Reviews

The Other Half of You by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

joannielee27's review

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

lemonbalmlibrarian's review

5.0

A lyrical writing style, yet the descriptions of people are raw, and honest, and on the verge of being uncomfortable. This reminds me greatly of one of my favourite authors, D. H. Lawrence.
I really connect with this style of writing, and I find immense meaning in an honest and direct portrayal of a culture, of family, and of life. Particularly, because underlying it all in this story is the greatest respect for a life filled with love (in its many and varied forms), and being true to what's important to one's spirit/soul.

randerson's review

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

overbookedproductions's review

challenging funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

mandi_m's review

5.0

I loved this! Michael Mohammed Ahmad spoke at our local writers festival and was fabulous on the panel with Rawah Arja and I bought the book straight away to get it signed. I enjoyed the relationships in the book and the look into a family quite different from my own in many ways, but the love, the pressure of expectations and the wonderful little quirks were universal.
Full of love, profanity and clash of cultures, this was a great read.
Mandi

eettss's review

challenging funny

4.75

falafel_bimbo's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Babes I would have given it 6 stars if I could

wafareads's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

archytas's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was, without doubt, my most anticipated read of 2021. Not only because Ahmad's writing is so consistently good, but because I was desperately curious about what it would be like. His debut novel the Tribe felt quite lyrical, affectionate and kinda cheeky funny. The Lebs was a ferocious tour de force, fast and furious and very scathing funny. 

The Other of You is something else again: a deeply tender novel, with a kind of ache at the centre. Bani's voice still displays the deliberately crude patios of young Western Sydney (and contrasts with the gentle formality of his father and his generation) but as you would expect from a framing device of a letter to a son, this is undercut with a seriousness of reflection and a deep preoccupation with love. This is often tangled and conflicted, and the unhappy tension of trying to balance joy and responsibility, being understood with exploring new worlds propels the narrative. There is no single world in which Bani feels comfortable, and his attempts to find a life he can live encapsulate how we find pieces of ourselves in others and in communities around us.

Ahmad's critique of Australia's culture of white supremacy is sharp and unstinting. But I do feel as if so many of the reviews of his work focus on this exclusively, without really discussing what an exceptional writer he is.  It's probably inevitable in a world where the normal perspective, language and tone is set by a white middle-class sensibility so thoroughly that any deviation from this can't be looked past or into. But both in the detail - the dark interior of the camping supply shop, the bewildering, intoxicating chaos of a messy girl's bedroom, the taste of Maccas - and in the way that a tale of angst and growth is told without feeling angsty or saccharine, there's an assured confidence that carries through here.