One of the goals of the UMass Common Read program has consistently been to provide a scenario for asking questions and considering topics that are relevant in the current times.This year’s common read selection, True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas, draws on weighted questions, growing from the intersection of two contrasting lives. Destiny, the value of life, and the role of government are only a few of the topics this detailed story mulls over. These are questions the reader, too, will have to engage, questions that will aid in delving into the many academic dialogues occurring around the university and in the world today.
This journey of question, ideologies, and passion follows Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a disciplined, kind-hearted man from Bangladesh and Mark Stroman, a bigoted criminal from Texas. The profundity of each character’s philosophy pushes them both to extreme measures; Stroman attempting to murder Bhuiyan in a one-man “war” that was fueled by hate and ignorance and Raisuddin following this with a campaign to prevent the execution of Mark Stroman. Anand Giridharadas’s attention to detail and commitment to following the story to its deepest roots contributes to its power as a study of character and what shapes the values of a person. These stories examine the evolution of Bhuiyan and Stroman, the factors that developed them, and the moments that opened their minds, with Raisuddin realizing information technology as an occupation was not enough and that he wanted to also wanted to make it his duty to help people and Mark realizing the various errors of his ways of thinking.
From the beginning of the book we see the carefully investigated, precisely narrated stepping stones of a path to an event that altered these two lives permanently. Certainly many questions arise following a hate crime that places the perpetrator on death row and almost fatally wounds the other. However, these questions reach far beyond whether the capital punishment is cruel and unusual and also addresses questions surrounding this focal point, such as what makes one an American? What drives a person to hate? What root issues are countries ignoring that cause the larger problems that the public is talking about? Such questions are often answered with misconceptions and are worth discussing in-depth.
Such drastic changes in character on paths of a lifestyle that is newly founded upon beautiful revelations about the world around us may easily be relatable to the formative college experience. Knowledge and experience outside of the lives we grew up building allow for expansion and achievement. Raisuddin Bhuiyan, though always thoughtful and having a desire to help, had been dead set on a career in IT, having established great self-discipline in his early years. However, experience in a foreign place led him to view the world differently. America was not exactly the land of freedom and opportunity for all that television had portrayed. There is always room for growth and change. Freshman, bound on a journey for grand things, will have the chance to view the world with new eyes, structure their path, and perhaps grow to change the world. True American takes on issues often pushed away from conversation, being considered either taboo or controversial, but it uses the difficult topics as a means for identifying the good and moral values remaining in the world and the potential for positive change.
Written by Daniel Beckley, a senior at Umass Amherst, studying English, Communication, and Public Policy.