It would, I think, be misguided to claim that Naqvi's narrative is somehow more "authentic" than Waldman's—to do so would be to fall into the trap of seeking that ethnic representativeness on which Chuck's interrogation is based. Waldman's book is in some ways more ambitious in that it confronts directly the public mechanisms by which Muslims are marginalized. Even so, Naqvi's novel shows itself less inclined to settle for a liberal, individualist, broad-based empathy—a weighing up of pros and cons—that is perhaps the price of taking a more synoptic approach. Both novels acknowledge that the ownership of space is what is at stake after 9/11 and that the ability to shape one's environment and move around in it is suddenly thrown into doubt.

XREF: Connects to broader post-9/11 literary criticism around surveillance, mobility, and spatial control.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 310