Ahmad Ashmawy Mulloy hates America. He is 18, and lives in a cramped apartment in the city of New Prospect, New Jersey, with his mother, Teresa Mulloy, an Irish-American painter and nurse's aide. His father, Omar Ashmawy, came to the United States from Egypt to study business, and he and Teresa married soon after they met at the State University of New Jersey. He 'decamped' when Ahmad was three. New Prospect is a city in terminal post-industrial decline, a town with no prospects. Ahmad is an intelligent boy and a good athlete: he plays soccer in the winter, and runs track in the summer. He dresses in the same way every day, in a pair of narrow black jeans and a crisp white shirt; he has his shirts professionally cleaned, a luxury he pays for with the money he earns working in a convenience store two evenings a week.

LRB 7 September 2006 | PDF Download