MixedNew StatesmanNayeri captures the eponymous \'ungrateful refugee\' best when she deals in detail. Her horror at discovering sit-down Western toilets, and disappointment at the taste of blue slushies, for example, is vivid, as if straight from the curious mind of an uprooted child ... Frustratingly, the narrative built by these \'orphan details,\' as she describes them, is interrupted by lengthy, repetitive passages on what makes one’s story authentic. These reflect the perfectionism and self-loathing that has colored her immigrant experience. But while she navigates the dilemma of returning to her past through the current limbo of others, this hand-wringing simply made me impatient for the next story ... She should write more of these stories and worry less about the telling.
