Dimitri Nasrallah’s Hotline does so much in a compact form. Following Muna Heddad after she immigrates with her young son to Montreal from Lebanon in the late 80s, we experience with her the frustration of not being able to find work in the field she is trained (and was promised would be of value to her immigration application) as a french teacher, the brutality of banal racism (there’s a scene with her son’s teacher that staggers) and the entirely empathetic feeling of being a mom and being sure what you are doing is not enough for your kid.
The stories she relays from working in the weight loss call center are tremendous. As much as they are also a vivid example of the kind of empathy the novel argues for: listen to people. Listen to what they’re saying and pretend for a minute that you care about their lives and imagine how what is happening in their lives might be shaping what is or isn’t possible for them to do. And, of course, what the novel is itself an exercise in – a story of a woman who repeatedly points out how white people ignore her, don’t see her, don’t listen to her. So read the book and listen to the story.
Literary Vice 