The Butterfly Mosque

Abstract

Autobiography, as it relates to Muslims and to America, can be a difficultgenre in which to write. There are numerous works that have appearedsince 2001 that cover the spectrum from an anti-Islamic polemic to anapologia. G. Willow Wilson, author of the Butterfly Mosque, managesto avoid the extremes and writes a meaningful memoir that reflects thebeauty and ugliness of being a Muslim and an American. The difficultyin reviewing a memoir is that a sequential summary does not do it justice.Instead, a thematic approach seems to make more sense. For example,the subtitle of the book, “An American Woman’s Journey to Love andIslam,” could as easily read “An American Woman’s Journey to the Loveof Islam.” The work is highly personal, and it is an exploration of the loveaffair she had and was having with this phenomenon called “Islam.” ...