Even without reading it, I knew Samira Ahmed's Internment was an excellent book to offer as part of a giveaway to college students stressing over finals. And at only 70 pages into my own copy, I felt that decision was completely validated, and could only hope that the winner was enjoying it as much as I was. By the end of it, I wanted to buy as many copies as Amazon would let me and start handing it out on street corners.The Situation: Layla Amin and her family are Muslim, and because they openly declared this and refused to lie about it, they are on a registry in the U.S. The president has declared that Muslims are a threat to America, and since the registry, Layla's dad has lost his job as a university professor, and her mother's chiropractic practice is slowly losing patients. Then the seemingly impossible happens, and the Amin family are forced from their home and relocated to a camp holding other Muslims. After being given only ten minutes to pack one bag, Layla has to say goodbye to the only home she has ever known. While her parents have adopted the strategy of staying calm, staying quiet, keeping their heads down, and going along with it, Layla wants nothing more than to rage with everything she has. But unleashing that rage may cost her more than she is willing to pay.
The Problem (as if what happened above is not enough): Camp Mobius is dusty. Located somewhere in the California desert, hundreds of American citizens who identified themselves as Muslim are being held in this dusty area that is guarded with armed soldiers, and an electrified fence topped with razor wire. Everything about the place makes Layla angry, but also afraid. She wants to keep herself and her parents, and her new friends out of danger, but she also wants the world outside Mobius to see what is going on. She wants to fight for freedom, and not simply give in and hope for rescue. After she begins to receive help from an unlikely source, Layla begins to believe that fighting back is possible. But her desire for justice has caught the attention of the Director, a cruel man with a temper, who wants Camp Mobius to be a successful example for future internment camps, the plans for which are already in motion. Layla and her friends must decide if the revolution they want is worth the danger they will bring upon themselves and their families.
Genre, Themes, History: This is a young adult fiction book set in a not-so-distant and frighteningly easy-to-imagine future. After all Muslims are declared to be a threat to America, Layla and her family are forced to leave their homes and enter an internment camp, much like the Japanese and Germans were made to do during World War II. Each family is assigned to a trailer home, and these homes are divided by block. It does not take long for Layla and her new friend, Ayesha, to realize that even the blocks are separated by ethnicity. The Director and his Exclusion Guards, who are members of the National Guard that were reassigned, enforce a strict schedule, while also attempting to portray an idyllic camp to the outside world. The scenery, imagery, nearly everything about the camp is reminiscent of what is described in books like Jan Jarboe Russell's The Train to Crystal City, which details what it was like inside the internment camp of Crystal City, Texas. What takes place, including the violence and intimidation, is not anything new or something that has not happened before. And while resistance may come with a huge risk, staying quiet and obeying may actually be worse.
My Verdict: The cost of resistance is often impossibly high. And what is most infuriating about that cost is that the people who pay it are simply looking for justice and trying to live their lives. Layla faces impossible choices on almost every page of this novel, choices that no human being, let alone a 17 year-old girl, should have to make. But she makes them, and she sticks with them, and that is what makes her courageous. And Ahmed did not write Layla as some overpowered, almost superhuman, super-intelligent teenager with unshakable resolve to fight for what is right. Layla is often broken, scared, not sure what to say, and even foolish. But that may be the point. Revolutions are started by 'everyday' people. The novel is full of a hope that is easy to lose sight of. And with the dust, and the small cramped mobile homes, and the terrible food, and the complete loss of freedom, Ahmed brings to life a scenario that many have never considered, but could end up being all too real.
Favorite Moment: When Ayesha stands up to the boy she likes in defense of Layla's plan.
Favorite Character: Ayesha is the kind of friend that can help keep a person together in a place like Mobius. She is funny, but also serious when she needs to be. And when it comes down to sticking with her friend or going along with the boy she likes, she chooses her friend with no hesitation.
Recommended Reading: Layla's actions remind me of the group of students who fight the battle in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, a battle that is doomed from the beginning as they are outgunned and outmatched. It all seems like a terrible plan, and that they should give up and save themselves. But if someone does not stand up and fight, then nothing may ever change. Also, I recommend The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell for more information and background on the internment camps of WWII.
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