Timely hero catches us off guard
All-too-realistic satire of contemporary start-up culture and ruthless office politics goes increasingly off the rails
‘‘ As it shifts from satire to emotional acuity, it becomes a genuinely surprising novel at both narrative and thematic levels, with unforeseen twists leading to unanticipated emotional developments.
ROBERT J. WIERSEMA, REVIEWING ‘A HERO OF OUR TIME’ BY NABEN RUTHNUM
Osman Shah, the protagonist of Naben Ruthnum’s delightfully dark new novel “A Hero of Our Time,” should probably be pretty happy with his life. An executive at AAP, an edutech firm selling online solutions that will reduce — or eliminate — teaching faculty and therefore maximize profits for universities and colleges, he makes a good living, travels a lot, has some real estate holdings and a passion for book collecting.
Instead, Osman is a mess. With no family support — he was estranged from his father, a university professor, at the time of his death and his relationship with his mother is fraught — Osman spends most of his time eating and drinking himself into oblivion. Struggling with complicated issues around his race, and a debilitating self-image, he bleakly questions everything around him, thinking himself into knots of inadequacy and inaction. With the novel rendered from a first person point of view, the reader will often find themselves uncomfortable in Osman’s skin, immersed in his self-disgust.
The only bright spot in his life is Nena, a co-worker, whom he adores from afar. He spends his days in chat windows with her but is inarticulate, clumsy and painfully aware of his flaws when they come face to face.
Early in the novel, though, Osman is galvanized into action by Olivia Robinson, who is ruthlessly climbing the ranks at AAP, able to seamlessly create commonality and rapport while manipulating and crushing those around her. Osman takes it as a quest to destroy Olivia and draws Nena into his plan, nebulous though it may be at first.
On the surface, Toronto writer Ruthnum — who writes thrillers under the name Nathan Ripley, and whose 2017 book “Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race” was a powerful and enlightening read — has created a bleak, all-too-realistic satire of contemporary start-up culture and ruthless office politics; if it doesn’t offer much in the way of outright laughs, it’s because the satire hits too close to the bone. As the novel progresses, however, and Osman goes increasingly off the rails, “A Hero of Our Time” begins to unfold, exploring the underlying sources of Osman’s paralyzing insecurity with an emotional acuity and, in this context, an almost devastating depth. Beneath its cynical, acerbic shell beats a fragile, fractured heart.
“A Hero of Our Time” is, ultimately, a powerful exploration of the creation of an individual in an age of overwhelming conformity (masquerading as social media “uniqueness”).
When Osman is finally able to use his voice and, more crucially, to actually hear what those closest to him — his mother and Nena — are saying, the result is a powerful remapping of previously held definitions of family and intimate relationships, and a painful breaking free of the bonds of the past in whatever form: familial, cultural and personal. How negotiable are the terms of engagement between a mother and a son? Between intimates? What does it mean to truly love and accept?
As it shifts from satire to emotional acuity, “A Hero of Our Time” becomes a genuinely surprising novel at both narrative and thematic levels, with unforeseen twists leading to unanticipated emotional developments and revelations. It’s a powerful, unexpected reading experience.