Early in Dinaw Mengestu’s latest novel, narrator Jonas Woldemariam reveals an insightful tidbit about himself. “Lying comes naturally to me,” says Jonas. This trait is essential to the story that follows. While working at an immigration center in New York City, Jonas adds creative details to the asylum statements of the refugees he works with in hopes that embellishment will help his clients’ cases. And then throughout this absorbing and clever novel, Jonas makes up stories about his life, his job as an English teacher at a private academy, and finally about his Ethiopian immigrant parents, Yoseph and Mariam.

In an attempt to find himself and understand his background, Jonas embarks on a road trip from Peoria to Nashville – a trip his parents took many years earlier when they first arrived in America. As Jonas tries to makes sense of his parents and his childhood (he has been estranged both emotionally and physically from Yoseph and Mariam), his own life weaves in and out creating a tricky story that holds the reader until the very last page.

Mengestu explores relationships, alienation, detachment, and the struggle to engage. Ultimately Jonas must deal with his natural inclination to detach, one he developed early in life. “Whenever my father came home from work, I’d sit in different parts of the living room…in order to see how he acknowledged me. I realized then that all I had to do to avoid him was blend into the background. That knowledge followed me from there so that eventually I thought of my obscurity as being essential to my survival.”

How to Read the Air is a deeply personal and totally engrossing story, with glimpses into the experience of second generation immigrants, and the complexities of sustaining meaningful relationships in life. I enjoyed this book, especially Mengestu’s beautiful use of inventive storytelling. ~Wendee