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leweylibrary's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual harassment
michellehogmire's review
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thanks to World Editions for an advance Netgalley of this novel, which came out on Nov 24, 2020--
I'm fascinated by "Papers, Please"--a video game that's more fun to talk about than it is to play. In the game, you play an immigration official at a border crossing in a fictional country. You check paperwork and passports against a constantly changing set of rules and have to make tough decisions about when to let those rules slide. Sometimes, looking the other way comes with a financial transaction. At the end of the day, after your shift, you go home to your wife and kids. With the funds you have, you must choose who gets to eat, who gets medicine, etc. And if you don't have enough money, those choices become harder and harder. If "Papers, Please" was a book, it would share some resemblance to Gaëlle Josse's slim, impactful novel The Last Days of Ellis Island.
The book, which is translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer, takes place in November 1954--nine days before the immigration station at Ellis Island will close. John Mitchell, immigration official and commissioner, is the last guy left standing, and he's decided to spend his time left writing in a journal, recording his memories about the last 45 years working on the island. But it quickly becomes apparent that what John's really penning is something more like a confessional about his mistakes. He wants to come clean before he departs for Brooklyn and never returns to Ellis Island ever again.
To say that John is a complicated figure is putting it lightly--sometimes he lets the rules slide and allows political dissidents into Manhattan. Other times, particularly when it comes to one Italian immigrant named Nella, he lashes out with shocking cruelty for the sake of his own personal interests and desires. John chronicles his regrets with candor, including the heartbreaking story of his relationship with his wife, his dislike of a fellow official who took callous photos of immigrants for racist publications, and his extreme isolation on the island--rarely leaving, and getting his news through papers and the radio, he starts to feel like he's disconnected from the US, but he's also the arbiter of who gets to come to the US in the first place.
Josse's novel is a wonderful, empathetic blend of historical fact with relatable fiction, a chronicle of a devastated man with an impossible job--a vile occupation that, under a different political system, wouldn't even have to exist in the first place. These kinds of books are necessary reminders of how unfortunately similar our past is to the present. John Mitchell spends over four decades on the island in Josse's book. Meanwhile, the US continues to brutalize people at the border, and I can't stand to play "Papers, Please" for more than five minutes at a time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
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