Review of reviews: Books

as Donald Trump’s cardiologist, and so admired the Trump ethos that he eventually mounted a doomed bid for real estate riches of his own. The narrator’s mother, by contrast, remains attached to her native faith and culture, causing Akhtar to be torn between conflicting allegiances. He can be as hungry for the spoils of wealth as his father, but he’s ever aware of mounting U.S. policy failures and he displays “an unerring sense for the sore spots, the bitter truths that have emerged from this history.”

“At the end of Akhtar’s tale,” said Junot Diaz in magazine, “Trump is president, Muslims are being targeted, and Akhtar’s parents watch their American dream crumble.” Meanwhile, the narrator has achieved a level of professional and financial success that corresponds with the fondest hopes of many immigrant parents. But because he proves powerless to save others, his story “builds a devastating case for the limits of our country even as it describes its nighirresistible allure.” Categorize Homeland Elegies however you want to. “For me, this is the book of the year.”

O

(Random House, $ 30)

“Don’t be waylaid by the brash title,” said Stephen Phillips in the San Francisco Chronicle. Co-authored by two University of Washington academics, this “forehead-slappingly revelatory” work offers a primer on how to sort through all the misleading information the typical content consumer is bombarded with every day. It’s a work of popular science that “belongs among the genre’s best,” and yet it’s more. I’d title it “The 21st Century: A User’s Guide.”