Internment

Internment

YA/adult dystopia
"In the distance I see a funnel of smoke rising into the air.
Most of the town is at the book burning, so I should be safe.
Or, at least, safer."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The best dystopias
go just enough real life to create an air of plausibility or, in the
case of Samira Ahmed's Internment, near inevitability. They grab you,
scare the Hell out of you, and, hopefully, leave you motivated to do
whatever it takes to keep the story from happening.
In a chronology that could have been lifted from Hitler's
Germany a census has asked about religion, resulting in a Muslim
registry, exclusion laws have been enacted, books by Muslims have been
burned, and the president has warned Americans about the threat
Muslims pose. He fans the flames of fear and hate with a weekly speech
that bumps all other programming.
Layla's college professor has been fired for his religion.
After Layla was suspended for an innocuous act her parents didn't let
her return to high school to finish out her senior year. The whole
family lives in fear. But her parents cling to the belief that things
have to get better, a belief Layla can't buy into. [It was the kind
of belief that kept many Jews in Hitler's Germany until it was too
late to escape.]
"The thing is, it's not like half this country suddenly became
Islamaphobes because of any single event. But the lies, the rhetoric
calling refugees rapists and criminals, the fake news, the false
statistics, all gave those well-meaning people who say they're not
bigots cover to vote for a man who openly tweeted his hatred on a
nearly daily basis. Through the political dog whistles and hijabis
having their head scarves ripped off and mosques vandalized with
swastikas and the Muslims who went missing--through all this my
parents hoped and believed that things would get better. They seem to
have this eternal flame of hope.
But that's not me."
Their faith and hope are about to be really tested. In the
middle of the night armed officials burst into their home. They are
given ten minutes to gather their most necessary possessions and no
opportunity or means (their cell phones are confiscated) to say
goodbye to loved ones. They're permanently imprinted with ID numbers
that can be read by scanners (like the World War II concentration camp
prisoners had ID numbers tattoed on them).
Camp Mobius is in the middle of nowhere. It's surrounded by an
electric fence. Little contact with the rest of the world is
allowed. People are punished severely for the slightest protest or
misstep. Some disappear, never to be seen again. There is talk of
sites where people are tortured for information. There is constant
surveillance. There are even cameras in the housing units.
Layla's parents want to survive as a family. Their plan is to
keep quiet, do nothing to draw attention to themselves, and try to fly
under the radar. Layla, in contrast, is determined to fight back, no
matter how big the risk.
Ahmed's author's note begins, "When fascism comes to America, it
will come draped in the flag.' She discusses the very disturbing
trends in America that motivated her to write Internment, the brutal
history behind them, and her hope that America can change. She also
challenges us:
"There is no room for moral equivalency--certainly not the kind
that hears the cries of a toddler being ripped away from her parents
and justifies it by quoting the Bible, and definitely not the kind
that looks at Neo-Nazis and declares that some are 'very fine people'.
There are sides.
Make a choice."
On a purrrsonal note, it's the last day of 2019. The year has its ups
and downs for me. The big loss was my best little buddy of 16 years,
Joey cat. The good parts were doing really well in my masters
program, having UMaine send me to an international conference, my job,
my friends, and adopting Tobago. Although I'll always miss Joey and
treasure his memory, it feels good to jump out of bed and feel excited
to come back home because someone precious is waiting for me and to
have my energy back, to not be walking around with half a heart.
Statistics:
Years married: 30
Semesters (part time) accomplished: 3
Months at Job (as of 1/1/20): 19
Volunteer hours (2019): 124 1/2
Blood Donated: (2019): 3 pints
Tobago's (emergency medical) credit union account: $430
Books reviewed on my blog (total for 8 1/2 years): 1619
Tonight I will be seeing the New Year in with a dorkfest of reading
near the tree, ice cream, candy, and cat cuddling. :-). And of
course in 2020 you can expect me to discover and share beaucoups des
livres.
A great big shout out goes out to Joey and Tobago.
jules hathaway




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