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The Laughter
An aging white male college professor develops a dangerous obsession with his new Pakistani colleague in this modern, iconoclastic novel that is as powerful, riveting, and disturbing as Lolita, Disgrace, and A Little Life.
Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured professor of English, is long settled into the routines of a divorced, aging academic. But his quiet, staid life is upended by his new colleague, Ruhaba Khan, a dynamic Pakistani Muslim law professor.
Ruhaba unexpectedly ignites Oliver’s long-dormant passions, a secret desire that quickly tips towards obsession after her teenaged nephew, Adil Alam, arrives from France to stay with her. Oliver becomes a mentor to Adil, using his friendship with the boy to draw closer to his aunt. Getting to know them, Oliver tries to reconcile his discomfort with the worlds in which they come from, and to quiet his sense of dismay at the encroaching change they represent—both in background and in Ruhaba’s spirited engagement with the student movements on campus.
After protests break out on campus demanding diversity across the university, Harding finds himself and his beliefs under fire, even as his past reveals a picture more complicated than it seems. As Ruhaba seems attainable yet not, and as the women of his past taunt his memory, Harding reacts in ways shocking and devastating.
Sonora Jha has created a complex character both in tune and out of step with our time, an erudite man who inspires and challenges our sympathies. As the novel reaches its astonishing conclusion, Jha compels us to reexamine scenes in a new light, revealing a depth of loneliness in unlikely places, the subjectivity of innocence, and the looming peril of white rage in America.
An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make, as both readers and as citizens.
Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured professor of English, is long settled into the routines of a divorced, aging academic. But his quiet, staid life is upended by his new colleague, Ruhaba Khan, a dynamic Pakistani Muslim law professor.
Ruhaba unexpectedly ignites Oliver’s long-dormant passions, a secret desire that quickly tips towards obsession after her teenaged nephew, Adil Alam, arrives from France to stay with her. Oliver becomes a mentor to Adil, using his friendship with the boy to draw closer to his aunt. Getting to know them, Oliver tries to reconcile his discomfort with the worlds in which they come from, and to quiet his sense of dismay at the encroaching change they represent—both in background and in Ruhaba’s spirited engagement with the student movements on campus.
After protests break out on campus demanding diversity across the university, Harding finds himself and his beliefs under fire, even as his past reveals a picture more complicated than it seems. As Ruhaba seems attainable yet not, and as the women of his past taunt his memory, Harding reacts in ways shocking and devastating.
Sonora Jha has created a complex character both in tune and out of step with our time, an erudite man who inspires and challenges our sympathies. As the novel reaches its astonishing conclusion, Jha compels us to reexamine scenes in a new light, revealing a depth of loneliness in unlikely places, the subjectivity of innocence, and the looming peril of white rage in America.
An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make, as both readers and as citizens.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2023
178 people are currently reading
15686 people want to read
About the author
Sonora Jha
7 books184 followersSonora Jha is the author of The Laughter (Harper Via 2023), winner of the 2024 Washington Book Award for Fiction and the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son: Motherhood, Masculinity, and the Making of My Family, published in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, and by Penguin Random House India in 2021. She also wrote the novel Foreign (Random House India, 2013), which tells the stories of farmers' suicides in India. Foreign was a finalist for The Hindu Prize for Fiction, The Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, and was longlisted for the DSC Prize. Sonora grew up in Mumbai and was chief of the metropolitan bureau for the Times of India in Bangalore and contributing editor for East magazine in Singapore before moving to the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in media and public affairs. Dr. Jha is a professor of journalism at Seattle University and her op-eds and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Seattle Times, The Establishment, DAME, and in several anthologies. She also teaches fiction and essay writing for Hugo House, Hedgebrook Writers’ Retreat, and Seattle Public Library. She is an alumna and board member of Hedgebrook Writers’ Retreat, and has served on the jury for awards for Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, and Hugo House. Her latest book is the novel Intemperance (Harper Via, 2025).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 455 reviews
October 22, 2022
I almost stopped reading this book very early on because our narrator, a white straight male college professor in his 50's, is so detestable that it was hard to agree to go on this journey with him. We talk a lot about unlikable protagonists, and here, as is often the case, his unlikable-ness is the point. Still, I wanted some reassurance that there was a reason for this, that Jha was taking us somewhere worth going. I am happy to report that she is. She most definitely is.
I am not saying you will enjoy spending this much time in the company of Oliver Harding. I disliked him more the longer we went on together. He does not grow on you. But Ruhaba, the object of his obsession, does. Not in the predatory, leering way Oliver has. But she becomes more interesting the longer we know her, to the extent that despite what Jha is doing here (which she pulls off) I did find myself sometimes wishing we could have a book about Ruhaba instead. But this is another sign that Jha has done her work well, it's so common in books of obsession that the object of that obsession feels flat on the page, boring and not worth all the trouble. Not here.
As much as I bad mouth Oliver, he will, occasionally, surprise you. He may be a joke of a person, and the story is mostly linear, but Jha has some very smart zigs and zags that can make this book read like a thriller. It's also a campus novel (set in the month or so before the election in 2016) that dives all the way into modern political tensions on campus between marginalized communities and the dominant wealthy white status quo. Oliver, you will find, is not the worst white man in this book. He is savvy enough to know that there are limits to what is socially acceptable, to what will allow him to continue to move mostly unfettered through his work and maintain his position. It is in these surprises that we start to get an idea of why Ruhaba would choose him as an ally. He knows just enough to be able to present himself as safe, which can be the worst kind of dangerous.
You should be ready not just for Oliver to be deeply misogynistic, but to get it on nearly every page. (I'm not a man, but it felt right to me.) There is also every shade between exoticism and racism, with a heaping helping of Islamophobia. It is somehow easier to tolerate it, for me, knowing that the author is a woman of color who is showing us her experience rather than her beliefs. But your mileage may vary.
Jha is clearly interested in why men are the way they are, and not just white men. Ruhaba's nephew is the catalyst of the book, a teenager who has been sent away after he associated with a group of older, more radical boys. In a way, Oliver presents an opportunity for the opposite kind of influence, he presents himself as a sympathetic, steady, quiet, intellectual American man. You can see a little of why Ruhaba encourages their relationship, but you also see how Oliver really feels. This dissonance is the real trick of the book, and the heartbreak of it.
I am not saying you will enjoy spending this much time in the company of Oliver Harding. I disliked him more the longer we went on together. He does not grow on you. But Ruhaba, the object of his obsession, does. Not in the predatory, leering way Oliver has. But she becomes more interesting the longer we know her, to the extent that despite what Jha is doing here (which she pulls off) I did find myself sometimes wishing we could have a book about Ruhaba instead. But this is another sign that Jha has done her work well, it's so common in books of obsession that the object of that obsession feels flat on the page, boring and not worth all the trouble. Not here.
As much as I bad mouth Oliver, he will, occasionally, surprise you. He may be a joke of a person, and the story is mostly linear, but Jha has some very smart zigs and zags that can make this book read like a thriller. It's also a campus novel (set in the month or so before the election in 2016) that dives all the way into modern political tensions on campus between marginalized communities and the dominant wealthy white status quo. Oliver, you will find, is not the worst white man in this book. He is savvy enough to know that there are limits to what is socially acceptable, to what will allow him to continue to move mostly unfettered through his work and maintain his position. It is in these surprises that we start to get an idea of why Ruhaba would choose him as an ally. He knows just enough to be able to present himself as safe, which can be the worst kind of dangerous.
You should be ready not just for Oliver to be deeply misogynistic, but to get it on nearly every page. (I'm not a man, but it felt right to me.) There is also every shade between exoticism and racism, with a heaping helping of Islamophobia. It is somehow easier to tolerate it, for me, knowing that the author is a woman of color who is showing us her experience rather than her beliefs. But your mileage may vary.
Jha is clearly interested in why men are the way they are, and not just white men. Ruhaba's nephew is the catalyst of the book, a teenager who has been sent away after he associated with a group of older, more radical boys. In a way, Oliver presents an opportunity for the opposite kind of influence, he presents himself as a sympathetic, steady, quiet, intellectual American man. You can see a little of why Ruhaba encourages their relationship, but you also see how Oliver really feels. This dissonance is the real trick of the book, and the heartbreak of it.
April 28, 2025
This was a disturbing book from the start, I admire Jha for writing from Harding's perspective because not only is he trying his hardest to sound liberal, PC and "with it" his thoughts and true intentions are still revealed.... and they reveal a very ugly and perverse human. While I wish so much to know more of Ruhaba through her words, we were left with her unsent email drafts.... but I think that is the point... we only get to see Ruhaba through Harding's eyes... and even then, her complexity and humanness are identifiable. Harding for the life of him can not see her as a unique human... only as a construct in his mind... an ideal romantic view of orientalism amercanised. Jha has done a great job of keeping the tension and creating a narrator who unknowingly and knowingly lets his mask slip to reveal the monster lurking behind.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 22, 2023
“Let me be candid and state that one of the reasons that women of color are asked to do disproportionately high service on committees on the American campus is that men of pallor like me are no longer asked. We have proved to be obtrusive and resistant to change, and have thereby earned ourselves more time sitting back in our offices or getting out to play golf.”
This book is set in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Oliver Harding is a 56 year old English Professor who slept with multiple students, faculty members and women he met on his travels - pretty much everyone. Unsurprisingly, he is divorced and estranged from his grown daughter. He has developed an obsession with Ruhaba Khan, a Pakistani Muslim law professor at the same university. She is about 20 years younger than Oliver. Adil is Ruhaba’s 15 year old nephew. After he comes under the influence of some radical Muslims in France, his mother sends him to America to stay with his aunt. His presence in America draws the attention of the FBI. Oliver assumes that befriending Adil will help him get closer to Ruhaba. Oliver assumes a lot of things about Ruhaba, and so did I. We were both wrong.
I liked this book more and more as it went along. It astutely touched on gender and racial politics in academia (you definitely do not want to show up in blackface at a costume party), a student protest, and the treatment of Muslims in France and America. Oliver was a lecherous, arrogant jerk throughout the book, but he was matched by some of his colleagues. Although we know from the start that something terrible is going to happen in Oliver’s office, the ending was truly shocking to me.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
This book is set in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Oliver Harding is a 56 year old English Professor who slept with multiple students, faculty members and women he met on his travels - pretty much everyone. Unsurprisingly, he is divorced and estranged from his grown daughter. He has developed an obsession with Ruhaba Khan, a Pakistani Muslim law professor at the same university. She is about 20 years younger than Oliver. Adil is Ruhaba’s 15 year old nephew. After he comes under the influence of some radical Muslims in France, his mother sends him to America to stay with his aunt. His presence in America draws the attention of the FBI. Oliver assumes that befriending Adil will help him get closer to Ruhaba. Oliver assumes a lot of things about Ruhaba, and so did I. We were both wrong.
I liked this book more and more as it went along. It astutely touched on gender and racial politics in academia (you definitely do not want to show up in blackface at a costume party), a student protest, and the treatment of Muslims in France and America. Oliver was a lecherous, arrogant jerk throughout the book, but he was matched by some of his colleagues. Although we know from the start that something terrible is going to happen in Oliver’s office, the ending was truly shocking to me.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
February 20, 2023
Meet Oliver Harding, fifty-six year old white-privileged-English Professor- with tenure at a university in Seattle.
His ex-wife, Emily left him years ago. She’s been re-married for eight years.
Harding admits to having affairs with faculty and students.
Their only daughter, Kathryn, twenty-three-was getting married in two weeks.
She hasn’t seen Harding since she was fourteen.
She calls her dad -wanting to meet.
While in a cafe she tells him:
“I’m sorry I can’t invite you. I want my special day to be ‘worry-free’. I’ll have you meet Phillip later, if you still . . . “
Harding says:
“Worry-free? You’re eating a salad with no dressing. Looks pretty worried to me”
“In the old days, this could have gone down as a joke. But we live in humorless times”.
Harding’s been doing research on the twentieth-century British writer G.K. Chesterton.
He’s also skillful at knitting -but hides his hobby from colleagues -as he
didn’t want to be looked at as ‘a-sweet-man’.
Ollie lives with his dog Edgar.
Due to his personal failures and professional insecurities-(even though he’s an accomplished academic), he’s a lonely man.
His life of solitary is somewhat pathetic….
yet -not a man I felt sorry for.
I found him despicable, impertinent, and down right creepy…..
but his distasteful character is vital to this story.
Meet Ruhaba Khan, a Muslim Law professor….about twenty-something years younger than Harding.
“For all the years of work on her dissertation, and on her research agenda as a law, professor, and scholar of race and political science, for all the murky intersectionality of race and gender and citizenship and policing and justice and profiling and masculinity, and the toxicity of masculinity, especially in policing, Ruhaba was a woman in rage”.
Meet Adil Alam….the fifteen year old nephew of Ruhaba.
Adil walks with a slight limp from having had polio.
Adil’s mother was from Pakistan…but Adil grew up in France - was a French citizen. His mother re-married a Frenchman.
Just before coming to live with his aunt Ruhaba in Seattle, Adil got caught up in some trouble back in France.
Adil had been questioned by the police in France. He was pulled out of his mosque along with some other older boys.
Before leaving, the French police had told Adil
not to open his email, and to disable all his social media accounts. They had taken his laptop into their custody looking for clues to militant radical Islamist groups.
Adil was innocent—even his mother knew he was - but even so - he got a raw deal.
The policeman had helped expedite Adil’s tourist visa to visit his aunt in America.
Adil missed his mother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousins, friends, girlfriend, his own country, his old life surrounded by familiar comforts.
One night after a university party, Harding drove Ruhaba and Adil back home to their house.
As he was dropping them off, the FBI showed up.
The FBI said they were doing a ‘drop-in’ to check on Mr. Alam’s well being.
The French authority had delegated this visit.
This poor fifteen year old kid - in a new county — was getting the run down — for what?
Ruhaba said, “please refer to the child as Adil”….. reminding the FBI men that he was a minor.
The police wanted to know what activities Adil would be doing while he was visiting.
Ruhaba told the police he would be doing normal activities as other teenagers. Video games, music, cycling, Netflix, and twice a week he was going to walk Ollie’s dog named Edgar.
Things get sticky, thorny, and complicated….
Oliver Harding, (Ollie), becomes much too entangled in Ruhaba and Adil’s lives.
He’s fixated -obsessed - on Ruhaba… and tries to take too much control over Adil’s life as well.
The setting for this story takes place during the 2016 presidential election between Trump and Hillary.
Campus politics begins to escalate. Harding and Ruhaba are at opposite political ends.
Ruhaba joins the side of the students and their protest.
Scum ball ‘Ollie’, could care less about justice and activism… or protesting for anything….
but with his obsessive interest to bed Ruhaba…he’s happy to lie - anything to seduce her.
Harding is a disturbing character throughout —
There is a mysterious-suspense throughout too.
It’s the type of book - not easy to put down.
Most readers can read this novel in one or two sittings… not giving a rats ass about the laundry, exercise, or meals to cook.
This novel -
…..is filled with fury, indignation and rage.
Anger was seething on every page —
It’s addicting ….
The fraught ending is distressing, unsettling…..
perplexing.
Very well written
Extremely thought-provoking!
A few excerpts:
“We live in world where people are rapidly growing alienated, I said. The alienation of young men, in particular, is striking. I kicked myself for talking of young men like an old man. An old man called in to pontificate on a prime time news program”.
“Much has been said about academics, laboring toward tenure, but I recall that journey as the one time in my life, when I felt vital, alive, in a perfect toil of mind and madness, my heartbeats set to the rhythms of peer review, revisions, resubmissions, acceptances, rejections, and publication. To publish or perish—ah, it held the dread of shame and promise of glory that tinted each day with urgency”.
“One didn’t point at women from other cultures and colors around here without using the word ‘beautiful’.
It’s just what we did now. Even women who were themselves decidedly fugly. Such pandering, such patronizing… did poor Ruhaba
have to endure this sort of thing all the time?”
This was the first book I read by Sonora Jha….
I loved her razor-sharp astute writing .
Her writing is intelligent…polished … exasperating …
totally captivating.
It kept me awake much of the night!
Note: if you ‘must’ like your characters…this book might not be for you.
His ex-wife, Emily left him years ago. She’s been re-married for eight years.
Harding admits to having affairs with faculty and students.
Their only daughter, Kathryn, twenty-three-was getting married in two weeks.
She hasn’t seen Harding since she was fourteen.
She calls her dad -wanting to meet.
While in a cafe she tells him:
“I’m sorry I can’t invite you. I want my special day to be ‘worry-free’. I’ll have you meet Phillip later, if you still . . . “
Harding says:
“Worry-free? You’re eating a salad with no dressing. Looks pretty worried to me”
“In the old days, this could have gone down as a joke. But we live in humorless times”.
Harding’s been doing research on the twentieth-century British writer G.K. Chesterton.
He’s also skillful at knitting -but hides his hobby from colleagues -as he
didn’t want to be looked at as ‘a-sweet-man’.
Ollie lives with his dog Edgar.
Due to his personal failures and professional insecurities-(even though he’s an accomplished academic), he’s a lonely man.
His life of solitary is somewhat pathetic….
yet -not a man I felt sorry for.
I found him despicable, impertinent, and down right creepy…..
but his distasteful character is vital to this story.
Meet Ruhaba Khan, a Muslim Law professor….about twenty-something years younger than Harding.
“For all the years of work on her dissertation, and on her research agenda as a law, professor, and scholar of race and political science, for all the murky intersectionality of race and gender and citizenship and policing and justice and profiling and masculinity, and the toxicity of masculinity, especially in policing, Ruhaba was a woman in rage”.
Meet Adil Alam….the fifteen year old nephew of Ruhaba.
Adil walks with a slight limp from having had polio.
Adil’s mother was from Pakistan…but Adil grew up in France - was a French citizen. His mother re-married a Frenchman.
Just before coming to live with his aunt Ruhaba in Seattle, Adil got caught up in some trouble back in France.
Adil had been questioned by the police in France. He was pulled out of his mosque along with some other older boys.
Before leaving, the French police had told Adil
not to open his email, and to disable all his social media accounts. They had taken his laptop into their custody looking for clues to militant radical Islamist groups.
Adil was innocent—even his mother knew he was - but even so - he got a raw deal.
The policeman had helped expedite Adil’s tourist visa to visit his aunt in America.
Adil missed his mother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousins, friends, girlfriend, his own country, his old life surrounded by familiar comforts.
One night after a university party, Harding drove Ruhaba and Adil back home to their house.
As he was dropping them off, the FBI showed up.
The FBI said they were doing a ‘drop-in’ to check on Mr. Alam’s well being.
The French authority had delegated this visit.
This poor fifteen year old kid - in a new county — was getting the run down — for what?
Ruhaba said, “please refer to the child as Adil”….. reminding the FBI men that he was a minor.
The police wanted to know what activities Adil would be doing while he was visiting.
Ruhaba told the police he would be doing normal activities as other teenagers. Video games, music, cycling, Netflix, and twice a week he was going to walk Ollie’s dog named Edgar.
Things get sticky, thorny, and complicated….
Oliver Harding, (Ollie), becomes much too entangled in Ruhaba and Adil’s lives.
He’s fixated -obsessed - on Ruhaba… and tries to take too much control over Adil’s life as well.
The setting for this story takes place during the 2016 presidential election between Trump and Hillary.
Campus politics begins to escalate. Harding and Ruhaba are at opposite political ends.
Ruhaba joins the side of the students and their protest.
Scum ball ‘Ollie’, could care less about justice and activism… or protesting for anything….
but with his obsessive interest to bed Ruhaba…he’s happy to lie - anything to seduce her.
Harding is a disturbing character throughout —
There is a mysterious-suspense throughout too.
It’s the type of book - not easy to put down.
Most readers can read this novel in one or two sittings… not giving a rats ass about the laundry, exercise, or meals to cook.
This novel -
…..is filled with fury, indignation and rage.
Anger was seething on every page —
It’s addicting ….
The fraught ending is distressing, unsettling…..
perplexing.
Very well written
Extremely thought-provoking!
A few excerpts:
“We live in world where people are rapidly growing alienated, I said. The alienation of young men, in particular, is striking. I kicked myself for talking of young men like an old man. An old man called in to pontificate on a prime time news program”.
“Much has been said about academics, laboring toward tenure, but I recall that journey as the one time in my life, when I felt vital, alive, in a perfect toil of mind and madness, my heartbeats set to the rhythms of peer review, revisions, resubmissions, acceptances, rejections, and publication. To publish or perish—ah, it held the dread of shame and promise of glory that tinted each day with urgency”.
“One didn’t point at women from other cultures and colors around here without using the word ‘beautiful’.
It’s just what we did now. Even women who were themselves decidedly fugly. Such pandering, such patronizing… did poor Ruhaba
have to endure this sort of thing all the time?”
This was the first book I read by Sonora Jha….
I loved her razor-sharp astute writing .
Her writing is intelligent…polished … exasperating …
totally captivating.
It kept me awake much of the night!
Note: if you ‘must’ like your characters…this book might not be for you.
April 14, 2023
The Laughter takes place at the University of Seattle in the months prior to the 2016 United States presidential election(Hillary vs Trump), the story centers around 56-year-old Dr. Oliver Harding an English professor. Oliver becomes obsessed with a coworker of his, Ruhaba Khan a Pakistani Muslim law professor.
Oliver befriends Ruhaba as well as her teenage nephew Adil. As Oliver’s relationship deepens with Ruhaba and Oliver, the political climate at the college explodes and Oliver finds himself at opposite ends to his new friends.
One of my favorite things about character-driven literary fiction is going inside the mind of someone different than myself. And Oliver was very different. He’s unlikeable in the worst way: he’s misogynistic and is the embodiment of white privileged. However, his unlikeable traits were one of the reasons this story was so compelling. It’s hard to compare Oliver to any other character I’ve read before but he reminded me a bit of the protagonist in Vladimir by Julia May Jones.
The Laughter does a deep dive into many themes such as aging, privilege, racism, classism, and the #metoo movement. I found The Laughter to be one of the most thought-provoking stories that I've read in recent years. I would never spoil a story but I will say the ending left me absolutely floored.
I loved this story so much and even though it’s early in the year, I can already tell that The Laughter will be one of my favorite books of 2023. I highly recommend this one to all!
Oliver befriends Ruhaba as well as her teenage nephew Adil. As Oliver’s relationship deepens with Ruhaba and Oliver, the political climate at the college explodes and Oliver finds himself at opposite ends to his new friends.
One of my favorite things about character-driven literary fiction is going inside the mind of someone different than myself. And Oliver was very different. He’s unlikeable in the worst way: he’s misogynistic and is the embodiment of white privileged. However, his unlikeable traits were one of the reasons this story was so compelling. It’s hard to compare Oliver to any other character I’ve read before but he reminded me a bit of the protagonist in Vladimir by Julia May Jones.
The Laughter does a deep dive into many themes such as aging, privilege, racism, classism, and the #metoo movement. I found The Laughter to be one of the most thought-provoking stories that I've read in recent years. I would never spoil a story but I will say the ending left me absolutely floored.
I loved this story so much and even though it’s early in the year, I can already tell that The Laughter will be one of my favorite books of 2023. I highly recommend this one to all!
March 11, 2025
this was good!! definitely fits into the sub genre of reading-from-the-perspective-of-someone-heinous alongside yellow face, tampa and greenwich but is focused on using the perspective of our creepy "nice guy" professor harding to explore the american perception of muslims set amidst the cultural shifts we've seen in the past decade on a college campus. This can be a tough thing to balance, trying to detail a story through the voice of an unreliable character that reveals to the reader the second truth without being too obvious to the point where it betrays the personal bias one would have for their own actions. I thought it was done well here though, and I liked a particular twist at the end that I won't spoil.
May 22, 2023
this was so hard to read. it’s not disturbing, just has an incredibly racist, misogynist, perverted main character who does nothing but whine and be a fetishist. it’s trying too hard to be lolita. i get what the author is trying to do here, but no…
July 5, 2023
I am a fan of academic satire, and this book is so well done. I laughed a lot, but Jha takes on serious issues. There are many, but among them are Islamophobia, the last desperate gasps of the White male stranglehold on the American higher education experience, the confusion between exploitative sexual dominance and actual power. I think it is fair to say the book does not have the ending readers are likely to be hoping for or expecting (though there is a glimmer of hope that in some imagined future that ending might come.). I won't share any specifics because the surprising twists and turns of the central story, and the more peripheral stories, are a lot of the fun, Trust that everyone involved is fleshed out and very human but not always super likable. A lot of the professional reviews I have read (I've read no reader reviews) focus in on Oliver's sliminess. He is slimy, a textbook narcissist, but he is also a man of his generation who has recently realized he is no longer relevant. That is harder than people might think and makes for a much more interesting tale. I don't think looking at him as a jackass comes close to summarizing his story. I would not befriend Oliver IRL, but I found him somewhat sympathetic and very complicated and interesting. The reviews I read similarly seem to look at Ruhaba as a moral beacon bravely defying the patriarchy, and I think that is entirely off-base. Ruhaba is faceted, there is a lot going on with her. The fact that she cannot sleep for thinking about Sandra Bland is one facet. The fact that she takes on many of the same behaviors as the old, crusty, White, male professors she seeks to topple, though in slightly different form, is just as important as the compassionate modern part. I raise this because if people have read professional reviews I think they are being misled by their reductive approach to these characters.
This is a really challenging story that offers no easy answers. I had two significant issues with the book (neither of which ruined my pleasure in the book, but both bugged me and took me out of the story.) The first is Adil, Ruhaba's teenage nephew who comes to live with her. He has become "of interest" to the gendarmerie because he is a Pakistani Muslim. He is seen as taking part in what would be considered standard teen mischief if carried out by a European White kid. Because he is Brown and from a religious and traditional family this truly innocent behavior is read as possible terrorism. As a result, his parents want to get him out of Paris. They send him to Seattle to live with Ruhaba until the heat dies down. Of course US law enforcement is even more interested that the gendarmerie had been, and they begin to investigate Adil the moment he steps on US soil. I liked Adil. He was smart and wise, but Jha never forgets that despite his intellect and wisdom he is also a child. My issue is that Adil is not dimensional, he is this sweet innocent flower. I really wanted more conflict for him. My second issue (which, again, did not ruin the read) was the constant references to the 2016 election. Jha hits too hard on the hubris of the centrist Democratic faithful who did not harbor any doubt that Hillary would be elected and who believed that everything would be fine if that happened. I am not saying this did not occur. I had someone close to me who stopped talking to me because I said I thought there was a strong chance Trump would win. It was as if she believed I might summon that end by speaking it aloud. Anyway... 2016 was a defining moment in America, and I like that Jha set this this in the days (and much of it just hours) just before the cataclysm of the Trump presidency. That said, she referred endlessly to the election. At every gathering people were watching coverage or lamenting Trump's buffoonery and stupidity but she never explicitly ties America's vilification of fact-based analysis, civility, competence, compromise, decency, and intellect to what is happening in the story. I understand the tie-in, but in 20 years no reader will.
All in all a challenging, funny utterly heartbreaking book written by someone who really understands the academic milieu and has been in a lot of committee meetings. (She totally nails that.) I would recommend this to most readers, but especially anyone to who works in academia.
This is a really challenging story that offers no easy answers. I had two significant issues with the book (neither of which ruined my pleasure in the book, but both bugged me and took me out of the story.) The first is Adil, Ruhaba's teenage nephew who comes to live with her. He has become "of interest" to the gendarmerie because he is a Pakistani Muslim. He is seen as taking part in what would be considered standard teen mischief if carried out by a European White kid. Because he is Brown and from a religious and traditional family this truly innocent behavior is read as possible terrorism. As a result, his parents want to get him out of Paris. They send him to Seattle to live with Ruhaba until the heat dies down. Of course US law enforcement is even more interested that the gendarmerie had been, and they begin to investigate Adil the moment he steps on US soil. I liked Adil. He was smart and wise, but Jha never forgets that despite his intellect and wisdom he is also a child. My issue is that Adil is not dimensional, he is this sweet innocent flower. I really wanted more conflict for him. My second issue (which, again, did not ruin the read) was the constant references to the 2016 election. Jha hits too hard on the hubris of the centrist Democratic faithful who did not harbor any doubt that Hillary would be elected and who believed that everything would be fine if that happened. I am not saying this did not occur. I had someone close to me who stopped talking to me because I said I thought there was a strong chance Trump would win. It was as if she believed I might summon that end by speaking it aloud. Anyway... 2016 was a defining moment in America, and I like that Jha set this this in the days (and much of it just hours) just before the cataclysm of the Trump presidency. That said, she referred endlessly to the election. At every gathering people were watching coverage or lamenting Trump's buffoonery and stupidity but she never explicitly ties America's vilification of fact-based analysis, civility, competence, compromise, decency, and intellect to what is happening in the story. I understand the tie-in, but in 20 years no reader will.
All in all a challenging, funny utterly heartbreaking book written by someone who really understands the academic milieu and has been in a lot of committee meetings. (She totally nails that.) I would recommend this to most readers, but especially anyone to who works in academia.
December 27, 2022
This is a story you won't soon forget. Sonora Jha has seamlessly incorporated the majority of our cultural woes into one sharp story set on a campus in the midwest.
It's hard to root for Dr. Oliver Harding. In some ways, it's even harder under Jha's deft hand as you completely (and unwillingly) hear all of his thoughts. Harding is the type of man who is truly just a juvenile boy. He uncanningly says the worst possible phrases in an argument. He's the man who never learns from his mistakes and recreates them over and over again.
Jha juxtaposes him with an up and coming law professor from Pakistan who seeks tenure and change on campus. Oliver is obsessed with Ruhaba and never considers why or if it will be reciprocated. Jha takes time to create a beautiful portrait of the young visiting nephew Adil and then bring all three of them into and epic crash. If you love campus novels or just want an unforgettable story, The Laughter is for you!
#HarperVia #SonoraJha #TheLaughter
It's hard to root for Dr. Oliver Harding. In some ways, it's even harder under Jha's deft hand as you completely (and unwillingly) hear all of his thoughts. Harding is the type of man who is truly just a juvenile boy. He uncanningly says the worst possible phrases in an argument. He's the man who never learns from his mistakes and recreates them over and over again.
Jha juxtaposes him with an up and coming law professor from Pakistan who seeks tenure and change on campus. Oliver is obsessed with Ruhaba and never considers why or if it will be reciprocated. Jha takes time to create a beautiful portrait of the young visiting nephew Adil and then bring all three of them into and epic crash. If you love campus novels or just want an unforgettable story, The Laughter is for you!
#HarperVia #SonoraJha #TheLaughter
March 5, 2023
oh boy.
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have a feeling i won't be laughing a lot whilst reading this book
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have a feeling i won't be laughing a lot whilst reading this book
May 17, 2023
i am nothing if not a hater
March 31, 2023
I had read an interview in the Seattle Times about the author and this novel in particular, or it might of just been a review. Anyway, I was intrigued, especially since the author is local and the novel takes place in Seattle. It was a very good read. The narrator was Oliver Harding, a somewhat stuffy, traditional 56-year old English Professor at an unnamed university in Seattle. He becomes obsessively infatuated with a younger, ravishing law professor named Ruhaba who is from Pakistan. Her 15-year old nephew Adil has been sent to her by her sister who is living in Toulouse, France. Apparently he is found hanging out with a group of young men at a mosque who may be problematic. Ruhaba ends up asking Oliver if he would help Adil out, and he hires him to walk his dog a couple of times a week.
It is revealed very early on that a terrible thing has happened, and the boy is currently in a hospital with major injuries. The author gives us information little by little, but the actual event is not revealed until nearly the end of the story. The structure is such that Oliver, a few days after "the event" is writing journal style about what happened and what led up to it, and he is also being questioned by the FBI. Along with this gripping story, the concept of multiculturalism and how that is addressed in a university environment is explored with students demanding a more rounded curriculum that would be dominated by teachings from minority perspective and exploring the white superiority that has been pervasive in college curriculum. This pits faculty against students, and faculty against themselves. All of this reaches a very satisfying and well wrought conclusion.
This is a page turner, but it is also very thoughtful and timely. It forces the reader, uncomfortably at times, to face some issues that are not easily decided. I found it to be a powerful account.
It is revealed very early on that a terrible thing has happened, and the boy is currently in a hospital with major injuries. The author gives us information little by little, but the actual event is not revealed until nearly the end of the story. The structure is such that Oliver, a few days after "the event" is writing journal style about what happened and what led up to it, and he is also being questioned by the FBI. Along with this gripping story, the concept of multiculturalism and how that is addressed in a university environment is explored with students demanding a more rounded curriculum that would be dominated by teachings from minority perspective and exploring the white superiority that has been pervasive in college curriculum. This pits faculty against students, and faculty against themselves. All of this reaches a very satisfying and well wrought conclusion.
This is a page turner, but it is also very thoughtful and timely. It forces the reader, uncomfortably at times, to face some issues that are not easily decided. I found it to be a powerful account.
March 20, 2023
An explosive, tense, and illuminating work of fiction, The Laughter is a fascinating portrait of privilege, radicalization, class, and modern academia that forces us to confront the assumptions we make, as both readers and as citizens.
Thank you to BookSparks for the opportunity to read and review a gifted copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.
Within the first chapter of this book, I was *stressed*. This novel was written from the point of view of Dr. Harding, a white male college professor who becomes obsessed with his new Pakistani colleague, Ruhaba Khan. It's just as disturbing and unsettling as you think it might be, but I just couldn't stop reading. This book is like a puzzle with the time jumps and subtle references that finally come together for an explosive ending that I didn't see coming. I really enjoyed (and at the same time, hated) this one!
Thank you to BookSparks for the opportunity to read and review a gifted copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.
Within the first chapter of this book, I was *stressed*. This novel was written from the point of view of Dr. Harding, a white male college professor who becomes obsessed with his new Pakistani colleague, Ruhaba Khan. It's just as disturbing and unsettling as you think it might be, but I just couldn't stop reading. This book is like a puzzle with the time jumps and subtle references that finally come together for an explosive ending that I didn't see coming. I really enjoyed (and at the same time, hated) this one!
February 17, 2023
Jha’s stunning debut is a modern day Lolita - with a fascinatingly awful male narrator. I can see this one being very divisive as it does get difficult being inside Oliver’s head for the whole book, his takes on women, his students, and just people in general can be hard to stomach but this was SO well done.
March 2, 2023
I was so excited to read this book, because high rated and won giveaway by Goodreads.
But I was so struggled to read. So much going on.
First, I don't like the main character Dr. Oliver Harding. There is no any thoughts I can understand.
And races. I liked the characters of Adil and Ruhaba. Their situation and races are so much high hurdles to get over in this country and world nowadays.
While I was reading, it was so hard to understand and absorb to my head sometimes.And very slow building story. So took many days to finish.
I may re-read this book near future.
I may be able to understand and see more than this time.
Thank you, Goodreads,Harper Collins and author Sonora Jha.
But I was so struggled to read. So much going on.
First, I don't like the main character Dr. Oliver Harding. There is no any thoughts I can understand.
And races. I liked the characters of Adil and Ruhaba. Their situation and races are so much high hurdles to get over in this country and world nowadays.
While I was reading, it was so hard to understand and absorb to my head sometimes.And very slow building story. So took many days to finish.
I may re-read this book near future.
I may be able to understand and see more than this time.
Thank you, Goodreads,Harper Collins and author Sonora Jha.
Read
January 3, 2023The Laughter, by Sonora Jha, is a compelling and angry book about academia. Taking place in Seattle, most likely Seattle University where the author teaches, it focuses on an unlikeable professor of literature, Dr. Oliver Harding. Dr. Harding is old-school, a tenured white male who is puzzled and angered by the changes he's witnessing in the university's diversity program and hiring policies. He feels entitled but is concerned that he may become obsolete.
When he meets Ruhaba Khan, a junior Pakistani professor of law, he becomes smitten and wants desperately to seduce her. He is at least 20 years her senior and she doesn't show interest in his desires. However, when she becomes guardian of her 16 year old nephew Adil, Oliver finds a way to infiltrate her life. As Oliver subtly gets more and more involved with Ruhaba and Adil, things do not turn out the way he hopes.
Adil had been in trouble in France, where his parents live. They have sent him to live with Ruhaba to avoid his getting more and more off the straight and narrow, Oliver tries to take Adil under his wing and hires him to walk his dog twice a day. Despite his best efforts, Oliver is not sure if Adil is playing with him or being straight on.
Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating Adil, and Ruhaba is being investigated by the University. Oliver insinuates himself with the FBI, acting both as an ally for Ruhaba and Adil, but also reporting their suspicious actions to the feds. One might call this two-faced.
As all this is going on, there is a student rebellion based on students wanting a new curriculum that is diverse and meaningful. Oliver teaches Chesterton, not exactly a contemporary topic of interest. As Oliver gets more and more sucked in to the rebellion and torn about what side he plans to take, he risks losing any connection he has with Adil and Ruhaba,
The novel held my interest throughout but I couldn't help despising Oliver for his meanness, superficiality and underhanded nature. Everyone in this book wants something and their only difference, on the macro level, is how far they will go to get what they want.
Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this fine novel.
When he meets Ruhaba Khan, a junior Pakistani professor of law, he becomes smitten and wants desperately to seduce her. He is at least 20 years her senior and she doesn't show interest in his desires. However, when she becomes guardian of her 16 year old nephew Adil, Oliver finds a way to infiltrate her life. As Oliver subtly gets more and more involved with Ruhaba and Adil, things do not turn out the way he hopes.
Adil had been in trouble in France, where his parents live. They have sent him to live with Ruhaba to avoid his getting more and more off the straight and narrow, Oliver tries to take Adil under his wing and hires him to walk his dog twice a day. Despite his best efforts, Oliver is not sure if Adil is playing with him or being straight on.
Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating Adil, and Ruhaba is being investigated by the University. Oliver insinuates himself with the FBI, acting both as an ally for Ruhaba and Adil, but also reporting their suspicious actions to the feds. One might call this two-faced.
As all this is going on, there is a student rebellion based on students wanting a new curriculum that is diverse and meaningful. Oliver teaches Chesterton, not exactly a contemporary topic of interest. As Oliver gets more and more sucked in to the rebellion and torn about what side he plans to take, he risks losing any connection he has with Adil and Ruhaba,
The novel held my interest throughout but I couldn't help despising Oliver for his meanness, superficiality and underhanded nature. Everyone in this book wants something and their only difference, on the macro level, is how far they will go to get what they want.
Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of this fine novel.
August 7, 2023
This novel examines the political culture and the shady drama of a college in Seattle in the days before the 2016 presidential election. It is told in a chronology that alternates between a present tense and the aftermath of some terrible event which remains unclear until the very last chapters.
I personally think that Jha's attempt to tell her story through the voice of the opposite gender fell short. Men are portrayed in very stereotypical ways, starting with the deeply misogynistic, middle-aged white male who never really rises above being an avatar. Oliver Harding's growth, if it could be called that, is his downfall from workplace lust to a criminal outburst with fatality.
Ruhaba was not particularly likeable either, the sharp and opinionated contradictory character was simply used for shock value at the end without any real purpose.
This book tried to be complex and intense but it missed the mark for me.
I personally think that Jha's attempt to tell her story through the voice of the opposite gender fell short. Men are portrayed in very stereotypical ways, starting with the deeply misogynistic, middle-aged white male who never really rises above being an avatar. Oliver Harding's growth, if it could be called that, is his downfall from workplace lust to a criminal outburst with fatality.
Ruhaba was not particularly likeable either, the sharp and opinionated contradictory character was simply used for shock value at the end without any real purpose.
This book tried to be complex and intense but it missed the mark for me.
March 20, 2024
3.8⭐️ “The Laughter” will makes your skin itchy.
At the first quarter of the book, I was contemplating DNFing, however, as soon as the book started taking a rather sinister turn, I was hooked. The ending is probably what makes this book worth finishing. It is set around the time of Trumps first election, and its lead by a profesor that meets a new faculty member who is a Pakistani woman and becomes infatuated by the idea of her and her association to her culture. In more ways than some, he fetishizes her ethnicity. He interprets this as falling in love.
This narrative really puts into perspective how dangerous ignorance can become when it’s not properly taught and talked about. Looking away or rolling your eyes is a privilege, this story removes that privilege, and replaces it with the blunt reality that is so desperately needed in the world.
At the first quarter of the book, I was contemplating DNFing, however, as soon as the book started taking a rather sinister turn, I was hooked. The ending is probably what makes this book worth finishing. It is set around the time of Trumps first election, and its lead by a profesor that meets a new faculty member who is a Pakistani woman and becomes infatuated by the idea of her and her association to her culture. In more ways than some, he fetishizes her ethnicity. He interprets this as falling in love.
This narrative really puts into perspective how dangerous ignorance can become when it’s not properly taught and talked about. Looking away or rolling your eyes is a privilege, this story removes that privilege, and replaces it with the blunt reality that is so desperately needed in the world.
April 27, 2023
This is one of those books that will get under your skin and make you uncomfortable. You will want to put it down after a few chapters because the content will make you anxious. The narrative will make you cringe yet you will come back for more!
Inspired by the #metoo movement, this book is told from the POV of Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured English professor at the University of Seattle. There’s not much to like about Oliver-he’s an obsessive white male who becomes infatuated with Pakistani law professor, Ruhaba Khan. Entangled with the 2016 political climate, Oliver’s narcissistic and misogynistic thoughts pour out on to the pages of this book. We only hear from Ruhaba through a series of e-mails which makes this story that more powerful.
I can’t say that this was an “enjoyable read” but I couldn’t put it down once I got into it. Early on, I almost put it aside but I’m so glad that I stayed with it as it lends insight on important issues of race, class and privilege.
I applaud Sonora Jha for taking on this bold endeavor of writing Oliver’s character. He’s flawed and shockingly believable!
Inspired by the #metoo movement, this book is told from the POV of Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured English professor at the University of Seattle. There’s not much to like about Oliver-he’s an obsessive white male who becomes infatuated with Pakistani law professor, Ruhaba Khan. Entangled with the 2016 political climate, Oliver’s narcissistic and misogynistic thoughts pour out on to the pages of this book. We only hear from Ruhaba through a series of e-mails which makes this story that more powerful.
I can’t say that this was an “enjoyable read” but I couldn’t put it down once I got into it. Early on, I almost put it aside but I’m so glad that I stayed with it as it lends insight on important issues of race, class and privilege.
I applaud Sonora Jha for taking on this bold endeavor of writing Oliver’s character. He’s flawed and shockingly believable!
June 22, 2023
The Laughter was a beautifully written book. It kept me captivated throughout and still managed to surprise me at the end. This book was very much a beautiful prose, terrible people book. I loved hearing the narrator’s inner thoughts and how well this perspective showed us who the narrator was. Slowly realizing how terrible the narrator was throughout this book built the suspense perfectly, and the ending felt very earned.
February 14, 2023
just a masterfully done piece of art from beginning to end. jha somehow pulled off writing a narrator that i despised from page one yet still felt so eager and compelled to keep reading from. i hope this one gets the buzz and respect it deserves.
May 2, 2023
Review coming soon!
Finished: April 24 2023
Finished: April 24 2023
January 7, 2023
I reached just about the halfway point, but this is going to be a DNF for me. I will skim the rest of the novel just to find out what happens to Ruhaba and Adil. But I was so disinterested with Oliver Harding that I lost the momentum to finish.
The novel's humor, tension, and dramatic structures are all compelling. I really appreciate Sonora Jha's critique that is presented in the character of Oliver--an entitled, kinda nasty, out-of-touch white male academic--and I understand the purpose that having this character narrate the novel serves. It was a risk, and it seems to have paid off for many other readers. But I thought that the distaste and loathing for Oliver that readers are supposed to feel is unbalanced; it's not supported by glimpses into Ruhaba and Adil's interior lives (two people whose lives are described from the outside but readers never really see for themselves), and once Oliver becomes complicit in their downfall, it defeated the purpose of finishing the novel for me.
Oliver (and thus, the author) self-consciously likens himself to Humbert Humbert, and this comparison is obvious but felt a little trite. The novel at times felt fresh and contemporary, taking place in November 2016, but its markings of the present and recent-past also felt dated and trying.
Ultimately, I've always liked the idea of a campus novel, but I've rarely found one I enjoyed reading. So the mismatch between me and "The Laughter" may just have been a simple incompatibility.
The novel's humor, tension, and dramatic structures are all compelling. I really appreciate Sonora Jha's critique that is presented in the character of Oliver--an entitled, kinda nasty, out-of-touch white male academic--and I understand the purpose that having this character narrate the novel serves. It was a risk, and it seems to have paid off for many other readers. But I thought that the distaste and loathing for Oliver that readers are supposed to feel is unbalanced; it's not supported by glimpses into Ruhaba and Adil's interior lives (two people whose lives are described from the outside but readers never really see for themselves), and once Oliver becomes complicit in their downfall, it defeated the purpose of finishing the novel for me.
Oliver (and thus, the author) self-consciously likens himself to Humbert Humbert, and this comparison is obvious but felt a little trite. The novel at times felt fresh and contemporary, taking place in November 2016, but its markings of the present and recent-past also felt dated and trying.
Ultimately, I've always liked the idea of a campus novel, but I've rarely found one I enjoyed reading. So the mismatch between me and "The Laughter" may just have been a simple incompatibility.
February 20, 2023
Absolutely brilliant and hilarious and smart and relevant and stimulating! Also one of the most disturbing things I've read in my whole life!
August 9, 2025
Ooof. There is foreboding from page one. The narrator is a guy you would recognize (assuming you’re not this guy yourself). Aging white hetero male academic who thinks he’s a victim of today’s culture, sincerely believes he’s marginalized (lolol). Anyway, he also wants to f-ck his Muslim colleague (but guys! She’s hot!). I wish this was satire but honestly doesn’t feel like an embellishment. Oh and it’s all set days before the 2016 election. It’s really good. Writing is superb.
January 31, 2023
Really damn good. Like an academic take on Lolita, I spent a good portion of this brilliant novel what it was exactly that compelled me to keep reading so devoutly given how repulsive the narrator repeatedly proved himself to be. Then, right around the time of that stunning ending, I realized just how cleverly all the puzzle pieces had been put together and I found myself utterly in awe. Masterful stuff.
April 2, 2023
I’m trying to figure out why anyone has loved this book so someone needs to let me know what I’m missing here.
This novel spends an inordinate amount of time developing an unlikable caricature of a middle-aged white male in a way that feels like it should be called “women writing men” because it is not at all authentic but is instead a stock stereotype. I’ve spent my career around pretentiously pompous white males in English Departments and all of them are more nuanced and have some redeeming characteristics that draw the students to them than this character.
The stereotypical portrayals of men continues with the Islamic fundamentalist youth, who is also supposed to be a sympathetic character with his limp, but again, falls short of being a developed character. It feels like the author’s understanding of men is limited to observations from afar.
And Ruhaba, my word, Ruhaba. What is the point??? Shock value simply for shock value without any purpose or connection to the character’s development is a writing move that feels amateurish.
This novel spends an inordinate amount of time developing an unlikable caricature of a middle-aged white male in a way that feels like it should be called “women writing men” because it is not at all authentic but is instead a stock stereotype. I’ve spent my career around pretentiously pompous white males in English Departments and all of them are more nuanced and have some redeeming characteristics that draw the students to them than this character.
The stereotypical portrayals of men continues with the Islamic fundamentalist youth, who is also supposed to be a sympathetic character with his limp, but again, falls short of being a developed character. It feels like the author’s understanding of men is limited to observations from afar.
And Ruhaba, my word, Ruhaba. What is the point??? Shock value simply for shock value without any purpose or connection to the character’s development is a writing move that feels amateurish.
April 17, 2024
This novel is a grandchild of Lolita in many ways. Mix in the 2016 presidential election and the manifold cultural tensions of modern American, and what readers get is a roiling campus novel. Oliver Harding may be an unreliable narrator but as a stand in for white male toxicity he's perfect. Sonora Jha delves into the psychology of her pompous narrator with aplomb and in doing so vividly captures the zeitgeist just before the ground beneath us shook.
The Laughter is an engrossing novel that piles on cringey moments with each page. Though the novel lags somewhat in the middle, and I'm not totally satisfied with the conclusion, there was really no other way this novel could have ended. The fact that November 2016 is still so triggering for me and many others speaks to how urgent this novel's message is.
The Laughter is an engrossing novel that piles on cringey moments with each page. Though the novel lags somewhat in the middle, and I'm not totally satisfied with the conclusion, there was really no other way this novel could have ended. The fact that November 2016 is still so triggering for me and many others speaks to how urgent this novel's message is.
March 25, 2023
This novel is told from the perspective of an aging white male professor who has an unhealthy sexual interest in his female Pakistani colleague. The prose is elegant and layered with identity politics of a liberal campus near Seattle in the time of the 2016 election. The narrative is shared through journal entries and a few unsent emails and I honestly had no clue what it was building up to. You could sense the tension building and a sense of foreboding from the outset. The pacing picks up leading to a swift and serious ending.
April 2, 2023
i know that we know white institutions are insidious and repugnant but holy shit its so jarring to see through the lens of a white man with nothing to lose because he has already corroded everything within his reach . i really Cannawt . very provoking read !!!
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