Homeland Elegies: A Novel

This chapter opens with a quote from the classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life: The protagonist, George Bailey, pleads with the rich lender, Mr. Potter, to consider the importance of the working man.

Ayad introduces his friend Mike Jacobs, a Black Hollywood agent with what he considers questionable politics. Mike, a frequent Republican voter, decries the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, believing that he makes “too many concessions to the white majority” (226). To Ayad, the irony of a Black man voting Republican is hard to stomach as he thinks the Republican party works against Black interests. However, to Mike, Democrats continually keep Blacks down through a “cycle of dependence and frustration fostered by handouts” (227).

During a dinner in 2013, after Ayad turned down numerous writing gigs that required him to create a “good Muslim/bad Muslim” persona, Mike informs him that Hollywood is all about fashion—a focus on appearance over substance. Ayad is only seen as Muslim by Hollywood, someone, something, to be cut and shaped into whatever they see as valuable. Mike advises Ayad to be careful, as he is well aware of America’s realities—a trait passed on by his father, Jerry, a lawyer who once left a rising career in D.C. to move back to his hometown in Alabama.

As Donald Trump’s presidential run makes headlines a few years later, Ayad and Mike meet for drinks, and Ayad is shocked to hear him predict a Trump victory. Mike explains with the tale of his father’s friendship (during his time as a clerk under the famed circuit judge Spotts Robinson) with Robert Bork, a controversial conservative ideologue who lost a nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 due to his perceived racist and bigoted views. However, according to Mike’s father, Bork had more to do with the shaping of the American economy than anyone could imagine: He passionately promoted the idea of private free enterprise, believing that nothing defined American success more than the free market.

As Jerry and Bork continued their friendship—to Spotts Robinson’s dismay (who lost a case to Bork in their younger years)—Jerry realized that Black Americans would never rise to the same levels of success as their white counterparts as the system was not designed for it. The rise of large corporations, put into place by white men, was designed to eliminate small businesses. Because of his close association with Bork and Robinson, Jerry sees the truth behind the American success story: It is but an illusion, a “reassertion of white property rights” (238) meant to keep white men in charge amid the growing empowerment of Black Americans after the Civil Rights Movement.

Mike’s law school days validated his father’s words: Money makes the world go round, making it the supreme American value. Americans are indebted to the economy, not to any illusion of American virtue. According to Mike, when slavery ended and labor became costly again, white men decided to change the rules to accommodate them and them alone. They devised a system which worked to elevate a certain percentage of the population who knew how to play the game. Mike believes Democrats only tout lip service to minorities while making money off of inequality in the background; “Everything was about getting rich” (242), but at least Republicans are open about their backdoor dealings. Obama’s victory was merely symbolic, a brief showing of a Black American rising to the highest seat in the land before becoming hampered by political grandstanding. Trump embodies the dark truths of American values, the resurgence of an ugliness that Americans attempted to hide behind closed doors. If corruption had a face, it would look like Trump—which explains Mike’s belief in his victory.

When Ayad returns home from the bar, he pens the events of the evening. Ayad believes Mike is “full of shit” and “wrong” (243) about Trump’s supposed victory. He equates Mike to Sikander, infatuated with the nonsense and pomp surrounding Trump. Ultimately, Mike encourages learning the white man’s game—keeping as much money as possible to never be dependent on the government.

As Ayad tries to sleep, he turns on the film It’s a Wonderful Life and deduces it was ahead of its time. The film is about money—predatory lenders and their victims—and while George Bailey succeeds in saving the common man, the corruption of the American Dream continues to ring true. Reflecting on both his conversation with Mike and the film, Ayad realizes that being American requires more heartlessness than he ever thought possible.

After 9/11, Sikander’s practice sees a decline in patients, pushing him to expand into the rural areas of Wisconsin. His practice is bought out by corporate health care network Reliant Health in 2007. In 2012, Sikander sees a woman named Christine Langford who has a genetic heart condition—long QT syndrome—which often results in sudden death. Christine and other family members with the condition take medication to keep it in check, but a pregnant Christine is worried about the effects it might have on her child. Sikander finds abnormalities in Christine’s test results, leading him to believe that she may have Brugada arrhythmia (the same concern he had about Donald Trump back in the 1990s). He advises Christine to stop taking her medication. Two weeks later, Christine and her child both die.

Years later, unbeknownst to Ayad (who is preparing for the opening of a new play based on his relationship with Riaz Rind), Sikander drowns his sorrows in the bar of a local casino. Receiving a call from the local sheriff (an old classmate), Ayad returns home to pick up his father from jail. He offers the sheriff and his wife tickets to opening night, while Sikander chastises the sheriff for forcing him to leave his vehicle at the casino. As Ayad lays Sikander to sleep, the latter mutters something about how he would have made the same decision had Christine been his own daughter.

Ayad is confused as he does have a sister, but her name is not Christine—it’s Melissa, and she is the product of his father’s affair with a woman named Caroline. Ayad met Melissa while she was stripping at a local nightclub and almost slept with her before he noticed a picture of his father on her nightstand.

The next morning, Sikander reveals that he is being sued for malpractice by Christine’s family. The trial begins while Ayad is opening his play, but he returns home shortly after the opening arguments to find his father drunk at a hotel bar. Sikander’s lawyer, Hannah, chastises Ayad for bringing his father to trial hungover. The prosecuting attorney, Chip Slaughter, calls Christine’s mother to the stand—and the novel shifts into a play led by the pair. The mother delivers an emotional appeal for her lost daughter, and with it, Slaughter gets the sympathy he wanted from the jury. However, Hannah’s cross-examination establishes scientific precedence for Sikander’s medical advice. After the day’s events, Ayad and Hannah have dinner, and she reveals that the jury will likely have preconceived judgment against Sikander when they find out he’s Muslim. She advises that Ayad keep his father out of bars until the trial is over.

Later that evening, Ayad notices his father is missing from his hotel room. He finds Sikander at a nearby casino, passed out on a couch in the lobby. Ayad gets him back to the hotel and stays with him until the next morning. He offers to send for Sikander’s best friend Sultan, but he declines. Sikander asks Ayad about his worth as a father, and Ayad responds that he just wishes he and Fatima had been happier together. Sikander reminds Ayad that he has 16 acres of land in Pakistan that will be his when he dies.

The owner of Reliant Health attends Sikander’s trial to see if a settlement needs to be offered instead of a malpractice loss. Sikander reveals to Ayad that the man, Thom Powell, once managed another health care network that swept numerous lawsuits and illegal activity under the rug to save face. He despairs that medical care as he knew it is now dead—the only thing that matters is how much money can be made off of each patient.

At a local convenience store, Sikander and Ayad are accosted by a white man who calls them “monkeys” and tells them to “learn how to park in the United States of America” (306). Sikander returns the insults, and Ayad tries to get his father back in the car. Ayad curses at the man once before noticing that he is carrying a handgun. The symbol of the man’s power quiets Ayad, and he and his father quickly leave town.

This bigotry changes Sikander’s perception of what it means to be brown in America. Though Sikander initially took Trump’s side, once Trump became president, he notices his racism more and more. Sikander believes Trump emboldened men like the one at the convenience store, and he finally admits that “Trump was a big mistake” (310).

The next day, Sikander’s best friend, Sultan, arrives at the airport. Sultan is an uncle of sorts to Ayad, but the differences between him and Sikander are vast. Sultan is still a devout Muslim in practice and dress. Over dinner, he decries the election of Trump, saying that Trump made it so no self-respecting scholar wants to come to America like he, Sikander, and Fatima did when they were young. He questions the concept of America as a melting pot of cultures, saying that it keeps people separated rather than bringing them together. Finally, Sultan reveals that he is considering moving back to Pakistan.

A few months later, as the trial progresses, there is a terrorist attack in Manhattan: A Muslim immigrant drives a vehicle into a crowd, killing eight and injuring eleven. Shortly after, Reliant Health settles with Christine’s family, believing that public prejudice against a Muslim doctor would taint the jury’s verdict. Sikander reveals that he is going back to Pakistan with Sultan and asks Ayad to buy him a plane ticket, as he is currently broke. Before Sikander leaves, he asks Ayad to join him at an expensive restaurant. When Ayad arrives, he sees his father with his mistress Caroline. Angered, Ayad argues with Sikander before storming out. He walks around the neighborhood, crying about how he never felt good enough for his father. He returns to the restaurant, and both men hug and apologize.

Sikander moves to the 16 acres in Pakistan left by his own father and never returns to America. He leaves behind numerous debts accrued by his gambling habit, and lawyers have to settle his estate. Though Sikander’s life was spent in devotion to his chosen country, Ayad notices that it “doesn’t seem to bother [Sikander] one bit” (333) that he left. Being back in Pakistan proves to Sikander that he was only “playing a role” (333) in trying to achieve the American Dream.