TITLE - THE LAST WHITE MAN
WRITTEN BY - MOHSIN HAMID
PUBLISHED BY - PENGUIN GENERAL UK/HAMISH HAMILTON
PUBLICATION DATE -11TH AUGUST 2022
The opening chapter of Mohsin Hamid’s “The Last White Man”, as the lead character Anders wakes to find his skin having turned brown and the fear and anger which results, strongly evokes Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” in which the protagonist awakens to find himself transformed into a giant beetle. This is no bad thing, and I think “The Last White Man” can be taken as a modern, prescient updating of that story as Anders and the affected people fight for the acceptance of a society which he now thinks shuns and distrusts him.
His coolly disinterested girlfriend, Oona, sees him as “utterly different” which initially distresses her; a telling moment occurs when their lovemaking feels almost like infidelity. Anders feels palpably threatened when out in public, hiding his appearance as best he can. Anders sees his work colleagues start to treat him differently in a way that is almost imperceptible, but real. Soon, events take an ugly turn as riots and lynching's occur.
Mohsin Hamid uses a stylised, and, admittedly, sometimes infuriating writing style. Paragraphs are formed of usually one sentence, heavily punctuated; sometimes this results in punchy, rhythmic text, other times it can be tiring getting to the end of the paragraph. I haven’t read any of Hamid’s previous books so I don’t know if this is his “thing” or not, but once I had got used to the style it became easier to read. The style does not detract from what is a very well-written novel with many powerful moments, but it does demand close attention.
“The Last White Man” is, at a basic level, a story of what white people would do if they suddenly became Black. This may sound heavy-handed and clunky, and in the hands of a less skilled novelist it would be, but Hamid has managed to transcend such an obvious literary device to create a timely work of genius that challenges how we view anyone who is different.
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