Behold The Dreamers

Behold The Dreamers. Imbolo Mbue 2016, 382 pages.

A young Cameroonian man overstays his visitor’s visa in New York City, intent on seeking asylum and living the American Dream, escaping a life of poverty and an overbearing father-in-law in Limbe, Cameroon. With connections in the Cameroonian exile community, he succeeds in bringing his wife and son to Harlem, and lands a dream job as a driver for a senior Lehman Brothers executive and his family. But the life of luxury of Wall Street bankers is not what it appears to be and the relationships in both the families unravel as the financial crisis, and rampant corruption destroys Lehman Brothers and deportation threatens. I won’t spoil the enjoyment of the read by giving away more of the plot, but the family secrets, deceptions, and fears make the American Dream seem more like a nightmare.

This is a work of fiction? It is always fun to check the “ About the Author” blurb, and I do that before delving into a book. Imbolo Mbue is a young Cameroonian immigrant living in New York City for the past ten years (to 2016), according to the “About The Author” blurb in this book, and this is her first novel. That alone makes me wonder how much of this story is autobiographical. Add to that the fact that there is no information in “About the Author” about how a single? woman from Limbe in Cameroon succeeded in moving to live in NYC, and the detailed description of the workings of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and it seems likely that this is more like a fictionalized autobiography or at least a story about real people in the author’s circle of friends. As she has degrees from Rutgers and Columbia, can we assume that she, like me, originally arrived in the U.S. on a student visa, like one of her characters, but unlike me, just stayed?

Whatever. The story line is gripping and the characters seem very real. The contrasts between the daily lives and the values of the poor immigrants in Harlem and the New York socialites of the upper west side are striking.

This is a great light read for a snowy day when you don’t want anything too heavy.