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Behold the Dreamers: A Novel, by Imbolo Mbue
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A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.
However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades.
When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.
Praise for Behold the Dreamers
“A debut novel by a young woman from Cameroon that illuminates the immigrant experience in America with the tenderhearted wisdom so lacking in our political discourse . . . Mbue is a bright and captivating storyteller.”—The Washington Post
“Mbue writes with great confidence and warmth. . . . There are a lot of spinning plates and Mbue balances them skillfully, keeping everything in motion. . . . A capacious, big-hearted novel.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mbue’s writing is warm and captivating.”—People (book of the week)
“[Mbue’s] book isn’t the first work of fiction to grapple with the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, but it’s surely one of the best. . . . It’s a novel that depicts a country both blessed and doomed, on top of the world, but always at risk of losing its balance. It is, in other words, quintessentially American.”—NPR
“Imbolo Mbue’s masterful debut about an immigrant family struggling to obtain the elusive American Dream in Harlem will have you feeling for each character from the moment you crack it open.”—In Style
“This story is one that needs to be told.”—Bust
“Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to consider what it takes to make us genuinely content, and how long is too long to live with our dreams deferred.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“[A] beautiful, empathetic novel . . . Mbue’s narrative energy and sympathetic eye soon render . . . commonplace ingredients vivid, complex, and essential.”—The Boston Globe
“A witty, compassionate, swiftly paced novel that takes on race, immigration, family and the dangers of capitalist excess.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Mbue [is] a deft, often lyrical observer. . . . [Her] meticulous storytelling announces a writer in command of her gifts, plumbing the desires and disappointments of our emerging global culture.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A revelation . . . Mbue has written a clever morality tale that never preaches but instead teaches us the power of integrity.”—Essence
- Sales Rank: #8202 in Books
- Published on: 2016-08-23
- Released on: 2016-08-23
- Format: Deckle Edge
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.60" h x 1.20" w x 6.60" l, 1.44 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 400 pages
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of August 2016: One of the greatest things a novel can do is to raise empathy in a reader. Behold the Dreamers does that slowly and surely, as Mbue tells the story of Jende Jonga, his wife Neni, and their six-year-old son. Jende has arrived from Cameroon, and after a stint working as a dishwasher he lands a job as the driver for Clark Edwards, an executive who is reaping a fortune at the soon-to-be doomed Lehman Brothers. Jende is poor, living in Harlem, but with his new job he is able to move his wife and son to New York—he feels he is on the fast track to his American dream. Clark is rich, but has troubles of his own, and conversations in the car—private ones between Jende and members of the Edwards family, talks overheard on cell phones—begin to reveal these fissures. In this wonderful debut novel, we watch events unfold for both families in ways that suggest the American dream might be more fragile than advertised. Mbue is a master of presenting a scene and allowing the reader to see between the lines; the result is the thrill of feeling that, for one of those rare times, we might be able to accurately imagine what it’s like to be someone different from ourselves. --Chris Schluep, The Amazon Book Review
Review
“As a dissection of the American Dream, Imbolo Mbue’s first novel is savage and compassionate in all the right places.”—The New York Times
“A fresh, engaging entry into the eternally evolving narrative of what it means to be an American—and how human beings, not laws or dogma, define liberty.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Even as Behold the Dreamers takes some dark, vicious turns, it never feels cheaply cynical, grounded as it is in the well-imagined characters who try, through whatever means possible, to protect their families and better their lives.”—USA Today
“In Imbolo Mbue’s sprightly debut . . . songs of innocence and arrogance collide.”—Vogue
“Imagine Lorraine Hansberry’s play/film A Raisin in the Sun with a Cameroonian cast of characters in early twenty-first century New York City, and you may come up with something close to Behold the Dreamers, a poignant and bittersweet debut.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Mbue’s outsider’s perceptions of American life—its stresses, its excesses—are sharp. . . . She’s also shrewd on the disruptions that come with the Jongas leaving their native land for a dream that may be a delusion.”—The Seattle Times
“An utterly unique novel about immigration, race, and class—and an important one, as well.”—BookPage
“A debut novel by a young woman from Cameroon that illuminates the immigrant experience in America with the tenderhearted wisdom so lacking in our political discourse . . . [Imbolo] Mbue is a bright and captivating storyteller, inflecting her own voice with the tenor of her characters’ thoughts and speech. . . . There’s a persistent warmth in this book, a species of faith that’s too often singed away by wit in contemporary fiction. For all its comedy, Mbue’s social commentary never develops that toxic level of irony. . . . This book’s spirit remains irrepressibly buoyant.”—The Washington Post
“Mbue writes with great confidence and warmth. . . . There are a lot of spinning plates and Mbue balances them skillfully, keeping everything in motion. . . . Behold the Dreamers is a capacious, big-hearted novel.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Mbue’s writing is warm and captivating.”—People (book of the week)
“[Mbue’s] book isn’t the first work of fiction to grapple with the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, but it’s surely one of the best. . . . Behold the Dreamers is a remarkable debut. Mbue is a wonderful writer with an uncanny ear for dialogue—there are no false notes here, no narrative shortcuts, and certainly no manufactured happy endings. It’s a novel that depicts a country both blessed and doomed, on top of the world, but always at risk of losing its balance. It is, in other words, quintessentially American.”—NPR
“Mbue’s masterful debut about an immigrant family struggling to obtain the elusive American Dream in Harlem will have you feeling for each character from the moment you crack it open.”—In Style
“This story is one that needs to be told.”—Bust
“In the near decade since the onset of the Great Recession, few works of fiction have examined what those years felt like for everyday people, how so many continued to hope and plan and love amid pervasive uncertainty. Enter Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, a Cameroonian American who situates her characters of US shores just as prosperity is beginning to seem like a thing of the past. . . . Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to consider what it takes to make us genuinely content, and how long is too long to live with our dreams deferred.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“[A] beautiful, empathetic novel . . . Mbue’s narrative energy and sympathetic eye soon render . . . commonplace ingredients vivid, complex, and essential. . . . At once critical and hopeful, Behold the Dreamers traces the political and economic systems that push individuals toward dishonesty, while also acknowledging the bad and affirming the good in their complicated personal choices.”—The Boston Globe
“A witty, compassionate, swiftly paced novel that takes on race, immigration, family and the dangers of capitalist excess. In her debut novel, Mbue has crafted a compelling view of twenty-first-century America.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Behold the Dreamers reveals Mbue as a deft, often lyrical observer. . . . [Her] meticulous storytelling announces a writer in command of her gifts, plumbing the desires and disappointments of our emerging global culture.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A revelation . . . Mbue has written a clever morality tale that never preaches but instead teaches us the power of integrity.”—Essence
“At once a sad indictment of the American dream and a gorgeous testament to the enduring bonds of family, Mbue’s powerful first novel will grip and move you right up to its heartfelt ending.”—Shelf Awareness
“Mbue proves herself a clear-eyed, unflinching storyteller, and Behold the Dreamers is a fearless, head-on journey into the thorny contemporary issues of American exceptionalism.”—Interview Magazine
“Gripping and beautifully told.”—Good Housekeeping
“At once an ode to New York City and an elegy for the American Dream, Behold the Dreamers reads like a film, shuttling effortlessly between a Cameroonian chauffeur’s Harlem and an investment banker’s Upper East Side. This is a novel populated by characters so textured they feel like friends: an immigrant with big dreams and limited options; a banker desperate to do better than he’s done; a mother, a student and wife determined to express her humanity fully in the world. There are no heroes in this marvelous debut, only nuanced human beings. A classic tale with a surprise ending, as deeply insightful as it is entertaining.”—Taiye Selasi, author of Ghana Must Go
“Mbue’s fantastic debut is much more than an immigrant story, a tale of the 2007 financial collapse, or the intersections of the rich and poor in New York—it’s about how the American Dream can fail anyone, and whether hope can survive. An empathetic, timely, and deeply welcome novel.”—J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
“Eminently readable, deeply empathetic, and often humorous, Behold the Dreamers offers the stark reality of the American Dream as we rarely see it in fiction. In its pages, Americans are made, fortunes are won and lost, and America’s flawed dream-makers and its striving dreamers clash and come alive. With forthright prose and unforgettable characters, Behold the Dreamers is a subversive delight.”—Shawna Yang Ryan, author of Green Island
“Imbolo Mbue would be a formidable storyteller anywhere, in any language. It’s our good luck that she and her stories are American.”—Jonathan Franzen, National Book Award–winning author of Purity and Freedom
“Dazzling, fast-paced, and exquisitely written, Behold the Dreamers is one of those rare novels that will change the way you see the world. Imbolo Mbue is a breathtaking talent.”—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
“Who is this Imbolo Mbue and where has she been hiding? Her writing is startlingly beautiful, thoughtful, and both timely and timeless. She’s taking on everything from family to the Great Recession to immigration while deftly reminding us what it means to truly believe in ‘the American Dream.’”—Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn
“It’s rare that a book is so fascinating, so emotionally compelling, and so beautiful that I literally can’t put it down. I picked Behold the Dreamers up one evening before bed. I turned the last page at dawn. It ruined the next day for me—I wasn’t much good for anything but a nap—but it was worth every lost hour.”—Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author of Love and Treasure
“A beautiful book about one African couple starting a new life in a new land, Behold the Dreamers will teach you as much about the promise and pitfalls of life in the United States as about the immigrants who come here in search of the so-called American dream.”—Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique’s Journey and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“Among the spate of novels forged in the crucible of the previous decade, Mbue’s impressive debut deserves a singular place. . . . Realistic, tragic, and still remarkably kind to all its characters, this is a special book.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A fast-paced, engaging read with an interesting cross-cultural background.”—Library Journal
“The Jongas are . . . vivid, and the book’s unexpected ending—and its sharp-eyed focus on issues of immigration, race, and class—speak to a sad truth in today’s cutthroat world: the American dream isn’t what it seems.”—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Imbolo Mbue is a native of Limbe, Cameroon. She holds a BS from Rutgers University and an MA from Columbia University. A resident of the United States for more than a decade, she lives in New York City.
Most helpful customer reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Re-Evaluating the American Dream After Worshipping the Idols of Consumerism
By M. JEFFREY MCMAHON
In Imbolo Mbue’s masterful novel, about a married couple from Cameroon fighting to live in America and find the American Dream, there is a scene where the husband Jende, a chauffeur, tells his rich boss, Clark Edwards, a Lehman Brothers executive, that where he is from in Cameroon as you drive upon the Limbe city limits there is a sign that says Limbe is the city where everyone is your friend.
The Limbe sign is a symbol of ambivalence to Jende. On one hand, the loving community connection is a place of love and innocence; on the other hand, Limbe is a city where you’re stagnant, where “you can never be a somebody.”
This novel is about Jende and his wife Neni, a pharmaceutical student, moving away from innocence and landing in Harlem and trying to find the American Dream of Privilege, Power, and Consumerism. Jende and Neni are too wise and complex to not notice materialism’s traps, but even their awareness and small town values don’t seem to diminish consumerism’s spell on them.
Indeed, much of the novel’s tension is watching Jende and Neni, fighting tooth and claw to make it in America, bearing witness to the obnoxious privilege and extravagance of Clark Edwards and his family.
This fever dream of consumerism, however, comes to a shrieking halt in 2008 when the Great Recession kicks Lehman Brothers off a cliff. Jende watches his boss Clark Edwards in the aftermath of his company’s near death and he must re-evaluate his pursuit of the American Dream. At one point in the novel, he says to himself regarding the Great Recession: “In many different ways it would be an unprecedented plague, a calamity like the one that had befallen the Egyptians in the Old Testament. . . . They had called an abomination upon their land by worshipping idols and enslaving their fellow humans, all so they could live in splendor.”
This novel’s brilliance is watching Jende and Neni, sobered by the Great Recession, re-evaluate the American Dream while at the same time maintaining their drive to strengthen their love and discover what "home" really is.
Fast paced, fully realized, sympathetic, this is an outstanding novel. Highly recommended.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
... the idea that America may not be the most wonderful place for all people
By JOYDel
An interesting story by Imbolo Mbue putting forth the idea that America may not be the most wonderful place for all people. The author who is a native of Cameroon was educated in the USA and has lived here for more than ten years. This is her first novel. Neni and Jende learned to
adapt to the life in New York City, but were constantly playing catch-up in pursuing the American Dream. I admired both of the protagonists for
their strong work ethic and sense of duty to family and a code of conduct based on seemingly universal concepts of right and wrong. Yet the
young author's message seemed to be that their life in America had corrupted the Cameroons and that the way to recapture this strong sense of morality the Jongas should return to their native country.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Depicting the Immigrant Experience
By Joan
This is a simple, nicely wrought story that really gives the reader an inside view of what the immigrant experience is like...especially in New York. In light of what is happening in our country now, this story of a black man from West Africa and his wife is very touching. The characters are nicely developed and while the story is a bit slow it works to bond the reader.You have a kind, earnest couple trying their best to earn money, raise their child with values and be good people. The system has other ideas and wants to wreak havoc with their lives. I believe this is a first novel and the author created a fine read.
See all 132 customer reviews...
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