I like reading the author's non-fiction (and haven't read her fiction), and this collection was pretty interesting, and some of the essays felt overlapping/redundant (which she acknowledges).

Honestly, this one is overrated. Khakpour is a good writer. Her essays are well-structured and pretty even regarding length. It's easy to get through a few at a time. I love the first half of the book.And then...Khakpour starts to grate. She makes a point of how much she hates writing about her life as an Iranian-American. And then she makes the point again. And again. And again and -- you get the point. At first I was sympathetic. That sucks, being pigeonholed. But then she went on, and on, and...

´When Iranians write you and say you are not Iranian enough for them, thank them, and when others say you are too Iranian for them, thank them too´.The Essays on Exile and Identity included in the Brown Album recently published by Porochista Khakpour are an interesting genuine journey of coming at terms with a constantly changing perception and acceptance of identity. Being other in America - and elsewhere - requires a long travail that involves some risks: your assigned group may not accept the...

I think this collection of essays can be viewed as a case study in whatever that thing is called where someone demands validation for his or her identity, past, and accomplishments (is that narcissism? I'm not sure). Perhaps whatever that thing is called is built into the genetic code; at least I thought that when the narrator talked about taking selfies in front of a dirty mirror when she was a child. Ultimately, this just isn't my thing--that's not a critique of the writing, that's just a me-i...

Having felt like I got to know Porochista Khakpour through reading her bestselling memoir Sick, I was glad to gain a deeper understanding of the writer through her most recent work Brown Album. This narrative explores Khakpour’s earlier years and young adulthood as an immigrant to the United States after her family fleeing the Iranian Revolution. It’s a fascinating and engaging and sometimes necessarily biting exploration on identity and culture.Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publ...

"You are 19 years in America, you become an American on November 2001 and you realize you could have had a child in that time. You have no kids, no husband, no home you own, no roots. No real reason to be here. Trump becomes president and your old country is on the list of the six countries of the "Muslim ban". You are suddenly a Muslim. No one doubts your browness anymore. You realize that every day is lesson in America, the real America, the violent one."•Thoughts~I reccomend checking this one...

First published on my blog: https://curiousreaderr.wordpress.com/...Brown Album collects Porochista Khakpour’s essays exploring identity and expression, growing up, creative writing and loving stories, America and 9/11, and mental health, among myriad of things. She opens the book with positioning herself as an Iranian-American writer, having unwittingly become a kind of representative of Iranians in America or in the West generally, particularly as immigrants and within a setting where these tw...

I loved this book more than I expected I would. Khakpour’s writer’s voice reels you in from the very beginning, and her personal anecdotes didn’t feel tired or repetitive like a lot of writing about Iranian-America and the diaspora tends to feel. I especially enjoyed these essays/chapters (but I recommend the whole thing): “Revolution Days”, “An Iranian in Mississippi”, “Secret Muslims in the New Year”, “A Muslim-American in Indonesia”, “How to Write Iranian America”, and the titular final piece...

This was downright amazing. And humbling. I listened to an author event with Khakpour the other night while I was reading this. I can't remember her exact quote, but she was talking about obnoxious questions at readings and mentioned that they typically come from white women. Well, reading this made it clear to me that I'm one of those obnoxious white women. This book should be required reading; it is a full education for those of us who are trying to overcome prejudices that we were raised with...

I wanted to love this book more. Hypothetically it should be my dream book: a collection of essays by a fellow Iranian American artist my age raised outside of Tehrangeles glam. But maybe for exactly this reason I am more critical of it? The burden of narrow spectrums of representation is that when someone “breaks through” with accolades from institutional gatekeepers that allow the person wider distribution, the rest of us want that person to be our everything, to say and do it all because hey

Incredible read. As a Latina it is amazing to see how many of us, people of color, first gens share similar experiences and perspectives.

I wanted to like this a lot, Ms. Khakpour can turn an incredible phrase and occasionally has very excellent insights, especially into being shoehorned as a novelist and essayist into specific subjects. However, her essential inability to get over things (which provides grist for many writerly mills) and her inability to contextualize her suffering or even identify what her problem is makes this a deeply unpleasant read. And not in the James Baldwin sense. is she too Iranian? Too American? Too hy...

Gosh this is such powerful work. The layers of cultural and individual truths in every single essay... I am seriously astonished by how much I learned reading this. So, so good.

A really great essay collection.

A series of memories, some specific to Khakpour, many familiar to “brown” American kids of all stripes. A great collection of essays that resonated deeply with me.

This is a wonderfully written, deeply raw essay collection. Porochista is very honest about her experience as an immigrant and her feeling of being an exile both from her home country, her immigrant community, and America in general. Yes, 9/11 and Trump’s election does play into these essays heavily. I like that she isn’t afraid to end the book with the essay that is probably the most raw, honest, and angry of all of these, and that it doesn’t end on an upbeat note. Definitely pick this up when

In Brown Album, Khakpour explores what it is to be an Iranian Muslim in America, and her feelings struggling with her identity. This essay collection will make you laugh & cry, and become completely absorbed in this writer's fascinating and entertaining adventures. Being a white woman, I can only speak on so much of this. Having read Sick by Khakpour and relating to it so much, I knew going into Brown Album I wasn’t going to relate to it in the same way, but what kept bringing me back was the wr...

collects together what Khakpour considers to be the best of her writings on Iranian-American identity, immigration, and race, with almost all of the pieces available online (in some form), notably excepting the final titular essay, which grapples with what it means to be Middle Eastern in the U.S. at a time of skyrocketing xenophobia. most of the essays mix personal and social history, ranging from reflections on the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution to memories of NYC in the wake of 9/...

Not sure how to feel about this collection of essays. I’ve read Khakpour’s novels (meh) and memoir (in which an important issue — women being heard and taken seriously by medical professionals — is buried by the overwhelming evidence of Khakpour being an unreliable historian). I’ve been to one of her book readings, one that was mainly attended by her least favorite demographic (white people), where I waited around awkwardly to ask her to sign my book. She asked me if i was Iranian (yes...well, I...

The highs of career successes and the lows of discrimination and emotional defeats are laid bare in this series of essays by an Iranian American living in a white America. She writes with humor about subjects that are very pertinent in the climate created by Trumpism.