Good Intentions: ‘Captivating and heartbreaking’ Stylist

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Maybe modern books are like this, but I found it a light read more in keeping with a play than a novel. In the end, we find out that his family never really had a problem with Nur dating Yasmina, as long as she's Muslim. not bc of the content (bc again I thought the commentary was excellent), but rather how it was executed at times.

The ending is completely fair, looking at the different paths things might have taken: this is realistic and means Nur must face up to his actions. I think it also helps to see the progression of Nur and Yasmina’s relationship because it helps you understand why Yasmina puts up with Nur, to be blunt about it. His family did become hurt that Nur meet Yasmina's family a year into their relationship (they've dated for four years) and that was because Nur was worried about what his family would think because he grew up hearing about how people from his culture don't marry outside their race, let alone someone who is Black. Opening on New Years Eve, with Nur gathering up the courage to tell his parents about Yasmina, the novel takes a non-linear route through the four years of their relationship before this point and the ways in which Nur’s family react to his secret.You fake being this heightened version of yourself, hide away the flaws and the cracks, make sure they can't see your bleeding heart and your trauma. The battles Nur had with himself were at times frustrating and repetitive, particularly when it came to accepting his Black girlfriend. Unfortunately, the first half of the novel felt like a constant rehashing of the same chapter - Nur loves Yasmina but can't bring himself to reveal the truth of his relationship to his conservative Muslim parents, or to his younger siblings that still live at home with their parents in Birmingham. It didn't help that other than references about things that happened to others they knew and how conservative Muslim culture can be overall there was never any indication from Nur's parents that they were as prejudiced as he worried they would be.

Deftly transporting readers between that first night and the years beyond, Kasim Ali's Good Intentions exposes with unblinking authenticity the complexities of immigrant families and racial prejudice. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. A little away from that plot point, I also liked how this book discussed mental health and homophobia.In the tradition of Spike Lee's film School Daze, Ali's novel explores the ways that racism may do its insidious damaged even among those who are traditionally not its targets and victims. I loved this book from the reading the first page, so to finally be able to finish the story was amazing for me, and I loved every second of it. Some of the banter between the characters was witty and realistic but not enough to save the book overall.

They share the same nose, he and his mother; the same curve leaping downward, as if gravity had grabbed on to it with both hands. But Nur's announcement has been long-delayed, and it feels guilty and furtive and fraught, an occasion for anxiety rather than joy.

An interesting premise and a book that I enjoyed reading even as it left me feeling a little unsatisfied. stars but the way the ending was executed and after sitting down and thinking through my feelings for the book again, I decided on 3. Each night at home, he has gone to bed with this tightness pinning him down, like his lungs can’t pull in enough air. He wishes they had taken him up on it, said yes, so that he could lie when he got back after the break, say he had no time to talk, that he had taken his family to London to see the fireworks, that he’d always wanted to take them, that this was the first time they’d said yes and he couldn’t disrupt that by telling them his news.