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The Scar of David | |
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by Susan Abulhawa
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Faithful Witness: Palestinian Children Drawings | |
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by Kamal Boullata
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The voice of the forgotten children by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 When writing or talking about complex current affairs, such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, oftentimes the voices of society's most important members are forgotten and ignored. While children make up half the population, nary a book on the Intifada talks about war's adverse effects on them. This book is therefore a welcome interlude in this world where the adults appear to have all gone insane. In this wonderful portfolio, we see drawings and paintings made by children, ages 6 or 11 or 8. When we think of children's drawings, we expect to see a painting of a flower, or a drawing of a nice house. "Faithful Witness" however will come as a total shock to many. The flowers and houses are there, to be sure, but every single drawing is compelling evidence that something has gone awfully wrong. Thus in a way this book tells us more about the Israeli occupation of these children's' homeland than a hundred history, military, or political books. When we see a painting by a 7-year old child of those flowers getting trampled by soldiers as they shoot at children, we ask ourselves: what has gone wrong? Perhaps we see a group of children confronting armed soldiers with stones in the drawing of an 8-year old girl. Perhaps we see a man lying shot on the ground, or we see that nice house being demolished by a bulldozer? It is then that we realize the depth of the horror that war brings upon ordinary people, and especially upon the children. "Faithful Witness", if I recall correctly, was written over a decade ago during the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada). Today those same children who made this book are now grown young adults, still enmeshed in another even bloodier confrontation with their occupier. We 'read' "Faithful Witness", and we suddenly realize the enormity of the human cost like no other Middle East book can explain to us. | ||
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Waiting for the Barbarian | |
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by J.M. Coetzee Nobel Prize-winning book by South African author | ||
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The Palestinian Wedding | |
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by A. M. Elmessiri
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The Soul of Palestine by a Reader from Silver Spring, MD, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This exquisite collection of Palestinian poetry is tour-de-force of some of the masterpieces of resistance poetry produced in the 20th century. Reading through this elegant volume, one can admire the uniqueness of Palestinian poetry which emanates from a collective experience of exile and dispossession. In it, one finds elegy, regret, love, steadfastness, resistance, and an unconquerable hope to live in peace. The poems are extremely moving, and hark to a place where life has meaning. The book is laid out with the Arabic text side by side with the English translation, so one can appreciate the beauty of the Arabic calligraphy in addition to the resonance of the poems. The translation itself is very good, given the difficulties of translating poetry from other languages, especially one as remote to English as Arabic. The pages are further adorned by beautiful line drawings by Kamal Boullata. A short introduction adds context to the poems and explains the evolution of Palestinian poetry, while a biography section at the end illuminates to us the lives of the individual poets, most of whom were symbols of resistance themselves. All in all this is great collection that illuminates much about the inner world of Palestinians, a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the Middle East today. The wide variety of thought-provoking poems therein speak to all of humanity and are can be enjoyed by anyone. Also Recommended: "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", by Ghassan Kanafani (trans. Barbara Harlow and Karen E. Riley) | ||
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The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist | |
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by Emile Habiby
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Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories | |
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by Ghassan Kanafani, Barbara Harlow (Translator), Karen E. Riley (Translator)
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Thought-provoking and influential masterpiece by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 "Returning to Haifa" is certainly one of the best works of the Palestinian literary master Ghassan Kanafani. This translation contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories relating to children - Palestinian children. Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "Returning to Haifa" is perhaps one of his hardest works to translate, thanks to his profligate use of imagery, but the translators do an excellent job rendering the original text into English. As in most of his works, Kanafani experiments frequently with different techniques for telling a story, techniques that were revolutionary during his time (1960s). I particularly enjoy the twists of plot at the end of each story, and how the very last sentence forces me to re-think and re-evaluate my entire understanding of that story. Seeped in the author's struggle for freedom and for a homeland, these stories reflect a deep understanding of human relationships and the human condition. Yet despite this depth (or perhaps because of it), the main characters tend to always be ordinary human beings - in this book, children from the villages and the refugee camps. A major feature of "Returning to Haifa" is the seamless melding of two narratives, as a Palestinian family expelled from Haifa in 1948 return for the first time to see their former home after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. The story of the expulsion is juxtaposed seamlessly with the story of their second visit and encounter with the Israelis currently occupying it. But the main contribution of "Returning to Haifa" is its portrayal of those Israelis, whom he shows to be themselves refugees (from the Nazis), and its success in epitomizing their perspective and their logic. It is therefore often described as the first Arabic novel which genuinely portrayed the feelings and emotions on the Israeli side. The other short stories contained in this anthology are no less worthy of praise, each in its own right. Truly, one cannot truly understand what it means to be a Palestinian without reading "Palestine's Children" or any other of Kanafani's works. Recommend: "Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories" and "All that's left to you", both by Kanafani | ||
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All that's left to you | |
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by Ghassan Kanafani
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What a pity this masterpiece is out of print! by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "All that's left to you" contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories. All the stories in this anthology share the feature for which Kanafani has no contestant: the seamless changes of voice within a story, often from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. Thus we explore the trials and tribulations of the five main characters in "All that's left to you", not as outsiders or even as one of the characters, but as each one of the characters in turn. The reader is made to travel invisibly from the mind of one of the characters to that of another, miles away, to learn what they are both thinking at the same instant. This is as close to a drama or a movie as one can get in a short story, or perhaps even better. It is also interesting to see how certain threads unify the narrative. Time, for instance, whom Kanafani even declared at the start to be actually a character, is one such thread. The layers of symbolism in the story destine it to be very deep reading for decades to come. Yet the novella is so fascinating, it is very difficult to put the book down. The short stories in the anthology are equally fascinating, each in its own right. They don't lack from the changes in voice that is present in "All that's left to you", and they also have their share of critical plot twists right at the end of the story. Thus be prepared to completely change your perspective after reading the last sentence of each story. Recommend: "Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories" and "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", both by Kanafani | ||
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Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories | |
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by Ghassan Kanafani, Hilary Kilpatrick (Translator)
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A literary masterpiece from Palestine by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This book contains a novella as well as several short stories by the prominent Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani. Kanafani is known in the Arab world as a literary master, and "Men in the Sun" is deemed by many to be his masterpiece. The book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. Kanafani's original writing style is brought out beautifully in this excellent translation. In these stories, Kanafani experiments with various literary techniques that were revolutionary in the world of literature at their time (1960s). I particularly enjoy the twists of plot at the end of each story, and how the very last sentence forces me to re-think and re-evaluate my entire understanding of the piece. Seeped in the author's struggle for freedom and for a homeland, these stories reflect a deep understanding of human relationships and the human condition. Yet despite (or perhaps because of) this depth, the main characters tend to always be ordinary human beings - usually from the lower classes. Another feature of "Men in the Sun" is the variation of voice and perspective from paragraph to paragraph. For a moment we are in the head of one character, an old man crossing the desert to Kuwait. The next we're taken back in time to 1948, when that man was forced to leave his country by the ravages of war. Then we're transplanted into the shoes of another character, a young man hitching a ride from Jordan to Iraq. All this is done smoothly enough not to interrupt the narrative, but instead, the perspective of the plot wanders as thoughts naturally wander in one's mind. Truly Kanafani was a master of literary techniques. Few have been able to pack so many ideas and characterization and so much change into a short story. Recommend: "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories" and "All that's left to you", both by Kanafani | ||
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The Inheritance | |
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by Sahar Khalifeh
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Post-Oslo Reality and Shattered Dreams by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 This novel is an amazing portrayal of post-Oslo Palestinian society. In a style characteristic of Sahar Khalife, the main characters are shrouded with many layers of symbolism that carries deep meaning. Amazingly enough, the novel holds its own as a perfectly realistic and plausible plot, even in the most superficial reading. This is the kind of novel I would read over and over and find new meaning each time. | ||
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Image, the Icon, and the Covenant, The | |
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by Sahar Khalifeh,Aida Bamia
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Wild Thorns | |
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by Sahar Khalifeh Feminist trilogy documenting the Palestinian struggle for liberation | ||
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Provocative Reading on the Failures of the Palestinian Movement by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Sunday, Feb 18, 2007 The first novel (al-Sabbar) is a proto-historical novel documenting the initial days after the 1967 Earthquake in which Israel came to occupy the West Bank and Gaza strip. The novel follows the interconnected lives of a few Palestinians in Nablus who react to the shock in different ways. There's Usama, who infiltrates from Jordan to carry out armed resistance operations only to bring heartache and death to his mother and the rest of his family. There's his cousin 3Adel, who quit his family farm to work in Israel so he could feed his family. There's 3Adel's younger brother, who fluctuates in and out of Israeli jails. Israelis don't figure much inthe novel, though they are never far from the tension enmeshing the Palestinian characters. Much of the tension is internal, and this novel succeeds in exploring the roots of these internal conflicts. How can we reconcile resistance to Israeli occupation while we work in Israel and buy Israeli products? How can our movement claim to fight the Israelis when it is actually targeting our workers? How can we fight Israeli injustice in Israeli courts? These are questions that, 40 years later, still cut to the core of the dilemma of living under occupation. The second novel (3Abbad al-Shams) continues Khalife's thorough criticism of the Palestinian movement and its feeble response to the challenges of Israeli occupation. Land is continually expropriated and living space continually squeezed while the so-called Palestinian intelligentsia do nothing but meet for hours to squabble over trivial things. These editors of a progressive magazine bring to mind the different factions of the ineffectual PLO, or the modern day Palestine "activists" in the USA who waste hours in internecine feuds while Israel and its proponents make strides in establishing their hold. Women figure heavily in this novel, which is as much about the liberation of the Palestinian woman as it is about the liberation of Palestine itself. The woman reporter, the college student, the widow of the martyr, and the hooker - each in her own way evolves to rebel against the ills of her society. Provocative reading, and thoughtful even for today. The third novel (Bab al-Sahah) highlights the rotten social fabric of Palestinian society in the backdrop of the first Intifada. Reading it I realize why Palestinians are always losing. | ||
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Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales | |
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by Ibrahim Muhawi, Sharif Kanaana (Contributor), Alan Dundes (Contributor)
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Wonderful Collection of Fairy Tales by a Reader from Silver Spring, MD, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 This wonderful book introduces Palestinian culture to the world. In the footsteps of the brothers Grimm, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana roamed all over Palestine collecting folktales from the old people. The major difference setting this work aside is highly methodical approach of its authors and the depth of their perceptions and analyses. Perhaps this is not surprising given their qualifications - one a leading Palestinian social scientist, the other a leading humanist. The tales were selected based on their popularity as well as their excellence, and so very much represent the culture they come from. The authors themselves exhibit a deep understanding of traditional Palestinian culture, which is transmitted to the reader in the introduction. Each tale is accompanied by a modest set of footnotes where necessary, commenting on linguistic features. Furthermore, every few tales are followed by a commentary section relating the tales to Palestinian culture, and a detailed folkloristic analysis section concludes the book. This gem of a book can thus be read on many levels, from the serious scholar in comparative folktales, to the student of Palestinian studies, to the ordinary parent wishing to read good stories to their kids. The book is structured such that the commentary and analysis sections can be safely skipped. Nevertheless, I found those sections quite fascinating and well-written, using easy to understand language but reflecting deep insight and understanding. The translation is excellent, making the tales sound as ordinary in English as they sound in the original Arabic. I have read other translations of Palestinian folktales (e.g. by Rafael Patai) that attempt a literal translation, and as a result, those translations sound extremely awkward in English and not fun to read. Speak Bird, Speak Again is also infinitely superior to Patai's book in its author's understanding of Palestinian culture and the colloquial Arabic language used (Patai makes many obvious mistakes in translating common idioms and expressions). Speak Bird Speak Again is therefore highly recommended to anyone with interest in Palestine or simply with a craving for good stories. The collection in this book represents the last versions of tales that are dying out as a result of the deep social and political changes that have affected Palestinian society as a result of Western colonialism. | ||
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A Beggar at Damascus Gate | |
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by Yasmin Zahran
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Excellent Reading by a Reader from Washington, DC, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003 Having received my copy of this novel as a free promotional copy, I did not expect much in terms of quality. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when I began reading this intriguing novel, and could not put it down until I finished it in a single night! This is spy/love story, enclosed in the historical setting of Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the 1967 war. A beautifully poetic text weaves what turns out to be a highly suspenseful and symbolic novel. Even for people like me who thought they "knew it all" about Palestine, this novel brings with it fresh perspectives that deserve an ear. I was terribly sad when this novel was over. It evoked a lot of memories. | ||
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