A Good Country

by Laleh Khadivi

An achingly timely novel about the radicalization of a Muslim teen in California--about where identity truly lies, and how we find it.

Laguna Beach, California, 2009. Alireza Courdee, a fourteen-year-old straight-A student and chemistry whiz, takes his first hit of pot. In as long as it takes to inhale and exhale, he is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a happy-go-lucky stoner. He loses his virginity, takes up surfing, and sneaks away to all-night raves. For the first time, Reza--now Rez--feels like an American teen. Life is smooth; even lying to his strict father comes easily.

But then he changes again, falling out with the bad boy surfers and in with a group of kids more awake to the world around them, who share his background, and whose ideas fill him with a very different sense of purpose. Within a year, Reza and two friends are making their way to Syria to join in the fight.

Timely, nuanced, and emotionally forceful, A Good Country is a gorgeous meditation on modern life, religious radicalization, and a young man caught among vastly different worlds. What we are left with at the dramatic end is not an assessment of good or evil, east versus west, but a lingering question that applies to all souls: Does a person decide how to live, or is their life decided for them?

Genres: Fiction, Iran, Middle East, Religion, Contemporary, Islam, War

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 23, 2017

About the author

Laleh Khadivi was born in Esfahan, Iran, in 1977. She received her MFA from Mills College and was a Creative Writing Fellow at Emory University. She has been awarded a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an NEA Literature Fellowship. She has also worked as a director, producer, and cinematographer of documentary films. Khadivi lives in Northern California.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is EXCELLENT......and oh my frickin crackers, ....[I've been in these shoes before].....> My Emotions and Thoughts are AT WORK!!!!!

The story begins-- Part One - in Laguna Beach, California- Fall 2011
We meet Rez Courdee.....take a journey - with 239 pages -with Rez, (Reza, Ras al- Ayv), ending with the Epilogue- in Syria -March 2014.

Being a teenager for Rez, age 14, with parents who are Iranian immigrants, with a very strict father, to boot, is like "a surfer who is repeatedly getting caught on the inside foam section and having a hard time paddling out of a wave"!

Note: The surfer quote above is simply 'surfer jargon!....not a quote found in this book.

Rez has three 'all American' friends. Each are named Pete.
Pete Matthews, Pete Johnson, and Pete Kelly. He also had a Vietnamese girlfriend ( or rather a girl with more benefits-but less authentic girlfriend).

Up until around age 14, Rez followed his parents rules and standards. He was in the top 1% of his class - he said no to pot - managed to not be highly persuaded by peer pressure into drugs, sex, alcohol, risky choices, and lying to his parents.
So what changed?
Every parent knows at least one high achieving teenager - a model kid who parents, teachers, and coaches are proud of -- and then are shocked, sad, disappointed, worried, and sincerely frighten for this same kid who has gone "off-the-rails".

For me .....THIS STORY IS VERY IMPORTANT- for ALL PARENTS and TEENS -- not ONLY for families living in America from ANOTHER country --- because TEENS BREAK of ALL cultures - from all types of families & parents- regardless of their grades in school.
Many of our teens BREAK. When did drinking, smoking pot, having casual sex, cheating on exams, and lying to parents become NORMAL AMERICAN BEHAVIOR?
PRIVATE COLLEGE PREP SCHOOLS is 'not' any more protection from risky behavior's in teens than public schools. In fact, kids from private schools have more money to spend on drugs.

For Rez...( and boy this story feels 'so real' that my blood was boiling at times and my heart breaking other times ), ......
.......after an incident: a gut wrenching scene with his father, when Rez SNAPS...
HE FINDS HIS VOICE .....( expressive angry voice), then takes off on his skateboard to his friend's house. Rez has one question on his mind...."where is the weed"? He was going to smoke - inhale. We could feel his 'fuck you' anger at the frickin 'world!
His frustration- and anger was almost more than he could contain.
THE AUTHOR DID A WONDERFUL job creating his character. We are taken inside his head - we get stuck 'with' Reza. We begin to feel the discrimination that Reza does ..

At the beginning of the story Rez almost can't even acknowledge his parents are Iranians. He wants to be American more than anything - fit in with his peers. Surfing -sex - pot - and acceptance are becoming more important to him than 'words-of wisdom' and 'cultural traditions' inside his home.
.......But later ....( after a sneaky- run- a way weekend in Mexico with the three Pete's,..... a scene that will have you chewing your nails off and shaking your head)....things CHANGE!!

I liked this visual..... ( although I wish I could have been invited to dinner - I would have gladly taken Reza's seat): .... haha ... MUST ADMIT... The food sounds delicious!!
"He was late for dinner. Not just once, but all the time. Rez opened the door and found them as they always were at this time a day, around the long teak table – – mother, father --Meena and Saladin, in a room with three walls of fine art and one sliding glass door that led to a pool, the water still and blue to match the California dusk. Food was set, a meal Rez had eaten all his life, fried eggplant in a stew of onions and tomatoes and beef, buttered rice, fresh greens and radishes. There were glasses of water, the same knives and forks and spoons as yesterday, the flower piece in the center a bit more dead. None touched their food, none moved, and his father sat at the head of the table, typed into his phone, and said nothing when Rez took a seat. After a few minutes his father put down the phone, lifted and dropped his napkin, and sighed."
"Someone has to pay for all this".

So... Rez was doubting his life....the one he heard his father boast about. "Their place, their line of men and warriors that stretched all the way back to an old village in the oldest mountains".

Later in this story Reza meets Fatima. She lives in a mansion on the cliffs in Laguna Beach -but she's Syrian. All of Fatima's Family is trying to leave Syria --they are in the middle of a war -- and Reza wants to go their - become Muslim... and take Fatima with him.

I won't give this story away -- but I can tell you - I didn't want it to end....and if my Bay Area Book club chooses this novel for a monthly 'pick' - which I'm going to suggest-- I sure think it's an excellent choice for a valuable book discussion.

Many westerners convert to Islam....and is a fact that Islam is growing rapidly in the West. Right here in the Bay Area ... we know a few people who have converted to Muslim and they look as 'white' as me. What's the attraction?

For a young adult 'with' a Persian heritage - living this crazy modern life in the states - it 'had' to be difficult--identity crisis 101!!!


Laleh Khadivi, author and filmmaker was born in Esfahan, Iran. She grew up in California. I recently learned she attended Mills College ( our older daughter did too),
and she lives here in the Bay Area. I'm hoping she is speaking at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley this June. I'd love to meet her!

Laleh' writing is 'comfort type reading' for me... Each sentence flows so naturally--
It was fun& hip at times - LOVED BEING ON THE BEACH - and I LOVED BEING back at my old college- UC BERKELEY--I liked the conversation about Muslim students- discrimination, harassment - and "Cal being one of the most progressive and accepting student bodies in the nation". GO BEARS! :)

On the back of my book --- gifted to me by the publisher: THANK YOU....."Bloomsbury"......
I sat with this question while reading "A Good Country"
.... I'll pass it on to you:
"Does a person decide how to live, or is their life decided for them"?

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5] A Good Country is a convincing character study of a wealthy son of Iranian immigrants who is trying to figure out where he belongs. Khadivi captures Reza's daily activities, impulsivity and relationships well, portraying a young man who is terribly susceptible to the influences around him. Well done, although it was more time inside the head of a teenage boy than I would prefer.

[kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was good. Timely. Informative. Scary.

The novel starts in 2009 in Southern California with the life of 14 year old Rez Courdee, the son of upper middle class Iranian immigrant parents. He is Muslim by birth but does not practice, identifying more with American culture, surfing, hooking up with girls, and smoking pot. In time, several terrorist attacks occur and Rez, who has never questioned his identity, is ostracized among his mostly White peers as 'the other.' He begins to find solace with his Muslim friends, starts to practice his faith, and eventually becomes obsessed with the idea of 'a good country' overseas, one in which Muslims are accepted and fight for the establishment of a caliphate. I won't reveal the end, but when it occurs exactly 5 years later, Reza (no longer 'Rez') is a completely different person.

This novel is short but the writing is succinct and razor sharp. I thought the sex scenes were a bit overdone, but the plot was powerful and never lost. As you read this novel you realize how easy it is for someone to become radicalized--not just to religion but to any idea, really. We've seen this all throughout history and in everyday life; children turned into soldiers with a deadly purpose, young men and women in America become trained combat specialists in a matter of weeks.

I may read this book again eventually because there's so much here to digest. Like you're looking at a hundred pieces of something spread out on a table but it'll take you a while to put it together. Anyway, excellent book. Do read this!

[Book Riot Community]

Alireza Courdee has always been a straight-A student, working to make his Iranian immigrant parents proud. But he’s also a fourteen-year-old boy, and he has begun engaging in normal teenage behavior: experimenting with drugs, sneaking out to parties, surfing, sex. But what begins as a time of carefree experimentation for Reza slips into dangerous territory when he joins a group of boys who share his background and soon finds himself on his way to Syria. A Good Country is a timely and powerful read that questions how big a role we play in our destinies.

Backlist bump: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid



Tune in to our weekly podcast dedicated to all things new books, All The Books: http://bookriot.com/listen/shows/allt...

[Barbara Tsipouras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do young wealthy Muslims who are second generation immigrants leave everything behind to go to Syria to join the Islamic State?
Reza, a Californian boy with Persian heritage, is searching his identity. How to be a man? How to be good? He's an excellent student despite all the partying, drugs and surfing.
It's not hatred that changes his mind, it's his longing for love, acceptance and belonging.
This different POV is thought-provoking and heart-opening.

[Alan Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Khadivi's style is compelling. She recreates a California teen's voice with rapier-point accuracy, and delves the mercurial mind of her main character, Rez, with remarkable insight. As we follow Rez through his high school years, his initiation - and then obsession - with sex and drugs, his friendships, his complex relationship with his father, we are at once appalled by his bad choices and yet hopeful that his good nature will overcome his confused but compelling appetites. We keep hoping for a redeeming outcome, a happy ending. We want Rez to come to terms with his thoroughly American life, while embracing his Persian heritage.
Khadivi does not give in to those desires, however. What happens, happens, and the narrator prepares us by leading us mercilessly through Rez's convoluted, emotion-twisted reasoning.
At times, the narrative stumbles. The villains are often too stereotyped; the conflicts too predictable. Consequently, Khadivi's attempt to create a plausible explanation of how a nice, smart, successful, Americanized son of rich Iranian parents could be drawn into the shadowy world of ISIS is not always convincing. But there are many redeeming aspects of the book, as well. Khadivi has a sharp eye, and her ability to create a scene with a few choice details is outstanding, as is her ability to draw us into her protagonist's world, and ache with him as he struggles to find his true self.

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of A Good Country writes with a gentle rhythm ? Some of the sentences made me laugh like Hey, faggots! Who's got the tightest pants over the there? And some of the story is quite sad. Rez had enough to eat and good clothes to wear plus he had a nice school to go to. Because he got a B his father told Rez that he is lazy and that he is a disrespect to him and his mother. Rez gets mixed up with a girl who has a delicate box of thin wood with elephants painted on it, inside was a small plastic canister of crumpled weed, some papers a lighter. This is how girls carry their weed. Maybe their hang out with each other again? When there is a terror incident that shocks the nation. As fears escalate, his friends begin to withdraw and Rez becomes increasingly isolated an object of suspicion because of his name and skin colour. Rez is drawn into a frightening new world. I loved how this author has a way with words.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently a novel about the struggle of young Muslim Americans embedded in white Anglo communities to discover themselves and their culture while experiencing the environmental pressure to assimilate to Anglo culture. A interesting premise to be sure but the narrative was clouded by too much hype and story time devoted to teenage sex, drugs, and rock n' roll so to speak. The contradictions of the protagonist were difficult to endure as well - a very intelligent teen making a slew of extremely poor life choices. Maybe the point of the story - who knows?

[PS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve now read four novels along the themes of otherness and radicalisation this year, including Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid and Horses of God by Mahi Binebine.

I loved this novel, took me a while to read it because it’s not an easy read and Khadivi’s writing style takes some getting used to: it’s poetic, spare, realistic – slightly overworked in places - but she accurately captures the voice of a teenager, so much so that I double checked that she wasn’t a teenager / in her early 20s. She’s in her forties.
The last thirty pages were stunning - I read them so slowly because I didn’t want it to end.

What I didn’t like:

1. As another reviewer has mentioned, Khadivi does not account for differences between Shiites and Sunnis and other cultural differences between Syrian Arabs and Iranians.

2. I felt like the first 50 pages could have been condensed and that she spent far too much time on the surfer boy phase and could have instead focused more on Rex’s friendship with Arash (which she rushed over).

3. I wish we had got to know Rez’s mother better.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the smoothest read, but I truly understood Rez. Fascinating to follow his journey. 4 stars instead of 3 because the radicalization of American teens is a scary issue. This story allowed me to follow along for the journey and will give me material to mull over for the next several months. Has slightly altered the lens I view current events.

[Ingrid Contreras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes we turn to fiction for the things we don’t understand. My favorite novels are about a lunatic, a pedophile, twins with an incestuous relationship—Don Quixote, Lolita, The God of Small Things, respectively. These books have brought me to the shores of the unforeseen and the unexplainable. Looking at things from the other side of the mirror has value; this is what we’re after when we read fiction—we want to be taken far away, and we want to return, with something new to show.

The third in a trilogy following three generations of Kurdish-Iranian men as they leave their homeland and take on new identities, Laleh Khadivi’s A Good Country gets at our most modern interrogation—what is the path to terrorism, how does it unfold, and how is it possible?

If you’ve ever wondered about these questions, this is the book for you. An unblinking coming-of-age portrait of an American-islamist radical recruit, A Good Country is a heartbreaking story you won't soon forget.

“This was high school,” Laleh Khadivi writes. “You started out as one thing and ended as something else.” In A Good Country, Khadivi explores teenagedom as a phase of combustion in this story of a young Iranian-American boy’s radicalization. Born in an affluent community in Orange County, Reza Courdee goes from model immigrant, to stoner, to a boy shunned by his friends and targeted for his skin in the wake of a terrorist event, to a young man searching for what is right and wrong, true and false. In this search, he chooses a path which happens to be a false promise.

It is hard to imagine, at the book's onset, how Khadivi will get from one end of the social spectrum to the other -- from the inconsequential pressures of a sunny high school and prospects of Bay Area Ivy Leagues to war-torn Syria, where Rez’s boundless dreaming bottoms out as he realizes he’s signed up to join a radical Islamist militant group, and that the new country promised, the great utopia, does not exist.

Somehow we get there, and it’s because Khadivi is a magician. Written, I would say, with a scalpel, Khadivi is equal parts teenage-boy whisperer and magic-ball seer. The book opens:

They told him it was the best, there was nothing better. After they started, at twelve and thirteen and fourteen, his friends tried to convince him to try it. Rez, dude, they’d say, it’s no big deal. You don’t puke. You don’t pass out. No one can even tell. It’s like daydreaming, like that second just before you fall asleep, but for hours, they said, for the whole of eighth grade, their eyes glazed with the shine of the newly converted, and by tenth grade they gave up, and now, start of junior year, it was habit to make fun of him every time there was occasion, every time they circled up to light and puff and smoke, these friends.

In the background of this book, between the lines, Khadivi seems to be asking: what is a good country? Is it the America of Rez’s father, which Rez disrespects by getting a B in History? Is it his white friend Kelly’s America, of “the network of invisible sewers gushing under everything and the fair laws over them all, good police who don’t fuck with you for no reason”?

It is not the America, Rez concludes, that turns on skin color after a terrorist attack, where a man at a car casually walks by and spits on his father’s shoe. It is not America “the pressure cooker.” It is certainly not Mexico, whose decorative skeletons and poverty “freak him out.” At times Rez believes it might be the ocean, where he surfs, where “the water turned the same navy as the sky and when Rez paddled out far from the breaks to take a rest, the water grew still and he saw little flecks of stars in the ocean, their shimmer mixed with the easy rolls and laps of the sea. Sandwiched, he thought, folded in, a galaxy above, a galaxy below.”

Those who study recent history know that in 2014 ISIL claimed the city of Raqqah as the Caliphate, the capital of the Muslim state. It was supposed to be the return of a great Muslim capital, a new state built from the ground up, land reclaimed, a place where Muslims could finally have brotherhood and be in peace. The ISIL propaganda attracted a wide range of Muslims, who flew to Raqqah to be part of the birth of the new city, but it was always an empty promise built on genocide. We may imagine Rez as one of the foreigners who flew to Raqqah looking for such a sense of place.

A good country, Khadivi seems to argue in this complex, hypnotizing novel, is a state of belonging. Wherever that feeling is missing, that’s where a good country fails.

[Karlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iranian American Reza finds surfing pals and sex during his junior year but a series of events lead him to change and begin going to a mosque. His parents are not religious people and don't realize what is happening until it is too late. Few Iranians are drawn to ISis, but the author shows how it could happen to a vulnerable teen.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Trident Media for the free finished copy for review. All opinions are my own.

Rez is a young teenager who has it all. He was born in America to Iranian immigrants but has identified with the American culture from the very beginning. He attends a prep school in Laguna Beach and enjoys surfing with his friends. After a surfing trip to Mexico doesn't end so well, Rez finds himself ostracized from his regular group of friends, but he eventually finds solace with other Muslims students. As terrorist attacks occur throughout American (post-9/11), Rez and his Muslim friends find themselves increasingly discriminated against and targeted. What unravels throughout the novel is Rez's slow radicalization from a normal, American teenager into a soldier for an extremist terror network in Syria.

Assuming that this is a realistic interpretation of how these terrorist networks recruit new people, this book gives the reader information that is timely, informative, and scary. While the author's writing style took a little while to get used to, once the rhythm is found it becomes very descriptive, lyrical, and at times, poetic. I came to really enjoy Khadivi's writing style (I just wish her dialogue was written in a more traditional way so it would be easier to follow).

My biggest dislike of the book is the way it wrapped up. The epilogue jumps the timespan forward by five years and the reader never really knows what happens to one of the characters. By this point, I was very much invested in the story and its characters so to be left hanging at the end left me incredibly frustrated.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. It was published in May, but I never really saw much about it. Sadly, I think this one flew under the radar and deserves more attention than it has gotten. The topic furthers many of the conversations happening throughout the world right now, and I believe it to be an informative account for many Muslim Americans.


[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is close to home: set in Laguna Beach, CA in modern day, it relies on current events as well as additional imaginary events. It concerns an American teenage boy whose Iranian parents immigrated to California before he was born. Although he is 100% American, wealthy, privileged, and extremely well educated, he deals with insults and racial prejudice on a regular basis. I can only imagine how difficult this must be for people of this background. The story follows Rez through his high school years at a fictional exclusive prep school and the summer after graduation before he is off to Berkeley for college. It's an excellent tale and so timely.

My only complaint was that I didn't believe one of the subplots wherein one of Rez' fellow students takes an SAT test for another student which results in his being admitted to MIT. While at MIT, this student is injured at the Boston Marathon incident. And then his parents are so angry about the test-taking incident that they get the boy who took the test for their son kicked out of school. Their logic is their son wouldn't have been at school in Boston if the other kid hadn't taken the test for him, so they're seeking justice. Does that make any sense at all? The MIT student had paid the other boy to take the test, and it resulted in his acceptance at this prestigious school. So, you think everyone would be mad at the MIT student not the other kid.

P.S. Forgot to add that I read 2 other books by this author: The Age of Orphans (5stars) and Walking (1star), so you never know.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is difficult to write, because radicalization scares the crap out of me. It reminds me of Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Warren Jeffs and/or Hitler. And it is happening in America!

This is the story of a boy who grew up where I grew up! Went to the beaches in Southern California that I used to go to every weekend. Which made this fictional story that much more real to me.

Rez is an American born teen with Iranian parents. Grew up with all the things you wish for for your children...good schools, good homes, friends, freedom, money, discipline (probably too harsh)...but he felt he lacked love. Love from his father, no brothers or sisters and lacked the 'love' from Americans due to terrorism in the states. In other words..he was outcast because of his heritage.

This is such a difficult time in a teenagers life, much less trying to be an American born Iranian.

I was so saddened by the actions of my fellow Americans...but at the same time the fear of not knowing is real and edgy. Made me definitely think about my future actions or say anything that might be misconstrued as insulting or hurtful (which I try anyway in daily life).

I would have liked to have been given more insight into the radicalization process and what to be aware of...I felt the author just got to that point~ then wrapped it up.

Very interesting and extremely thought provoking that will last for many days; weeks to come.

[Shona Booky Ramblings of a Neurotic Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is completely different to the types of books I would usually read, but I've found myself in this weird book funk where it can take me a couple of weeks to read a book. However this one I was able to read in just a few days.

My biggest issue with this book quickly became one of the things I loved most. The lack of speech marks. There is none. At first it was a little off putting, it was difficult to differentiate between Rez's inner monologue and his dialogue with friends. But the entire book unfolds as though we the reader are inside his head, the book is his thoughts rather than his actions and interactions.

There is no question that the content of the book is controversial but Khadivi has done a fantastic job of writing it. She has written a book that gives an incredible insight in to the life and prejudices facing anyone from an Eastern European or Muslim background. And as the story follows Rez and his life experiences it is a little easier to see how impressionable young teens can be led down the wrong path.. This isn't just a book you can pick up, read and walk away from. This book is going to stay with you.

[Mom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A captivating story that I read compulsively. Rez, the teenaged son of Iranian immigrants, leads a privileged life in Southern California in contemporary times. A high-achieving student, Reza seems to have it all: good family, brains, wealth, friends, girlfriends, health. He becomes dissatisfied with his life, posing typical coming-of-age questions -- but then what? (And by the way, do conscientious Southern California parents really give their children so much freedom -- really???) How does he fall into radical Islamism? How does he end up heading to Syria with his girlfriend, determined to be an ISIS fighter?

In the end, I don't think the author even began to answer that question, not to my satisfaction. The "villains" were too stereotyped, the conflicts too predictable. While A Good Country is certainly well-written and easy to read, it failed to convince me. Entertained me, yes, but convinced me, no.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy read, but a thoughtful read.

We have Reza, an all-American teenager from a Middle Eastern family who tries their best to blend into American culture.

This was very much a coming-of-age book. The overwhelming theme was Rez's desperation to find his identity and sense of belonging.

The place in which he found it was surprising to me and I only wish that more time could have been spent on the last "chapter" of the book. It was so jarring and I almost could not believe what I was reading. I think I read the last chapter a couple times to make sure I wasn't reading too much into it.

Without giving too much away Khadivi did a really great job showing how a young persons need to belong can result in uninformed life choices. The idea that teenagers are suggestable is real. They will latch onto people who seem trustworthy because of what they say and not what they do. We see this time and time again.

[Ming]

DNF'd. I read to page 105 and I could not connect with the characters or care about them. Rez is just about to change... the impending turn is so close to happening. And I realized that it made no difference to me, whether he did or didn't.

The third-person perspective and the tone distanced the characters from the reader. I also have tired of reading about this age group and esp. when they're in Southern California.

[Tash Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captures well the disenfranchisement of youth from Muslim backgrounds (even if not practising) and the itch for belonging and community that ISIS scratches. Beautifully written, melodic prose. I found some of the sex scenes a bit unnecessary in detail - would not recommend for teenagers. I also thought some of the details were a bit unrealistic which irked me.

[Arezoo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is historically incorrect. It ignores Shiite vs Sunni conflict. It also ignore cultural differences between Muslim counties. It pretends that a Muslim is a Muslim is a Muslim. I could not believe Reza'a journey and found it fake and rushed. The only part I enjoyed is the depiction of Reza's family life.

[Anne Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave it 50 pages but I was more aware of the writing than getting swept up in the story. The writing, while clear and detailed, made me think it was trying too hard; it was too heavy-handed or deliberate. I wanted to like this book because I'm interested in the topic, but I just couldn't get into it.

[kate j]

this is one of the WEIRDEST presents from grandpa jones & the stevens that i've ever recieved. it went from the book about seeds to a book about a climate apocalypse to ... this? occasionally, i wonder if they're just sending me random books from their home library. (i did read it, though)

[The Irregular Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reza “Rez” Courdee is the son of Iranian immigrants living the good life in Laguna Beach, California. Rez considers himself a typical American teenager, partying, dating girls, smoking pot, and surfing with his friends. When most of his American friends stop talking with him after a misunderstanding while on a surfing trip, he finds himself befriending other local Muslim kids. After several high-profile terrorist attacks on American soil, Rez feels isolated by the quiet suspicion of his schoolmates and neighbors. Feeling rejected by the country of his birth, he begins to withdraw deeper into his Muslim identity. The shift from revisiting his roots towards radicalization is subtle, but Rez soon finds himself walking the path of an extremist.

This was an amazing book. I am still working through everything in it. Khadivi brings us into the life of a typical teenager, and then slowly unravels everything he formerly valued about himself to turn him into something darker. Perhaps the most startling thing for me was the illustration of the knife-edge existence of being “other.” When he is the typical American teen, he is accepted by his peers and neighbors to greater or lesser degrees. Neither he nor his parents are particularly religious, and he lives the life of a first generation American — strict parents who want to see him excel in his studies so he can grow up to fully realize the American Dream.

With the loss of his American friends, he finds himself teased by his new Muslim friends. He is called a poser and a fake; someone who wanted to be American so badly he rejected his Muslim heritage. With the terrorist attacks making every Muslim seem suspect, the path of least resistance becomes sheltering in the one community that doesn’t look at him like he may have a bomb strapped to his chest. This then is the razor’s edge. Is he American or is he Muslim? With his country and community reeling from terror attacks and falling deeper into islamophobia, it appears more and more to Rez that he cannot be both.

With this comes the impossible choice: does he cut himself off entirely from his past, his family’s history, and a large portion of his identity, or does he reject the country of his birth? In this story, Khadivi shows us that it is not necessarily hatred that drives the fall into extremism, sometimes it is hope: hope for a community that will not and cannot reject the seeker. And in trying to find this community, Rez falls afoul of evil men, men who are more than willing to prey on the uncertainty and vulnerability of teenagers to convince them that their hopes and dreams can be found at the end of a gun’s sights.

The book is incredibly moving. We like Rez, we want so much for him to find his place in the world. We practically shout at the page for him not to listen to these people leading him down this dark path. We also see just how difficult it is to fight this kind of radicalization. One character talks of dominoes falling; a terrorist attack breeds new fear, which gives rise to more islamophobia, which pushes more people towards violent extremism. The cycle seems self-sustaining, and the governments of the world have been stymied in finding an effective method of ending it.

This is an incredibly relevant book to read, especially now. In many ways, the book reminded me of Human Acts by Han Kang. The topics it deals with are difficult to face, but it is vital that we tackle this head-on, and try to break this cycle of violence. Perhaps one must ascend the hill traveled down on the path to extremism, and perhaps the climb becomes a bit easier with hope as your vehicle, rather than hatred.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reza Courdee is living the typical teenage life in California. He has got his friends with whom he likes to spend time surfing in the ocean and haging around at the beach and he also has his first crush and makes first sexual experiences. He plays soccer and he is highly achieving in school. Yet, with his new bunch of friends, he neglects his former interests and spends more time consuming drugs and doing nothing which does not really agree with his parents’ – immigrants from Iran – expectations for their son. However, one day, his life starts to change: Reza, born in the USA, is suddenly the immigrant, a terrorist and his friends start to question their friendship. He becomes more and more isolated and thus joins a group of Muslims who find relief and support in the local mosque. Most of all Fatima is attracted by the strong believers and the hip American girl, who easily shared her bed with Reza, starts not only wearing a hijab but also following the strict rules of Koran.

I really liked how Laleh Khadivi elaborates the topic of finding your identity on different levels. In the beginning, we seem to encounter the average teenager who does not share his parents’ beliefs and finds his ideas much more mirrored in his peer group. A slight disdain for the elder generation is not uncommon at this age. The fact that his Americanizes his name “Reza” into “Rez” also shows that it is this culture and not his familial background that he identifies with. I also found quite remarkable how the parents cope with their own immigration history and their culture. They eat in the old Iranian style, but try to integrate into the American culture since they are grateful for the lives they can lead there. They do not seem to convey that much of their past to their son. This only happens after Rez is identified as an immigrant, which he apparently is not since he was born in California. His interest in his family life is only born at the moment when he is excluded from the culture he always considered to be his own. His drifting away from the parents now leads to a new rapprochement in order to create the new self and to identify who he is and where he comes from. The most thought-provoking step in this development is definitely the encounter with Islam. As a reader you can effortlessly understand why this is attractive and how and why radicals do not have any problems winning over second or third generation immigrants for their ideas. It is absolutely convincing why Fatima and the others are magnetized and easy comply with the codes.

Yet, it is not only the immigrants’ perspective which is worth scrutinizing in this novel, it is also the behaviour of the “native” population which should be taken into account. When did we start seeing our friends and acquaintances not anymore as whom they are but as “Muslims” or “immigrants”? Which effects do global and local acts of terrorism have on our own life? And to what extent to be transfer personal pain due to the loss of a beloved person onto others who are not at all connected with the incident which caused our grief?

If you are open, as a reader, to question yourself, you will surely find food for thought in this novel.

[Karan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literary fiction that engages with contemporary politics and state-of-the-world have two big hoops to jump to keep me engaged: give me an insider to root and an insider's view of what it is to live the reality otherwise captured and compressed from the outside by journalists. Khadivi, whose work I am completely unfamiliar with, achieves this with her urgent prose. In a fairly slim book, she captures the quickly changing landscapes within and outside for Rez, an affluent, Berkeley-bound, second generation Iranian-immigrant teenager in California who loves to surf. She sprints with him like an Olympic high jumper first clearing the bars of teenage angst and immigrant-kid angst easily with high-achieving Rez aching to belong to the America that surrounds him, aching to be acknowledged like an average American teen and aching to break free from the double life of the chilled surfer-boy outside and anxiety-ridden must-achieve-academically, "responsible and grateful" son-of-immigrant at home. He is a boy wanting to live and breathe the life of waves, open skies, sand, sex and surf with little patience for the immigrant anxieties of his family.

That is, until an index crime event in the neighbourhood, brought about by homegrown Muslim terrorists imports the national paranoia into home turf. The attitudes of predictably cliquey teenagers around Rez turn and the slow ostracisation of an already bisected reality exposes a void that Rez gets busy filling with his hitherto denied Muslim identity. All that angst of assimilation is fodder for the "brothers" waiting to recruit for the bubbling Islamic State. From here on, like a gladiator game, Khadivi starts systematically upping the bar for Rez to clear: whole histories to learn, whole parallel narratives of persecution to imbibe, whole new friendships and liasions to oblige, and right until his bone-chilling climactic migration to Syria, the final stark transformation of this boy into a tragic footsoldier, it is akin to observing a heroic gladiator fall.

It's not completely new terrain but with Khadivi's pen, those sharp, effective sentences propel the scene through changing countries, landscapes, perspectives and panoramas with energy and imagination. Most importantly for the book, Rez is a terrifyingly sympathetic character to bond to: a grasping, unformed teenager who is desperate to carve out an identity for himself but hides within himself a fully-geared megatron empath uncertainly absorbing the handed down narratives of clans, identities and nation-states to arrive at an eventually deranged Purpose to his life. Through him, we see her credibly capturing the ground-level realities of marginalisation, radicalisation, the immigrant "burden" and the decisions taken when the personal identity slugs it out with the social/group identity. In all, a successful project that could easily be seen as an American Pastoral for our times.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-intentioned, well-written but ultimately unsatisfying chronicle of a young man's path to radicalism. Rez is a typical OC teen in love with surfing, doing drugs and scoring girls. Except he's also a second generation American of Persian descent. He generally has figured out a way to fit in by being all things to all people but surfing and the ocean is his passion. Only there does he can feel he can relax and be his true self. Unfortunately a botched surf trip in Mexico and a mall bombing in a nearby town puts Rez under a cloud of suspicion and resentment in the eyes of most of his white friends. Upon graduating, he meets a fellow student who is smart, courteous, curious and polite. Through that student's brother and a relationship with a fellow second generation American, he becomes aware and a student of Islam and he slowly and, against his own judgment, falls toward the more Wahabian bent of same.

Khadivi has a wonderful ear and writes beautifully. She effortlessly captures the teen spirit. The idea that any moment or idea can become the life changing one and the hyper attention to the moment that teens are in as they are discovering and devouring the world. She is less successful with her plot, because it reads like an FBI report come to life. There is no strong insight into Rez's motivations. And since we are exclusively focused on Rez and his feelings, we get no strong read on the other characters' motivation. Which is a shame because she creates some wonderful ones: The rebel Fatima who is restless and angry until she leans into her faith and Matthews, Rez's closest surfer bud who has a live and let live attitude that exudes the best of what a young American can be.

A Good Country is worth reading, but you will walk away ever so slightly disappointed.

[Caity’s Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow - I finally finished it! I'm usually a fast reader but for some reason, this book took me so long to read and I actually had to force myself to pick it up. It was for school English so I knew I had to plough through, but it was not an enjoyable ride!

I wish I could give it more stars because there were many pressing and important messages and issues in it, and some people will probably love it. I felt angered and shocked at the horrific racism and treatment characters received, and the book has many important themes in it, but I feel like there was a definite lack of impact and power in it.

I felt very sad for the protagonist at times, but I found the writing style weird and hard to connect to, as I felt like the characters lacked depth and a sense of reality. It took ages to get to the crux of it, and even then it felt very rushed towards the end.

Also, there are no quotation marks which I found really irritating, and again, it led to a lack of characterisation. The excessive and constant presence of drugs, alcohol and sex was also quite jarring and it got very tedious to read about for 250 pages.


**SPOILERS***




The first 4/5 of the novel was slow and small changes developed, and then suddenly everything changed so quickly. It felt quite unrealistic and sudden, and I did not find the motivation/reasoning behind Rez joining ISIS very believable at all? It seemed to come out of the blue, he was opposed to Islam one second and the next he was on a plane to Syria? I found it a bit odd.

[b aaron talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

a book that traces the steps an iranian-american high school student takes from straight A southern californian surfer kid to extremist. there are no easy answers just like there is not just one thing that changes your life direction. instead, it is a series of small, incremental injustices, wrongs, slights, misunderstandings that contribute to this change.

my initial reaction to this text is to doubt it, but that is also why i wanted to read it. as much as fiction can inform our world, this text illustrates the small, incremental injustices, wrongs, slights, and misunderstandings that can change a person.

much like "dark at the crossing," another book that deals with the syrian war and the people it involves, this novel makes me question my own actions and thoughts and lack of concern and action. it makes me think about my life now as an immigrant in a different country, how i perceive authority and power, and how it does and does not effect me because of my identity. i have no answers.

my goal in reading this novel was to read a story about people and places that i do not normally read about. i do feel more informed, if only in an etherial sense about other people's possible experiences. and like "dark at the crossing" and "american war," the characters in this book and their stories will stick with me.

[Anika Tng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book lacked depth. It was too short. The author didn’t explore the human psyche enough to truely expose the process of going from a regular American teenager to a Syrian fighter. As a caucasian female, who doesn’t have a particular relationship with God, it was hard for me to relate to the main character, to fully understand at which point his thinking switched, and I needed more help from the author to walk me through it, the million little steps that people take in that direction before taking the plunge - Rez’s journey seemed rushed, incomplete and some what choppy.

As an Australian, I was further disappointed with the author’s depiction of Australians. She seemed to throw all the western countries together into one racist bag. Which hasn’t been my experience (I might not speak on behalf of all), but Australia is too far removed from the events of Europe and America to discriminate against religious groups. We are a truely multicultural nation, and our Aboriginal’s don’t have toothpicks in their noses, and we would be absolutely honoured to have an Aboriginal Prime Minister! So I think the author needed to to do more research on countries she’s never lived in, before writing such strong statements about a nation and a culture she’s clearly never experienced herself.