virtually unrecognizable to his acquaintances. The reactions of his father, friends, and his girlfriend Oona range from are almost entirely negative; they can't help but think less of him now that his skin is darker. Anders laments losing his whiteness and begins to learn how to navigate a world in which he is disadvantaged and discriminated for the color of his skin.

As the spontaneous change from pale to dark skin becomes more common among the population, increased violence between groups of different colors eventually calms; those perpetrating violence and hate suddenly find themselves members of the group they previously persecuted. Oona, Anders' girlfriend eventually finds herself changed as well, but rather than mourning the loss of her pale skin, she revels in the transformation.

The Last White Man approaches many aspects of race, not specifically to say that the color of a person's skin makes no difference, but exploring the nature of those differences in the context of these fictional characters. As Mohsin Hamid indicates in the introduction to the ARC, race is a construct. The Last White Man gives the reader so many reasons to examine their own prejudice and beliefs about their fellow humans.

I haven’t read any of the author’s other books, although Exit West has been on my list for a while. The title and description were intriguing, so I decided to give this book a try.
Summary: Anders wakes up one morning and his skin has turned dark. He only tells Oona, an old friend and new love interest at first. He thinks it’s unique, but soon other people’s skin is turning dark as well, and some people have a hard time accepting this change.
The first thing that stood out to me was the author’s style. Since this is the first Mohsin Hamid book I’ve read, I’m not sure if the style is similar to his other books or not. He has very long sentences, some a whole paragraph, and the effect is like reading someone’s stream of consciousness, whether it’s one of our main character’s or the narrator’s. It’s a different style than I’m used to, but I enjoyed it and thought the writing was excellent.
I also liked the choice to focus on these few characters in one town, as opposed to broadening the scope and making it more epic. Having an intimate look at how Anders reacts to changing, and then the reactions of those around him, makes the story impactful. We got to see several points of view that explored the different facets of this change. There were some beautiful moments that explored family ties, grief, and love that I think might have been lost in the story had a bigger scope.
The one part I’m unsure of is the ending; I was ready to keep reading and it just suddenly ended. I don’t necessarily dislike it; I think the scene it ended with was keeping with the overall themes of the story, but it did surprise me that it ended so soon.