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 excellent book but a bit heavy-handed, This review is from: Les matins de Jénine (Mass Market Paperback) This was an excellent book but there were some distracting literary and historical devices that detracted a bit from the power of the narrative. I enjoyed - if enjoyed is the correct word for such a tragic book - this novel.As much as I support the plight of any people dispossessed, misunderstood, and whose suffering is discounted - the Palestinians are all of these things - I must admit that Susan Abulhawa's treatment of the topic was a bit heavy-handed, perhaps not from a historical perspective but from a what-are-the-odds perspective. For a protagonist to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times struck me as a bit far-fetched, plot-wise. The Palestinian diaspora is huge, the world's largest refugee population, so the probability of happening to pop into and out of Sabra and later Jenin struck me as low. Other literary devices that struck me as unlikely were the snatched baby who just happened to have an identifying scar, the extremely high body count in one family, and the almost complete absence of Palestinian violence or provocation. Yes, having your home taken away is cruel and unjust, but so is stepping onto a bus laden with explosives and to deny that the latter was occurring makes the actions of the Israelis seem gratuitously cruel. An author diving into such an explosive, painful recent past is challenged with a central question: do I want this work to be a transcendent, universal work of literature with lessons for all of us or do I wish it to be a polemic that delivers a powerful political message even if in doing so it requires air-brushing away some nasty historical counter-evidence? I think the author chose the latter approach, and although the book is at times lyrical, at some level I felt my emotions were being played upon for maximum political impact. There are worse literary offenses, but does anyone who knows anything about the history of the region think anything good is going to come to those she has befriended in Shatila? Or from her visit to Jenin that just happened to be during the Intifada and the Israeli promise to level the camp? The introduction of Ari as a prominent, sympathetic Jewish character is important, as was perhaps the recipient of the snatched brother, whose anguish represents in so many ways the anguish of a people looking for "their" land while knowing at some level they have stolen it from someone else. The character of David also creates an interesting "what if" and shows how arbitrary yet fatally divergent the accidents of one's upbringing and affiliation are in that part of the world where your right to live may be a function of who your mother is. That distraction aside, it is an outstanding book. Anyone who does not understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should read this book. The chronology is itself revealing, reminding us again of the temporal and logical relationships between the massacres at Sabra and Shatila and the advent of suicide bombing against the United States who until then were seen as honest brokers in the region. I was intrigued by the cover of the book and looking for something to read in French (I was unaware it was originally written in English!), and knowing what happened in Jenin, I knew it would be a difficult read. I found it haunting and disturbing and perhaps that is a good thing. We all need to experience a little piece of the pain of those who have been displaced and occupied and largely forgotten or discounted. Interestingly, I read this while exploring my own roots in Eastern Europe looking for traces of a grandfather arrested and executed during another of history's all-too brutal occupations, so could relate to Amal's (Amy's) desire to assimilate versus longing for her past, and her daughter's desire to find out who here "people" are and were. Although the climate and particulars are radically different, the elements that really matter - dispossession, displacement, cruelty on a massive scale, and abandonment by an oblivious West - are present sadly in both situations and in so many others. My daughter once asked me why people do such cruel things and I cannot answer that question. But part of the answer must lie in our inability to forget that when we take something that is not ours from people we have convinced ourselves are Other and therefore not as worthy to own it or perhaps even to live, then we can do some very ugly things. Throw in nationalism and religious differences and you have an ugly, lethal mix. This book is a voice from one of those Others reminding us all, if we will listen, that They are Us. We are all brothers and sisters and every act of murder is really part of an extended family dispute. We forget that at our own peril. | ||||||||||||||||||
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