This most timely novel chronicles the struggles of an undocumented immigrant family in America. This story takes place in 1907-08, before and after the crash of the economy and the election of President Obama, years before our new president cracked down on illegal immigrants, so these are not even as fearful of deportation as they would be today.
Jende Jonga has brought his family from Cameroon, where they had little or no chance of escaping extreme poverty. With his temporary work papers, he is lucky enough to find a job as chauffeur for a Lehman Brothers executive at the undreamed-of salary of $35,000 a year. Finally he and his wife and their six-year-old son see their way to the achievement of the American Dream. But then Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy and Jende loses his job. Soon after, his petition for asylum in the U.S. is turned down. Facing the prospect of deportation, the couple must decide whether to return to their home country voluntarily or to file appeal upon appeal to try to stay in their adopted land.
Woven around Jende's story is the plight of his executive employer and his family, as their part of the American Dream also seems to be disappearing. Both the marriages of the employer and the employee suffer from the fear and tensions brought on by events beyond their control.
I found the amount of space given to the upper-class family to be distracting from what I perceived as the core subject, but Mbue is a fine storyteller, and I can only presume she was trying to say that the American Dream can fail anybody, no matter the social and financial status.
The greater impact of this novel by an author who is herself an immigrant from Cameroon is that America is perhaps oversold as a haven of opportunity. A great many people here today would surely agree.
Behold the Dreamers won the 2017 Pen Faulkner Award.
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