Impossible Man

Michael Muhammed Knight's memoir is a wonderful, fascinating read. The NYT heralded the book as `The Catcher in the Rye for Muslims,' but truthfully, the book is an entertaining yet thought-provoking coming-of-age story for people of any religious tradition, including those without organized faith at all. Far from simply being a `manifesto for the Islamic punk movement" (another quip from the Times), Impossible Man is the narrative of a young American man searching for an identity. Michael, Mikhail, Mike Schutt - these are just some of the names the protagonist dons - repeatedly throws himself headlong into new personas in a quest for... well, who knows. The book does not try to account for why the main character is at one point a precocious convert to Islam, at another point a rambunctious backyard wrestler, and at yet another point entranced by the babbles of his estranged schizophrenic father and then sent chasing the memory of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dixieland. The protagonist as well as the reader is just along for the ride, meeting new personages current and historic, learning Arabic phrases, and exploring. And it's a beautiful ride with fine, almost-journalistic prose that becomes lyrical and contemplative near the end (perhaps too much so, given the prior 300 pages). All in all, I highly recommend this book.

Not really having a particualr interest in wrestling, Islam and such Knight makes it interesting to read and makes me want to be more interested. A great story. It gives me further suspicion that great passions are what makes reading about peoples lives and the things in life so interesting. And Knights focused thoughtful intensity really brings that out in all the things he's interested in.