Review: "The City Always Wins" by Omar Robert Hamilton

There is a moment early on in Omar Robert Hamilton’s debut novel The City Always Wins that I think, quite possibly, be the hidden center of the story that is being told. In the one review I read for this after I found, it did not bring it up and talked about the book in a way that I thought kind of misrepresented what it was. Here it is: early on during one of the first riot scenes, amidst the threat of chaos, violence, torture and death, a man walks into the fray carrying gas masks which he intends to sell. He shouts about their availability as if they were bales of cotton candy being sold at a baseball game. It is a striking image that I think holds the key to the rest of what might be one of the most covert pieces of satire I have come across. In talking about the 2011 uprising that occurred in Egypt, Hamilton, whether he intended to or not, offers a brilliant critique of the revolutionary mindset that affected many of those involved in the events and, quite possibly, events around the world as well. I’m a bit worried to pontificate on these themes because I am not so sure they were intentional. If they weren’t then this book and this review are first for me, and I will try to talk about them coherently and offer my reasons for liking this book so much. At the center of this novel are two young people whose souls are aflame with rage and motivation. Khalil, an American born Muslim and the son to a wealthy father and Mariam, the daughter of an equally revolutionary minded doctor, run an underground network of artist, bloggers and podcasters called Chaos. They set up illegal radio and internet feeds where they show videos of the state’s violence and espouse their own revolutionary ideas. The book is very episodic, with riot sequences and quieter scenes taking place in beds, internet cafes and hidden meeting rooms almost being piled on top of one another. It is confusing but the book has an energy that makes up for it as well as some memorable sequences that are aesthetically pleasing. What is very apparent, especially after the scene I described earlier, is that the two central characters, as well as side characters, my favorite being the aspiring filmmaker Hafez, are painfully naïve, there drive and passion outweighing their thoughtfulness. It is an interesting trick (if it is a trick at all) that Hamilton pulls here in how separated these young people are from their actions and the world around them. It works in obvious ways, when one of the side characters admits to filming Mariam when she was close to death during a botched protest, to more subtle instances, such as the sections where the parents of those who died get spotlight in text that reads like newsprint. In these short sections you see the true cost of what Khalil and Miriam are fighting for, of which they remain blissfully unaware in their world of social media and an almost pornographic obsession with the idea of revolt, which leads to a sort of quiet, almost Kafkaesque ending showing the uselessness of it all. I really hope I am right about this book, because as I see it, this is a brutal look not only at the idea of fighting back against tyranny, but what happens when you lose your humanity in the process. 

Rating: 5/5