Book Review...

'The Last White Man' by Mohsin Hamid

This gem is published today and I was lucky enough to read an advance copy via NetGalley.

I loved Mohsin Hamid's earlier works particularly 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' and 'Exit West' and I couldn't wait to get my hands on 'The Last White Man'.

This book focuses on Anders and Oona. Anders wakes up to find his skin has turned dark and as others in the community experience this too there is widespread panic and a backlash from white people who wish to preserve and prioritise those who are unchanged.

I found 'The Last White Man' to be an easy book to read. I loved the story and I was immediately drawn in by the lyrical and distinctive style of writing.

As I read it I couldn't stop turning the pages but when I put it down I spent a lot of time thinking about the topics it explored. Identity is obviously a key theme throughout the book and it also tackles racism and bias but the topic which struck me most was that of grief. As the wider community moves through the stages of grief in response to their changing colour we see Anders and Oona deal with grief in their personal lives and I felt this deeply as I read.

I very much enjoyed reading about the relationship which blossoms between Anders and Oona. Their story is simple and almost mundane but there is a great deal of tenderness in the way Hamid writes about them and their coming together feels very relateable despite the unreal situation they find themselves in.

The last thing I want to draw attention to is the wider world Hamid creates in this novel. We learn very little about it but it is disturbing, dangerous, sinister and every bit as discomforting as it should be.

If you've enjoyed other books by Mohsin Hamid 'The Last White Man' wont disappoint - I would urge you to read it. It's short, snappy and incredible and it'll leave you with lots of food for thought. If you haven't read his books then I'd still urge you to read it as this is a great place to start.

This writing style was so refreshing - I've never come across it before but I loved it, very gently poetic,. The premise was really really interesting and thought provoking, a great short read with some quite emotional moments throughout. I've not read Exit West but will be looking for it as I really enjoyed this writing and I loved the way it all wrapped up.

What's the book about?

Anders wakes up one morning to discover that his skin has darkened. He initially tells only Oona, an old friend who has recently become a lover. When reports of similar occurrences spread quickly across the country, some see the changes as the long-feared overthrow of an established order, which will be fought to the bitter end.

My thoughts:
Always a pleasure to read books by Hamid. There's the right balance of a good read, beautiful prose and thought provoking concepts. I just wish there was more about the conflicts and resistance. The passages that were to there covering the unrest just didn't feel enough compared to the gravity of the situation.

The opening of this novel sees Anders, a white man, waking to find that he has turned “a deep and undeniable brown”. This definitely linked me back to the author’s last novel Exit West where migrants exit through doors west.

As an allegory Hamid is asking us to look at what would happen if we lost the many benefits of whiteness. It’s a hugely thought provoking question. But one whose potential seriousness is dampened down by the quiet humour of this novel.

A small book with a small cast - Anders & Oona a beautifully drawn couple to believe in amongst others. Small but quite perfect this book delivers on many themes as the World darkens & the titular last man Anders’ father lies on his death bed. Hamid has much to say on loss of identity but also on loss of life & those we love.

The book hurtles forward to a time where everyone is brown & race no longer matters.

This is a wonderful, thought provoking book from a Booker shortlisted author I know I will return to. Thoroughly recommend. Probably one of my best reads of 2022.

Anders wakes up to find that his pale skin has turned dark overnight.. He views himself differently, he percieves that others view him differently, his view of the world is different..
As the ripples widen, more people find their skin changing colour and they have differing levels of acceptance.
I have read books by this author before and found them, as with this one, thought provoking with many different facets to discuss.
Although only short, this is a novel to return to time and time again.

I really enjoyed Hamid's Exit West and I loved the premise of this but I couldn't get interested in the story. The style reminded me of Saramago's Blindness - the sense of detachment, the lack of specifics about time and place - but in Blindness that somehow increased the sense of isolation and horror. Here it left me cold - perhaps because Anders and Oona just aren't that interesting. I also wasn't sure about the ending (don't want to say more).
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I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley.

On a morning that felt like any other, Anders, a white man, woke up to find his skin was darker. He didn't recognise himself in the mirror, he didn't know what had happened to him or why. He turns to Oona, a person who his relationship with can't easily be categorized, and hopes that she can see him when he can't.

But it's soon revealed he isn't the only one - the world is changing. Conspiracies begin to form, unrest makes its way through society, until the last white man changes. All Anders and Oona can do is learn who they are when their skin isn't a factor anymore, and watch on quietly in curious contemplation as the world changes.

"Even under normal circumstances falling asleep can seem impossible when one is awake, and then it is happening, and not a matter of possibility, but a living dream, inhabited, and though impossible, already begun."

I've seen many people refer to The Last White Man as an echo of Metamorphosis, as a Kafka-esque tale of change - and although there will only ever be one Kafka, this is definitely a freshly intriguing take on the style.

This book asks you questions you don't want to answer - would you recognise yourself if colour wasn't a factor? How has that affected your identity? Would it change who you are to lose that part of your identity? Would you recognise the more subtle discriminations that people of colour can see? Would you change the way you see others?

I can't understate the strikingly evocative speculation throughout this story - but the strangely distant prose, and the analytical contemplative voice was for me, unengaging and somewhat stiff. There is a lot of time spend with just Anders or Oona, with no interaction, no speech - and while this very cleverly creates a suffocating, isolating aura, this combined with the page-long, run-on sentences in an impersonal third-person made it very difficult to read.

One of the most intriguing things about this tale was the introspective focus - we focus inwards, to the lives of our two characters and their dysfunctional families, rather than the fallout happening in wider society. Everything else in the world was relegated to a tagline on a news show, or a passing conversation - and while this was a bold choice, it felt like there was so much to be explored, and almost . This introspection created a kind of shift, making this a tale of family, of their losses and complexities and toxicity, how they endure or decay.

Raising unasked and unanswered questions about colour and identity - this is a twisted version of the theory put forward by several racists, the "great replacement" theory where minorities will overthrow the majority of white men and take their power. But in this instance, rather than the racist spewing of alt-right politicians, race becomes a non-issue, equality of colour is forced. I'm sure some might find this mildly condescending in the same vein as 'I don't see colour', which means you can't see discrimination either - but as someone who isn't a person of colour, I don't feel qualified to really make a judgement on that aspect of the story.

Thematically, this story is truly epic and bold, but stylistically I found it difficult to engage with the story.

I really enjoyed "exit west" and was looking forward to reading this book as the premise sounded really interesting. Sadly however I found it very difficult to get into and while some of the prose is lyrical and beautiful, I didn't feel it added anything to what I felt should have been a more profound and thought provoking novella.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of this book.

When Anders wakes up one morning to discover that he has changed colour overnight and now has brown skin, his transformation is the beginning of many such changes across town. At first, there are struggles to accept these changes, especially as some old friends, colleagues and family do not always recognise those who have changed. People are sometimes afraid to go to work or even leave the house. There is violence, riots, unrest.
But what begins as something that deeply disturbs Anders, turns into a book that is mostly quiet, that acknowledges the things that have a greater impact than surface skin colour.
Anders was drifting away from his on and off again girlfriend, Orna. The change brings them closer as he is vulnerable in front of her.
Anders had a bad relationship with his father and didn’t even know he was sick until he ran to him to escape racist violence. He ends up tending his father in his illness, watching the last white man of the town die.
Of course Anders and the community are forced to face the inherent racism in their town and their families, but face it they do. The radical nature of this book is that the violence doesn’t continue to escalate, instead the radical idea of acceptance is calmly presented as the probable outcome of the disappearance of white people. In the end the new generation don’t care to know about a past in which their relatives were once white.
It’s a surprising and fascinating book that will certainly hit headlines.

In this book, people wake up one day and their skin is no longer white, until eventually there are no white people anymore. At the beginning, those who change are hunted down. We see how this could affect relationships (personal and in the workplace) and in general the world we live in, and the implications for the characters' identities.

This is my third Hamid book, after Exit West, which I loved and have recommended to many people, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist (which I liked, but not as much). However, The Last White Man did not captivate me in the same way. Not because of the story, which I still found compelling, but because of the writing style. There are no real dialogues, and the sentences are long (I think each sentence is a whole paragraph), which I found jarring and didn't let me enjoy the story as much.

It's a short book and you can read it in a day. I think it's still enjoyable and worth your time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

An ambitious and thought-provoking read. It’s quite short, there were some areas where the prose dragged a little bit but overall an easy read.

It's a great speculative fiction, a story based on an interesting what-if: caucasian people skin is not white anymore till there's only a white man.
There's a lot of food for thought in this story and the author is an excellent storyteller.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is quite a short book, and the writing style with lots of long, lyrical, run-on sentences makes it a very fast-paced read. I really enjoyed this approach to telling the story - although my time reading it was short, I felt very invested in what was happening and have thought about it for a long time after.

I'd previously enjoyed 'Exit West' by Hamid and could tell by the synopsis of 'The Last White Man' that it had the same magical realism vibe whilst reflecting on identity and race.

The book follows a world where white people start waking up with darker skin - until there is just one white man left. We see the impact on relationships, discrimination and on society as a whole. I think this is a really important book and one that will stay with you for a long time.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dystopian novel, where white people in the novel change skin colour to dark. Initially there are riots/protests/manhunts for the people who change first, but over time as more and more people become dark, life becomes normal-ish again.
I really liked the idea of this book, but was disappointed as it is written from the perspective of two individuals and I think I would’ve enjoyed seeing the wider social implications of such a change in society.
It does make you think - the protagonist in the book is unable to recognise people after they’ve changed, and the comparison between people who are newly dark and who have always being dark. Also interesting is the language used in terms of turning dark. I think the title is misleading, I thought it would’ve been about the person who was last to turn dark, but not the case at all.
I got the book from @penguinukbooks and @vikingbooksuk via @Netgalley. Publication date 11 August.

The Last White Man, is an interesting examination of expectation and assumption. What makes humans, 'us'? So much of our identity is wrapped up in our appearance that when this alters are we still the same? By taking this to the extreme, Hamid examines what might happen if overnight, and without warning, our skin colour changed from white to black. By exploring all aspects of how this would affect an individual - mentally, physically, emotionally and even historically - as well as their immediate family and wider society, the book goes beyond what could have been a trite addition to the glut of race relation fiction released in the last few years.

An interesting read that will undoubtedly garner a noisy publication.

A thoughtful Kafkaesque morality tale - how would you feel to wake up and find the colour of your skin changed? Anders finds his entire identity shifting as he comes to term with how he, and those around him, view him.

First bemusement, then anarchy - but as more and more people change what will happen?

An interesting novella asking us to consider what makes us truly us and how we might view things differently if something that had always been part of our identity changed over night.

A fan of Kafka and the author's previous books I really wanted to read this. It did not disappoint. Beautifully written and well crafted this book is a real tour de force and one everyone should read, I liked the Pandora's Box butterfly at the end. Should almost be compulsory reading for everyone.

Sory, I could not finish it. I gave up 25% into the book as I found i just did not care!
Thank you to netgally for the advance copy and the opportunity to read something different.

I was initially intrigued by the title of this book and it’s premise but as I started to read it I began to realise that it could be problematic. Is this the literary equivalent of blacking up? Well, no, as it’s written by an author who is not white. If you want to write a book about the non-white experience in terms of struggle for recognition or rascism, then readers can get that from lots of great black writers writing from their own perspective, however.
So what is Hamid’s point or take?
My views after reading this are that he was trying to suggest that colour should be a non-issue: his characters and us experience love, death and fear regardless of skin tone. However, it seems to suggest that once everyone is the same colour, divisions will cease. I may be completely wrong and simplistic in my interpretation but it seems very naive.. there are so many divisions in our society that aren’t linked to skin; gender, class, politics etc.
The other problem I had with this novella is it’s style. It’s comprised of very long, rambling sentences with commas to break it up. In one sentence the word grandmother features twelve times, for example.
I will be interested to read other peoples’ reviews or the author’s reasoning behind this story in order to reframe my opinion.

I read Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke twenty years ago and have read all his other works since. With The Last White Man, he has once again blown me away.
The writing style was quirky yet captivating and powerful at the same time; the sentences were long and rambling, yet they worked.
The author effortlessly tackled the issue of race head on - how a person's identity and mindset changes due to skin colour, and how it feels to be an outsider.
Social unrest also plays a part in this story which later paves the way to reluctant social acceptance as there is no other choice. Grief is another theme; the loss that consumes and changes those who are left behind.
The Last White Man is thought-provoking and a highly recommended read.