The Submission by Amy Waldman

A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner’s name – and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the meaning of Islam. Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the country’s.

A striking portrait of a fractured city striving to make itself whole.

There were some big questions asked at this month’s meeting, which showed our group was up to the task of this slightly confronting book from Amy Waldman, an American journalist turned novelist.

Foremost in everyone’s mind was simply … will we ever be a totally tolerant species, where all are considered equal regardless of race, culture or creed? Not a new topic by any means, but set in the context of 9/11, it gave us some interesting discussion points. One of them being the power of today’s media and the part it plays in the rise and fall of certain individuals, community groups and their agendas. This was thought to be well done by Waldman, whose knowledge of her characters and their environment earned her some high scores from us.

This is not to say everyone was sold. Individual taste matters in our group and some are not necessarily enamoured with American writing styles and found it a little superficial with stereotypical characters. But in saying that, we all agreed we were forced to think and maybe rethink the situation and conundrum the committee was faced with.

It was commented that this book would no doubt make a good movie and that it was a realistic snapshot of society. There was also comment about the illegal workers caught up in the 9/11 disaster, which again made us rethink and acknowledge the human catastrophe that unfolded on that day. Joan felt the author was to some extent exploiting the event, but generally the group was impressed with The Submission and is happy to recommend it as an intelligent read with plenty of questions and not many answers.