The Submission: How Would You Feel?

A jury gathers at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan to consider blind submissions for a memorial to those who died on 9/11. Two finalists are considered in these opening pages, and the jury makes their selection. Relieved to be finished with the discussions and deliberations, the jury anxiously awaits the big reveal to learn the identity of the architect behind the winning submission. However, the jurors soon learn the ordeal is far from over when the envelope is opened to reveal an American Muslim as the winning architect. 

The Submission considers what happens next. Racism and fear are, of course, pervasive. The winning submission, a garden, is labelled by many (including members of the intellectual elite) as a Muslim garden, and it is viewed by many as a further slap in the face to all Americans. Everyone has a personal stake in the decision of whether this memorial will ever be built. 

As someone who lived in Manhattan on 9/11, I have spent a good deal of energy avoiding literature, movies, retrospectives, and conversations regarding that tragic event. This was a leap out of my comfort zone when I opened the first page. Surprisingly I didn't find the book difficult from a historic perspective, but I think the book did make me feel slightly uncomfortable in other respects (as I'm sure was the author's intent). How would I have felt at the time? My snap answer is, I wouldn't care. I'm no racist. I'm open minded and a thinker, someone who scoffed at those on TV who cried out "bomb them" in the days after 9/11 without having any idea of who "them" was. But would it have mattered at all? If the New York Times and not USA Today speculated that the memorial was some sort of celebration of Muslim culture, would that have mattered? I think, ultimately, the answer is no, but the author, Amy Waldman, gets bonus points in my book for engaging me in such an internal dialogue and forcing me to acknowledge that I'm not always as open-minded as I like to believe.  

I like a novel that forces its reader to reflect or perhaps face uncomfortable truths. For these reasons I appreciated the novel. However, there were times when I found myself frustrated with the characters or thinking that the story wasn't progressing quite fluidly or quickly enough. The novel follows many different characters, some much more compelling and likable than others. My favorite was a young, illegal immigrant who loses her husband when the towers collapse. However, I think Waldman tried to do too much, and many of the characters fail to truly flourish. Ultimately, the idea of the novel is much more compelling than the novel itself.