May 28, 2012
Butte, Mont., resident, Khosi Saqr, the 20-something son of an Egyptian father who abandoned him at three and an American mother descended from an Irish immigrant, is a mess. Afraid to leave home, he’s obsessed with his work at the local history museum, in love with his best friend (who just got engaged to someone else), and responsible for his sick mother, who doesn’t always take her meds. While Toutonghi’s wry wit combined with his lush descriptions of Egyptian cooking make for a book that reflects the complexity of its main character, the novel is often over-the-top and, as a result, falls frustratingly shy of its potential. Were the variables slightly more plausible—if Khosi weren’t quite so OCD, his mother quite so wacky, his father such a compulsive liar and thief, and his ultimate journey to Egypt so efficiently responsible for every possible means of rebirth and tidy resolve—this could have been a worthwhile tale of self-discovery and the unexpected possibilities of home. Instead, every plot twist and new development feels overwrought, not the least of which is the surprise arrival in Cairo of the ghost of Khosi’s great-great-grandfather, a clairvoyant Montana copper baron with mustache so spectacular it resembles “the tail of a groundhog.” Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot.
Starred review from July 1, 2012
Khosi Saqr is an all-American boy, growing up in Butte, and a descendant of William Andrews Clark, the copper-mining king who put the Montana city on the world map. Classifying Toutonghi's (Red Weather, 2007) second novel as a coming-of-age tale sells this superb literary effort short. For example, Khosi may be a great-great-grandson of the copper king, but he also is the son of ne'er-do-well Akram Saqr, a Coptic Christian Egyptian who seduced Amy Clark, married her and presented her staid and prosperous parents with a grandson who looked "like a tiny Yasir Arafat." Such is the wry humor spicing up Khosi's story. When Khosi was a toddler, Akram departed for Egypt, leaving behind his family and significant gambling debts. Now in his early 20s, Khosi still lives with his mother in a run-down Victorian they call Loving Shambles, where she operates a catering business specializing in mid-Eastern cuisine and he contemplates the heroics of Evel Knievel. Thanks to the Internet, Khosi is an autodidact, more literate and sophisticated than his college-graduate contemporaries. He works as a guide at the historical Copper King Mansion, frequents the Berkeley Pit Yacht Club, a country music bar with a sawdust floor, and indulges his OCD compulsions. He also pines for his lifelong friend Natasha Mariner, recently engaged to a preppie. Such is Khosi's life until his father returns from Egypt. After 20 years, he wants Amy to sign divorce papers. To everyone's disbelief, Khosi decides to follow Akram back to Egypt. "I needed to track down this missing part of my story, this vanished and fugitive sector of my genealogy, this dim adumbration of my family's lost past." With writing both gently ironical and outright funny, the author's extraordinary talent draws readers into the world of Butte and Cairo. More entertainingly, his characters are both believable and appealing, especially Khosi's Egyptian aunts, their drill-sergeant housekeeper and the everyday people he meets. Brilliantly imagined. Artfully written. Superbly entertaining.
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June 1, 2012
In his debut novel Red Weather, Toutonghi (English, Lewis & Clark Coll.) introduced readers to Yuri Balodis, the son of Latvian immigrants living in Milwaukee. Here, he tells the story of Khosi Saqr, a half-Egyptian young man living in Butte, MT. As an autobiographical composite sketch, the two novels draw from Toutonghi's experience as the child of parents who emigrated from Latvia and Egypt. Entering into adulthood, Khosi finds himself working at a local museum, caring for his ill mother, unlucky in love, with feelings of abandonment by his father. Against his mother's wishes, Khosi travels to Cairo in an attempt to reconnect to his father and better understand his roots. Not only does he find his father, he also discovers his estranged extended family and has a consultation with an apparition. Much like Butte's most famous native son, Evel Knievel, Khosi undertakes great personal risk to challenge the limits of his existence. VERDICT Toutonghi certainly replicates the themes explored in his debut novel. However, the imaginative narrative shaped by the imagery and characters of this novel provides refreshing nuance to the coming-of-age immigration tale.--Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2012
This charming coming-of-age novel chronicles a young man's search for his father. Khosi Saqr has lived his entire life in Butte, Montana, where he was raised by his mother, Amy, after his father, Akram, left them to return to Egypt. Now in his early twenties, Khosi works at the Copper King Mansion Museum, a paean to his great-great-grandfather William Andrews Clark, a miner who struck it rich in the late 1800s. Khosi doesn't have any desire to leave Butte until his father shows up in town just long enough to catch a glimpse of Khosi and ask Amy for a divorce. Upset that his father didn't try to reach out to him, Khosi makes a bold decision to go to Cairo and track him down. What he finds when he goes to Cairo is that his father is harboring secrets from Amy, his family, and Khosi himself. Humor and heart distinguish Toutonghi's second outing (Red Weather, 2006), and the quirky, appealing Khosi is bound to enchant readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)