Novels No. 81

 

Adnan Khan. The Hypebeast. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2025.

Having followed Khan’s Middle East reporting in Maclean’s magazine, I sought this out, his second novel. Right away it was clear that it was a world of immigrant-consciousness, of casual racism, of lawless ambition, that was foreign to me. Pun not intended. And a warning: The book contains graphic violence – that, I did not expect. But I had committed myself.

Here are the ambivalent yearnings of a group that struggles between Islamic tradition and the many facets of Western lifestyle, new Canadians who want brown faces accepted in every crowd of elite white faces. Not all families immigrated directly from countries like India or Afghanistan or Pakistan. A few single men come from Guantanamo Bay after years of imprisonment and interrogation; some declare innocence of alleged terrorism for which the U.S. captured them.

Hamid, the novel’s protagonist, came to this country as a child with his family from India. He has only one goal: to make money, freely dismissing the modest expectations of fellow Asians. Doing favours for “Arab” (a moniker adopted by an enterprising South Asian-Canadian) will ensure well-paid rewards, worth much more than the phone scams he and his best friend Marwan are running. Arab controls multiple businesses, illegitimate and otherwise, living and entertaining in extravagant style. Thanks to an interested media, everyone is aware of former Gitmo prisoner Abdul, who successfully sued the Canadian and U.S. governments for wrongful confinement. Abdul’s path to health and recovery has been well documented, especially his humanitarian plan to build a healing centre for men like him – men broken or homeless. The plan requires serious investment money, public and private.

The main characters are coming together in a swirl of fundraising campaigns, investor negotiations, club parties, and criminal workarounds while Hamid’s chronic anxiety continually questions where he fits in. A man who can’t recognize his own emotions, his sole clarity is that his alcoholic girlfriend Natalie is essential in his life—despite Abdul’s iconic and sometimes dark appeal to both of them. What can I say about this immersion into a different, unusual world? Is it a love story? A psychological mystery? A cultural introspective? It’s overwhelming. It’s literary, dense, demanding, funny, sad, horrendous, compelling, bizarre, violent, perplexing—it’s an entire education.

    Fragments

▪ Most people are not used to facing violence. The elevated heart rate scrambles the mind. In the moment they’ll agree to anything. (90)

▪ You’re not him. Man’s great fear — to become his father. (111)

▪ His father had grown into the shape of so many old Indian men full of resentment and bile, unable to see their good fortune and unable to view their sons with curiosity. Was it migration? Had the journey sapped these men of their ambition for life? (141)

▪ “We want to be part of his public team. When Abdul goes to an event to speak about his charity, we want to be there alongside him.” (145)

▪ “I don’t want to be the one to introduce Abdul to Samir,” Marwan said. “Samir trying to buy access to Abdul.” (148)

▪ He reached into my murk and brought up forgotten ideas of tribal brotherhood. (249)

▪ The Aga Khan had been named an honorary citizen of Canada so the prime minister could enjoy holidaying on his island. (266)

▪ “They miss Guantanamo. It’s all we know. Those years in prison erased everything we had before. We are forever in those cages.” (354)

Alex Finlay. Parents Weekend. Large Print. USA: Thorndike Press, 2025.

On the special weekend that welcomes parents to sample their children’s higher education, four – no, five – freshmen go missing from a northern California college. Blane’s divorced mom Cynthia is an executive in the State Department, arriving with a security team; Felix’s single mom Alice is assistant adnin for the college’s Dean; Stella’s parents Dave, a cosmetic surgeon, and Nina are at loggerheads over his recent affair; Libby’s dad Ken is a well-known judge, Amy her mom; Mark’s absent dad is a convicted sexual offender. A cast like that ensures plenty of action. My left brain told me to make a chart for the family details. The parents are disappointed when the kids fail to show for the collective Friday dinner as promised; a few are fearful, convinced it’s an involuntary absence. Campus police chief McCray is right on it. So is FBI agent Sarah Keller, due to the sensitivity of two publicly profiled parents and the possibility of abduction. Various third-person viewpoints drive the development.

Apparently the kids took off together, for no known reason, almost as if they’d been summoned. Blane and Mark had borrowed a friend’s van to take them to a park. When we start to learn their side of the story, they are being held captive and don’t know the kidnappers. Or their motive. The investigators are just as stumped with little to go on other than the group’s last-known cell phone location (geofencing is a term new to me). At least half the parents have some guilty past incident that might be relevant but tracking each kid’s recent steps is essential. Ample red herrings, a drowning, electronic campus gossip, a suicidal young man, a bloody hoodie, a swarming media, and one telling video—all in a day or two for Keller and McCray, supplemented by scores of police searchers.

Early on, the plot outcome was evident to me, and would be to any crime fan, I’m sure. Therefore the novel lacks suspense – surprising, from this popular author. However, it doesn’t lessen the enjoyment of the procedural drama and insights into a college milieu.

    Parents

▪ Alone in the room, Cynthia releases a cleansing breath. Blane’s father is such a complete and utter asshole. (16)

▪ She’s been saving since Felix told her about the Parents Weekend dinner for his capstone group. She shouldn’t be so nervous about tonight, but she can’t help it. (56)

▪ Women have always been his Achilles heel. But he tried to be faithful after he got married. Really tried. (92)

▪ Ken storms out of the back office of Starbucks after she tells him why their tires were slashed. (265)

▪ How on earth could a child sex offender be placed in a halfway house near a school? (274)

    Kids

▪ Deepa points to Libby’s desk. On it sits an iPhone. Its face is cracked and screen black. (102)

▪ “Not to mention we had a student die this week,” McCray adds. “Poor kid got trapped in one of the sea caves at high tide.” (121)

▪ “There’s this app called Rizz SCU. It’s where students post anonymously about stuff. Campus gossip, memes, things like that.” (161)

▪ But worse was Felix, the look of betrayal. “Wait, what? It wasn’t just Mark that was accused in those posts,” he said. (206)

▪ It’s something he learned as a kid after his dad’s arrest: Make yourself the clown before they clown you. (247)

▪ “She was on academic probation and she skipped most of her classes this quarter.” (315)