Books: HOW TO READ THE AIR by Dinaw Mengestu

Title: How To Read the Air
Author: Dinaw Mengestu
Published: 2010
Genre: Fiction

I am drawn to immigrant stories. There is something in them that speaks of strength and survival in countries foreign that I can relate to. How To Read The Air offers glimpses of Jonas Woldemariam's parents' transition into America from their home country, Ethiopia. The story itself does not focus entirely on the problems they encounter in America, but of how they have to forge a life as immigrants, who hardly know each other, and build a life from their little-shared past.

Jonas's father Yosef escapes a politically-charged and repressive communist regime in Ethiopia- after a brief courtship with, and quick marriage to his mother Mariam.
His journey takes him to Europe and later on to America, as a stowaway in ships. On his journey he takes on a variety of jobs that ultimately lead to his final destination - where after a period of three years he sends for his wife in Ethiopia. Strangers when finally reunited, these two people learn to live with each other. It is a difficult marriage from the start, where one senses a deep disappointment on Mariam's side with the life she has to lead, as an immigrant in less-than-ideal circumstances. She comes from a wealthy family, was an independent working woman, who thought a move to America would offer a different life from what she had in Ethiopia. They do not communicate much, and the strong-willed Mariam finds a number of ways to defy Yosef in slight and implicit ways until the abuse in the relationship moves from subtle and emotional, to overt and physical.

Jonas's telling of his parents' life is however a balance of make-believe and truth. He attempts to weave a tale he imagines, with the reader not knowing where the elements of truth start and where the fictional- or imagined story-telling takes over. He himself is fairly creative with the truth. As an English major college graduate, with ambitions to start on his PhD, he struggles to find his way - taking on a variety of jobs, amongst which is that of a clerk in a refugee centre. His job is to document the stories of the refugees arriving in America seeking asylum status. Legitimate and illegitimate refugee status seekers alike - he is gifted in bringing their stories to life, interspersing truth with exaggeration to make their applications more credible to the Immigration authorities. He uses this same creativity with the truth in the re-telling of his parents' story.

The book's narrative fleets between present and past as Yosef struggles through a faltering marriage of his own, whilst telling of that of his parents. The telling also changes from that of his own perspective to that of his mother's, and blends the myth and truth. Although born and raised in America, his story of his parents' failure to completely integrate into their new country is similar to his own. His recount of how he continuously confounds people because of his silence and withdrawn personality into thinking he is foreign, rather than just introverted, is both amusing and sad at the same time. This is not a happy immigrant story by any means, but it was still enjoyable to read.
This Ethiopian author has earned himself rave reviews with his other work; The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears.