Can you think of any novels where a non-immigrant wrote a good novel about immigrants? Or maybe an outsider writing about a country from a local's POV? (for an essay)
Thank you. This sounds interesting. Putting it on my list. Unfortunately what I'm looking for is a novel that's a bit more known to present as an example in an essay without having to explain what it is. Can't think of anything at the moment.
How about T.C Boyle’s novel The Tortilla Curtain? I just learned that it was awarded the French Prix Médicis Étranger prize for best foreign novel in 1997.
Also a maybe-fit: My novel’s Japanese-American narrator was born and grew up in Japan. Lives in US as an adult and returns to Japan after a long time away.
Outsider writing from local’s perspective - Conrad, Nabokov, possibly Kipling if Kim, Mowgli, Baloo, Sher Khan, Bagheera, and Bandar Log count as locals!
The question you pose is more interesting than the answer I gave. I think by the time I was aware I had an “outsider” POV as a first-gen immigrant I was already a local. Because when I was truly new to the U.S., I didn’t have this Third-Person consciousness.
Yes I thought of one- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus 3 - about an Iranian family. Also film ‘A fond kiss’ about working class Pakistani immigrants by Ken Loach. Both are superb, tone perfect, deeply empathetic.