Open City : Letter to all the cities I have lived and loved.

How true was Bojack Horseman when he said, ' In this terrifying world, all we have are the connections we make'? If I had to summarize this book in one sentence, it would be this. In a heartwarming but difficult book, Teju Cole talks about cities and the people in them. Starting with New York, it goes to Brussels and then Lagos, the city of his childhood and then comes back to New York again. 

There's thing about New York city or every city for that matter. Everybody has their own version. You can walk around a bustling city of millions and yet see something that had never been seen by anyone. It is all the more different when you are in New York. This book is about Julius, a psychiatrist's fellow's New York.  When he is not diagnosing patients, he walks around the city and some times down the memory lane which takes him to Brussels and  Lagos. 

Conversations, conversations and more conversations. It is the conversation that makes memory. Julius vividly remembers all the conversation. There's one with a doctor which makes him realise that age brings a certain kind of freedom which can't be expect at a young age. There are some with a shop owner in Brussels that makes him wonder why people stereotype so easily. European Muslims can be seen having beer and doing things that one would do in Europe and yet they are labeled as fanatics across the world. In a same way Blacks in America are stereotyped as hip hop dancers by the rest of the world. The shopkeeper wanted to know if blacks live the way the way it is shown on MTV. Are their lives all about dancing and rapping. To which Julius reply, no, there are some who go on to become lawyers, doctors and engineers. It is not easy for them but they still do. 

As you read, you come across the history of the United States of America and it will make you wonder its attitude towards immigrants although the country was built by them. There are chapters that talk about systematic oppression against blacks which make it all the more important read. 

Julius also talks about his not so happy childhood in Lagos. There is not much to talk about and how he wished there was. It was all going well till the time pops up this woman in New York who Julius raped eighteen years ago. She tells him she has tried to forgive and forget but couldn't. She tells him she remembered about it everyday and it had never left her alone. You would want to know Julius reaction to all this but sadly there isn't any. The book ended abruptly. Did he have any regrets? What did he do ? Did he at least apologize? But no, Cole left us wondering at that. 

True that you will meet people you hurt and then also meet people who hurt you. And that's what make your life it is. But what Julius did was crime and as a reader I wanted to know how the accusation affected his life. But no...