Ramiza Shamoun Koya reveals the devastating cost of anti-Muslim sentiment in The Royal Abduls, her debut novel about an Indian-America family. Evolutionary biologist Amina Abdul accepts a post-doc in Washington, DC, choosing her career studying hybrid zones over a faltering West Coast romance. Her brother and sister-in-law welcome her to the city, but their marriage is crumbling, and they soon … rely on her to keep their son company. Omar, hungry to understand his cultural roots, fakes an Indian accent, invents a royal past, and peppers his aunt with questions about their cultural heritage. When he brings an ornamental knife to school, his expulsion triggers a downward spiral for his family, even as Amina struggles to find her own place in an America now at war with people who look like her. With The Royal Abduls, Ramiza Koya ignites the canon of post-9/11 literature with a deft portrait of second-generation American identity.
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Definitely a novel for our post 9/11 times. The deftly crafted flawed, yet sympathetic characters are likenesses of people we all probably know, as are their struggles for identity and heritage. I was impressed with the ease the author had moving from adult voice to child’s and how she wove in Amina’s profession and research with the story, creating her study as a metaphor for her personal search. This novel was a Great Group Reads 2020 selection, a curated list of novels and memoirs perfect for book club discussion. The Royal Abduls certainly is.
A very interesting book to read, and at the same time was a very different experience for me.
I had a very weird experience with this book, I did enjoy the story, The characters were great, I was falling in love with Omar, Prakash, and Amina I felt like this was going to be a really good love story or that at one point Omar was going to get what he deserved, It really was good but here is where I get all confused as I really liked the book but still I kept feeling some emotions that were not pleasant.
The whole story was very sad, there were no feelings of happiness or love at any point. If you’re looking for a love story this is not it. I always wanted someone to finally acknowledge Omar and I felt like everyone was so busy with their own problems that no one care how alone Omar felt, in his parent’s mind, everything was ok with him, in his aunt’s eyes he had to survive alone whatever life threw at him and with time he will feel better. I really never understood why they kept giving excuses not to talk to Omar and not to support him as he needed.
The Royal Abduls is a story about a family who is having a hard time to embrace their culture, they really don’t want to acknowledge their roots, they make every excuse not to remember the past and not even to teach Omar what is the difference and the real traditions, he was so eager to understand who he was but nobody had the time to really help him grow, I felt like Omar was sad every single moment of his life and nobody seat with him to see what was going on.
The Royal Abduls talks about a family who is struggling to live in a country, where people don’t understand their traditions and kept thinking they were terrorist, the typical stereotype the world assumes when they see someone wearing a Hijab, who looks Arab to assume he is a bad guy trying to destroy or to do something evil.
Amira kept putting so many walls even when she knew where her happiness was, I really never understood why she kept denied herself no matter if she knew, she was making a mistake, she was always trying to put walls around her and the people that love her. Amira was the character that I really like not only because she was the more mature and more easily approachable but also because she had always a small kind of gesture for Omar.
Mo and Marcy were also so closed off and so immersed in their problems and feelings that they never had the time for Omar. I felt like they were so selfish like many things would have happened if they had better communication in the first place.
After reading the Royal Abduls I found something similar to other books that I’ve read before about Indian culture, I’m not sure if is something cultural but every book I’ve read that speaks about Indian traditions the characters never talk, as in they never had a good communication, they’re always very closed off, they don’t like to speak, it is as if the culture is this way, that they don’t acknowledge the emotions or feelings of a woman and children as if they dont have a voice. This is only MY perception in the books that I’ve read but in no way, I’m saying or suggesting this is the case in real life.
The Royal Abduls was a good read, even if it is not what I was expecting and was not really what I was looking for but the story is good.