BOOK REVIEW: A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb
By Amitava Kumar, Duke University Press, 2010, 217 Pages, Softcover, $21.95
If I were a librarian I might have difficulty figuring out on which shelf to place Amitava Kumar's latest book. Though it weaves together actual events from real people's lives, it is neither a history book nor a biography. Despite an impressive array of research and first- person interviews, the author doesn't claim it as a work of journalism. It is not even a true political commentary, even though politics are as integral to the book as eggs are to an omelet.
Perhaps the best way to understand "A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of his Arm a Tiny Bomb" is to consider the author's literary and cultural background. A professor of English at Vassar College, India-born Kumar is the author of several volumes both of non- fiction and fiction. In "Foreigner," he seeks to explore the way the visual arts, performance and literature can help to give meaning and purpose to chaotic world events. In his own words, Kumar seeks to show "how ordinary men and women whose lives are entangled in the war on terror tell stories about them- selves and their place in the world. Theirs are stories that bring together, whether as acts of fancy or pictures of grim reality, different parts of our divided world."
The central core of "Foreigner" revolves around the court cases of two men: Hemant Lakhani and Shahawar Matin Siraj. Caught up in questionable sting operations, both men were convicted in U.S. courts on terrorism-related charges and both received lengthy jail sentences. Kumar conducts in-depth interviews of the men, their families and the authorities in the cases. To these, he adds bits and pieces from similar cases around the world.
Finally, the author weaves in examples of literary, stage and photographic art work to demonstrate how the trials of those accused of terrorist acts in many cases are less about justice and what the convicted may or may not have done, and more about our perceptions of who they are and more importantly the role they play in our societal narrative. For example, in commenting on Mohammad Afzal Guru, the man ultimately convicted in an attack on the Indian Parliament, Kumar notes: "In its judgment on his appeal, the Supreme Court recognized that the evidence against Afzal was only circumstantial and that legal procedures had not been followed by the police. Nevertheless, the judgment stated that the attack on the Indian Parliament had 'shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.'"
Kumar has no blind sympathy for his subjects. His portraits of those accused of terrorist acts are often excruciatingly honest and extremely unflattering. At one point he refers to Lakhani and Siraj as "epic bunglers." Rather than exercising a knee-jerk defense of his subjects, the author tries to demonstrate that in our desire to feel safe from danger, we often are too quick to accept a narrative in which "what we recognize as fact might well be only the confirmation of what has settled in our minds as a stereotype." In other words, if bumbling sad sacks get caught up in a legal rush to judgment, could it be because we in society are too quick to see all those accused of terror- ism as foreigners carrying "tiny bombs"?
For me, "Foreigner" is most success- ful when it concentrates on real people. Kumar's interviews with the families of those convicted of terrorism are extremely compelling. Their wide-eyed bewilderment at the fate of their loved ones is sincere and heart wrenching. In talking with Frank Lindh, father of John Walker Lindh, the young man captured in Afghanistan while fighting for the Taliban, Kumar notes, "Lindh says that John believed that it was his duty as a Muslim to fight in what was an Islamic liberation movement against the northern war- lords," and "in joining the Taliban he (John) was giving support to an army that had received assistance from the Carter administration, the Reagan administration, the first Bush administration, the Clinton administration and the second Bush administration." Lindh received a 20-year sentence although, as Frank Lindh points out, "John had no criminal intent, and he never took any action of any kind against the United States."
"Foreigner" runs into problems, how- ever, when it attempts to weave in examples of visual art, movies and writing as part of the book's narrative. Kumar's habit of switching between facts about actual events, his interviewee's often dubious memory of those events and a movie's or an artist's interpretation of those events is, at times, extremely confusing. The author's point that there is a definite role for art in helping us to come to grips with chaotic and unsettling times is valid. However, by intentionally blurring the line between actual facts and artistic interpretation, Kumar makes the world he means to clarify seem even more muddled.
Ultimately, whether you will enjoy "A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb" comes down to what type of library patron you consider yourself to be: If you delight in wandering the stacks, pulling down books at random, you will likely appreciate this book; if, however, you are a linear thinker, someone who likes going straight to the section you are interested in, this is probably not the book for you.
And if you are a librarian? Well, all I can say is: Good luck.