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Book Review :: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

In Laila Lalami’s latest novel, The Dream Hotel, Sara Hussein is living in a near-future version of the United States that seems both entirely predictable and terrifying. The novel opens as authorities detain Sara, a Moroccan-American, at the airport because her risk score has risen too high. The company that produces the risk scores draws on a wealth of information to determine people’s potential risk, including their dreams, thanks to Dreamsaver Inc.’s implant that helps people have enough rest to function the next day, even on only a few hours’ sleep. Of course, the user agreement that people sign enables DI to sell their data to companies, such as the one producing the risk scores. The algorithm behind the risk scores is intellectual property, so Sara and her lawyer are unable to use it in trying to free her from the retention center the government sends her to because of the interaction at the airport.

While much of the novel centers around this dystopic premise, Lalami goes beyond exploring the ways tech corporations have monetized users’ data, as she explores issues of race and gender, as well. Though the other female residents’ races aren’t clear in most of the descriptions, the ones that are usually match the races that dominate the U.S.’s current prison system. Similarly, Sara realizes that the observation at the retention center is little more than an amplification of the observations women encounter every day of their lives.

There are also wildfires raging, as the retention center is in California, though it is far from the only place in the U.S. experiencing the severe effects of climate change. In one scene, the residents (nobody refers to them as prisoners, though they are not free to leave) joke about having their release hearings rescheduled due to another wildfire or hurricane or earthquake. Any of those seems as likely as the other.

What holds the entire novel together is Lalami’s critique of the role of money in each of these areas. The companies that run the retention centers use those who are there for cheap labor through their contracts with various outside companies. The technology companies benefit from the data they gather through the wide array of devices each character used when they were free, but they also collect data on the residents, even sending one of their employees in under cover to perform an experiment around product placement in dreams. In fact, Sara ultimately realizes that it’s in corporations’ best interests to keep extending their stay, fabricating infractions to prevent their release, which helps her begin to rebel against such systems. She also realizes that she needs help to fight back against corporations with much more power and money than she has, a message that becomes more and more relevant every day.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. Pantheon Books, March 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Ginseng Roots, Craig Thompson’s latest work, has come out in the midst of a bit of controversy. Some readers have criticized Thompson for telling a story they don’t believe was his to tell. Part of that stems from ginseng’s history with and connection to China, but much of it also comes from Thompson’s telling the story of Chua, a Hmong boy he met when he worked in ginseng fields, whom he interviews as an adult. In both cases, though, Thompson relies on others to tell those stories, using experts, many of whom are Chinese, to talk about ginseng’s history and importance. He also allows Chua to tell his story himself, as Thompson is merely the interviewer in that part of the book.

In fact, this book feels like at least two, if not three, rather separate books put together. One part is devoted to the history of ginseng in Wisconsin, where Thompson grew up, and the world (he travels to Korea, as well as China, for example). Not only does Thompson allow others to provide that background, those sections of the book have a tendency to feel like more of an information dump than anything else. The book hits its stride when Thompson explores his childhood, as well as his current relationship with his family. That part connects to Thompson’s struggles as an artist, though not as completely as it could.

Thompson is best known for Blankets — which received a number of awards — a memoir exploring his departure from the conservative Christianity of his childhood. Since then, though, his work hasn’t received the same response, either critically or in terms of sales. Thus, he questions his vocation, an artistic crisis that’s exacerbated by a pain in his drawing hand that nobody seems to be able to help heal. As with his interactions with his family, those struggles help push the book into more interesting territory. Similarly, when he brings in class and race in talking about his childhood, the book becomes more interesting.

I’m glad that Thompson worked through the paralysis he felt stuck in as he came to write this book; I just wish he would have written more about his roots as a person and an artist and less about the historical background of ginseng.

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson. Pantheon, April 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: Blood Test by Charles Baxter

Blood Test by Charles Baxter book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Charles Baxter has subtitled, Blood Test, his latest novel, “A Comedy,” and it lives up to that name, both in the sense that it is a humorous book, and the reader is never really concerned about an unhappy ending. The title refers to a test that Brock Hobson — the main character whose name everybody mispronounces — takes while at the doctor. It comes from a shadowy organization that promises to predict one’s future behavior, a joke in and of itself, as Hobson is an insurance salesman who takes no risks and lives a predictable life.

His two children suggest that he could begin breaking the law at will, even murdering somebody, given that the test results say that he will, at some point, break a law. Thus, they tell him he could argue that he had no choice in the matter. The shadowy organization even has him buy an insurance policy that retains legal counsel for when he does break the law.

The person Hobson wants to kill is Burt, the man who is now in a relationship with Cheryl, Hobson’s ex-wife. Burt seemingly has nothing redeeming about him, save for being handsome and in great shape, and he’s taken to calling Hobson and Cheryl’s son slurs because of his sexual orientation. Hobson ultimately does confront Burt about that and other issues, leading to a physical altercation and, ultimately, a type of duel.

On one hand, Baxter is raising questions about freedom and whether it can lead us to perform actions we wouldn’t otherwise undertake, and he might even be criticizing America’s reliance on guns, among other issues. However, the novel doesn’t seem to take itself seriously enough for that. Instead, Baxter invites the reader to follow along with Brock Hobson as he tries to figure out how to navigate his life as it has become more interesting after the blood test, and nobody knows where he’s going, even if a test tells him.

Blood Test by Charles Baxter. Pantheon Books, October 2024.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: Gliff by Ali Smith

Gliff by Ali Smith book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

The word gliff has a variety of definitions, one of which — now long since out of use — is “to make a slip in reading.” In that line, Ali Smith’s most recent novel seems a simple story, a dystopian tale about two children, Briar and Rose, who are unverifiables, people who are living off the grid, after their mother and (maybe) step-father go missing.

Along the way, they meet Colon (that seems to really be his name) who has a horse that Rose tries to buy, a horse she names Gliff. They also live with other unverifiables for a brief period of time. Smith never explains what has happened in the broader society to lead to whatever dystopian world now exists, but the monitoring certainly feels like something that could happen in any society today (there are also references throughout to Brave New World, though Smith isn’t concerned with the same questions Huxley was, as she’s writing about a different world than he could imagine).

It’s also never clear what Briar and Rose’s mother did that would lead to her being removed from the society or fleeing the society to avoid that removal, but Briar clearly doesn’t fit into the gender binary of this world. Smith doesn’t mention how they present their gender for much of the novel, but they ultimately encounter the world outside of their community of unverifiables, a situation that pushes Briar to choose one side of the binary.

The reader gets to see a bit of that world, as Briar has a good job a few years after having to make that choice. Ultimately, though, they encounter somebody else, somebody with news about Rose that reminds Briar who they once were and who they might still be. Though this novel seems to cover “a short space of time; a moment,” possibly only offering “a passing view; a glance, glimpse” of this world (other definitions for gliff), Smith clearly conveys the oppressive views of those who seek to impose their ideas — especially about gender and heteronormativity — on others, but she also reminds readers that there are ways to resist.

Gliff by Ali Smith. Pantheon Books, February 2025.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. IG, Threads, and BlueSky: @kevinbrownwrites

Book Review :: Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne

Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

The text of Mister, Mister, Guy Gunaratne’s second novel, is a letter written by the main character, Yahya Bas, to the Mister of the title, a shadowy figure whom the reader never sees or knows, but who seems to work for an intelligence/military arm of the British government. Yahya is writing his account because he has cut his tongue out and, thus, is unable to answer Mister’s questions.

It’s clear Mister believes Yahya is a terrorist, largely based on Yahya’s time spent in Iraq (it’s never clear) several years after the NATO invasion of that country and incendiary poems Yahya published before leaving Britain, writing under the name Al-Bayn, a pun on Albion. Yahya was inspired to write those poems after the pictures from Abu Ghraib became known, but he was already moving in that direction.

Yahya’s father, from all he can tell, left Britain (and Yahya’s mother) to fight in Iraq in the early 1990s, where he also recorded music and poetry, a further inspiration for Yahya’s verses. Yahya’s mother suffers from some sort of depression or anxiety, so she barely speaks, leaving Yahya to be raised by a range of women he calls Mother and his uncle in the house for widows where his mother lives.

Though Yahya’s interrogator is not interested in all of this backstory, Gunaratne is, and the backstory is part of the point. The British intelligence agent only sees Yahya as a terrorist, while he is a son, a nephew, a friend, a lover, a person, in addition to his ethnic heritage and his poems. Gunaratne wants to remind readers of the power of taking back one’s story, even if one has to stop talking to do so.

Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne. Pantheon Books, October 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review :: A House for Alice by Diana Evans

A House for Alice by Diana Evans book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

The title of Evans’ most recent novel seemingly relates to the house that Alice—the mother to the three daughters whose lives make up most of the novel—wants to build in Benin so she can live out her remaining days in her home country. Then there’s the pun on house, as in the word for a family line. Given the focus on Alice’s daughters, especially Carol and Melissa, that title would also make sense.

However, Evans wants readers to think of house even more broadly, as most of the characters are searching for a home of some sort, whether that’s in their marriage or within themselves or in their country, especially given the UK’s colonial past. That past comes to the forefront early in the novel, as Alice’s estranged husband Cornelius dies in a fire at his house on the same day of the Grenfell Tower fire.

The Pitt family’s mourning of their father and husband is complicated by the abusive relationship he had with all of them—emotional, physical, or sexual, depending on the wife or daughter. Similarly, the Grenfell Tower reveals how the UK has treated those who seek a better life there, whether the working class, the poor, or immigrants, serving as a metaphor for a country who says they care for such people, but then abuse and exploit them.

As with those who suffered from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the members of the Pitt family have only each other to rely on to create a home.

A House for Alice by Diana Evans. Pantheon Books, September 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite

Book Review :: Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

Chain-Gang All-Stars is Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut novel. After his stellar 2018 story collection Friday Black, this is an important book, but it’s also a good, if challenging, read. He creates an America similar to our contemporary one, but he’s updated some of the technology and introduced a new extreme sport, one in which those whom the state has incarcerated battle each other to the death. What hasn’t changed, though, is the racism and sexism and brutality found within the carceral system. Adjei-Brenyah highlights both Americas through the portrayal of his characters, but also through footnotes that remind the reader that, while his work is fiction, the suffering endured by so many is absolutely real. This mixture of what happens in twenty-first-century America and what has happened throughout American history along with his fictional world that builds upon those realities constantly reminds readers that what happens in the prison system today—especially the for-profit sections of it—is effectively no different from having prisoners kill one another for entertainment. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxx” Stacker—the two main characters—try to create a relationship in the midst of this oppression and abuse, and they also work to show America what could be different, just as Adjei-Brenyah does in his novel.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Pantheon Books, May 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.