Publication Date: June 17th, 2025
Hardcover. 384 pages.
Sharif is a good person. He knows that he is good because he’s aware of the privilege that he holds as a white man. He knows he is good because he chose to be a social worker at a nonprofit in Brooklyn, scraping by in New York City. And he knows he is good because his wife, Adjoua, a progressive Black novelist, has always said so.
But Sharif’s goodness doesn’t protect him and Adjoua against bad luck. In an emergency, when they must find a new home for their beloved, unruly, giant dog before the imminent birth of their immunocompromised daughter, a desperate Sharif leaves Judy in the care of Emmanuel, a Haitian immigrant and Sharif's social services client.
When Emmanuel agrees to take the dog, it is only a momentary relief. What begins as a dispute between the young couple and Emmanuel's teenage son soon draws both families into a maelstrom of unpredictable conflict. As tempers flare into a public uproar, escalating to social media and taken up by law enforcement, the cracks in Sharif and Adjoua’s marriage are exposed and they’re forced to question everything they thought about race, empathy, and if Sharif was ever good in the first place. Immersive and propulsive, The Uproar is the book we need to understand the moment we live in now."
The Uproar follows Sharif, a social worker currently working at a nonprofit in Brooklyn where helps immigrants and low income clients from all walks of life, backgrounds, and countries of origins to find housing, jobs, or anything they may need to fulfill their dreams and live better lives. Sharif is also a white passing man and his wife, Adjoua, is Black, and these are relevant details for the book as it affects their relationship and subsequent encounters throughout. Sharif and Adjoua are in a bit of a predicament: their soon-to-be-born daughter will be born immunocompromised, which means they must rehome their beloved giant of a dog, Judy, for two years while she undergoes treatment. This desperate need to rehome a 150lb bullmastiff is what kickstarts the entire rest of the events of this book as Sharif leaves Judy with Emmanuel, a client that he barely knows, and as a result... all hell breaks loose, to put it lightly.
This book hooked me so hard. I felt so much anxiety while reading this book and was so stressed at so many different points, but that is also exactly what kept me reading. I had to know how everything was going to turn out, and I was so invested in both Sharif's experiences and Judy--I just had to know what was going to happen with that dog! Have you ever watched a movie by the Safdie brothers, such as Good Time or Uncut Gems? If you have, you might be familiar with this high anxiety feeling the media can invoke in us, and this book very much made me feel how watching Good Time made me feel, if that gives you any frame of reference.
This is also why I liked this book so much, because it yanked me in from the very first page and shoved me right into Sharif's place. He's a relatively ordinary guy, he's a good person, he's relatable, and all he wants to do is take care of his family and help those around him. So when he starts having a lot of stressors and obstacles thrown up in his face, you can't help but feel as desperate, worried, and frustrated as he does. This is one of those books where I am so invested in the character that I feel like I'm right there with him and everything that happens affects me as much as it does him--which is perhaps not ideal when things happening aren't always good, haha.
Through Sharif's experiences, we explore a relationship going through struggles, the various power dynamics at play with race, position, and power, what it means to be a "good person," and we try to explore how far we'd be willing to go to protect our families and reputation. I loved how nuanced this book was and how it explored such incredibly relevant and difficult topics in ways that really challenged some tough topics. I really would love to have a deeper discussion about this book and everything it covers, but I feel like a good portion of what I want to say would veer into spoiler-adjacent territory and I think this book really works better if you are experiencing everything our characters experience as they experience. But if you happen to read this book and want to chat about it, please let me know and we can talk!
Dimechkie deftly explores all of these topics with care, thoughtfulness, and even a touch of humor here and there that kept things feeling grounded in reality. I think the reason all of these topics felt like they were explored so deeply and so well is because at no point did any of it feel unbelievable or unrealistic. Things that happened were crazy and frustrating, but it all felt so real. Life is a mess and is constantly throwing all sorts of things at us that we could never predict--and some things we can predict--and it forces us to face many of these issues head-on every day. The Uproar reflects all of this and present us with a story that feels real, incredibly messy, and one that does not have a "right" answer at its core. It's just chaotic. And our characters, both Sharif and many of the additional characters we meet along the way, don't always do the right things, but that's because they're human and they mess up and often can only work with the information that they have at the time--and the knowledge that they have a family to care for.
If you are looking for a book that you will not be able to put down and that also covers a variety of relevant and relatable topics, then please do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Uproar!
