Dinaw Mengestu, in his new novel 'Someone Like Us,' offers a deep exploration of immigrant life in America through the eyes of Mamush, an Ethiopian American journalist. (Photo: Anne-Emmanuelle Robicquet/KNOPF)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Updated: August 14th, 2024
New York (TADIAS) – In his latest novel, Someone Like Us, acclaimed Ethiopian American novelist Dinaw Mengestu delves into the intricate lives of immigrants in America through the eyes of Mamush, an Ethiopian American journalist. As Mamush returns to the U.S. from Paris, where he worked as an international reporter, he is faced with the sudden death of his mother’s closest friend, Samuel, a father figure and enigmatic member of the local Ethiopian community. Set just before the onset of the pandemic in late 2019, the novel is a haunting exploration of memory and the immigrant experience..
From the outset, Dinaw Mengestu’s latest book draws readers into Mamush’s introspective world. As The Washington Post notes, “For much of the story, Mamush is alone, though memories of Samuel hover over him with such intimate presence that it’s hard to remember he’s not actually there — which, of course, is what Mamush is struggling to realize, too.”
The novel’s structure, moving between past and present, mirrors Mamush’s attempt to piece together Samuel’s life. Through these memories, Dinaw reveals Samuel’s unfulfilled business plan to create a nationwide network of taxis to serve those “in the wrong place and needed to be somewhere else but didn’t know how to get there.”
In an interview with The New York Times, Dinaw Mengestu reflects on the challenges of telling immigrant stories, acknowledging the “limitation to how fully we can truly understand [the characters’] experiences.” This resonates deeply with Mamush’s journey, as he uncovers the layers of Samuel’s life, from his struggles as a taxi driver in Washington, D.C., to his complex relationship with Mamush’s mother. “If looked at closely,” Mamush muses, Samuel’s records “say something about a larger story still being written about America and why people came to it and what they found when they did.”
Dinaw’s novel is as much about Mamush’s internal conflict as it is about his quest for answers. His estrangement from his wife and their ailing son in Paris echoes Samuel’s own feelings of alienation. NPR’s Fresh Air review captures this dynamic, stating that Someone Like Us “keeps reminding readers of the near-impossibility of breaking out of the same old mold when it comes to telling immigrant stories. Ironically, Mengestu’s own ingenuity and eloquence as a writer show at least one way to do so.”
Dinaw Mengestu is the author of three previous novels, all of which were named New York Times Notable Books: All Our Names, How to Read the Air, and The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. A native of Ethiopia who came with his family to the United States at the age of two, Mengestu is also a freelance journalist who has reported on life in Darfur, northern Uganda, and eastern Congo. His articles and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Jane, and Rolling Stone. Mengestu is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Fiction, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Prize, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, among other honors. He was also included in The New Yorker’s 20 under 40 list in 2010.
Ultimately, Someone Like Us is more than just a novel about immigration; it is a meditation on the human condition and the universal desire to connect with our origins. Dinaw’s narrative mastery not only enriches the genre but also calls into question the very frameworks through which our stories are often viewed and understood. By playing with narrative form and incorporating elements of autofiction—evident in the photographs from his own life — Dinaw Mengestu offers a fresh perspective on the ways in which we craft and consume stories of immigrants.
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Related:
For Dinaw Mengestu, reading can be a return to his youth (Boston Globe)
Someone Like Us A NOVEL By Dinaw Mengestu
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