Conditional Citizens

On Belonging in America

Paperback, 208 pages

Published Oct. 12, 2021 by Vintage.

ISBN:
978-0-525-43604-1
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5 stars (1 review)

3 editions

Review of 'Conditional Citizens' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

From the Pulitzer-shortlisted author of the imagined history of America's first Arab and first Muslim explorer, the Moor's Account, now comes a deeply personal and emotionally powerful account of Professor [a:Laila Lalami|81319|Laila Lalami|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1541116113p2/81319.jpg]'s own immigration to America from her home in Morocco. [b:Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America|52366322|Conditional Citizens On Belonging in America|Laila Lalami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574335667l/52366322._SY75_.jpg|72398925] opens and closes on notes of hope, beginning with Lalami's joy on the day of her citizenship ceremony, but it is also a story of an abiding love of her country that is not quite requited.


The arc of the story, Lalami's first non-fiction work, portrays vividly a life of both love and alienation arising from being set apart from the presumptive norm of citizenship defined by white male property owners: the legal requirement of full citizenship at the founding of the Republic whose shadow lingers over us to this day. As an immigrant, as a …