We Are All Equally Far From Love

Finished May 19

We Are All Equally Far From Love by Adania Shibli, translated by Paul Starkey

This collection of stories, loosely connected to each other, feels curiously dispassionate for stories that are about love. Most of the characters are referred to without names, so as a reader, I wasn't always sure if the characters were the same in different stories. There is a woman who writes letters to a man, gradually developing feelings for him, and then the letters stop coming. 

There is a young girl, removed from school by her father and placed in the post office, where one of her tasks is to read letters for political reasons, but she finds a particular collection of letters interesting and useful for a different reason. There is a woman who finds herself falling for a man who is performing a service for her. There is a man who dreams of a woman and then sees her sitting on a bench and debates whether or not to talk to her. There is a man who drives away after being told a relationship is finished, not sure how he will move forward. There is woman who worries about a man who she ended a relationship with, and whether he will take actions against her. There is a daughter who overhears her father talking tenderly to a woman who isn't her mother, which results in a variety of actions she takes from self-love to familial love to love with a stranger. The final story reads almost like thoughts of the writer about her own stories. An unusual collection. 

Sitt Marie Rose

Finished February 1
Sitt Marie Rose by Etel Adnan, translated from the French by Georgina Kleege

This novel was first published in 1978, and received the France-Pays Arabes Award. The book is split into three parts. All take place in Beirut.
The first part is told from the point of view of an unnamed female writer who has been asked by a film-maker Mounir to write the script for a film he envisions about Syrian workers in Lebanon. His view of what the film should be and her investigations into Syrian workers don't fit together well, and shortly after their discussions the civil war in Lebanon breaks out. Mounir's friends Tony and Fouad and Pierre have often gone hunting in Syria and think of themselves in a certain way as being superior to the Syrians. As the fighting escalates, Mounir and his friends support the Phalangists, the Lebanese right. The war influences the writer's views further and she finds herself unable to work with Mounir.
The second part introduces us to Sitt Marie Rose. She is a Christian Lebanese middle-class woman, who, following a divorce, finds herself drawn to helping the Palestinians. She works for a social service agency giving the refugees assistance. She also runs a school in the Christian district for deaf mute children. When, during a truce, she makes the trek from her home in the Muslim part of the city to the school, she is captured by the Phalangists, and threatened with death. We see her views as well as the thoughts of the men who have captured her, and the children of the school who watch her interrogation by the men.
The third part is the end to Sitt Marie Rose's kidnapping at the hands of men who refer to themselves as the Chabab.
This is a book that examines the interactions, the fear and distrust between the different groups of Arabs here. It brings a wider look to the situation in the Middle East, and sadly, nothing has improved since this book was written, nearly forty years ago. She also brings the role of women into the story, looking at how women view themselves and how men view them. Sadly, this has not improved either in the Middle East. This story reads as prescient now.

The Wanting

Finished February 12
The Wanting by Michael Lavigne

This novel revolves around three characters: Roman Guttman, a Russian-born postmodern architect in Israel; Anyusha Guttman, his 13-year-old daughter; and Ami, a young Palestinian.
As the novel begins, Roman is injured in a bus bombing, and this incident throws him into a confused state of mind. At times he reverts to his past and his life in Russia, his meeting and relationship with Anyusha (Anna)'s mother, and the events that caused him to come to Israel. He takes a drive out into Palestinian territory and the journey results in more difficulties.
Meanwhile Anna has become more involved with an extremist Jewish sect, unknown to Roman, and his absence results in a lack of supervision that makes her more vulnerable to their influences.
Amir observes both Anna and Roman from his otherworldly position, for he was the one that bombed the bus that caused Roman's injuries. We see how his life led to this action, how he feels about it now, and how he feels about Roman and Anna's actions.
This is a story about extremism in its different forms and the outcomes for both society and surviving individuals. It is about love, and how it can lead us to do things we would never have dreamed of doing. It is about the uncertainty of life and how intermingled our lives are.

Touch

Finished January 13
Touch by Adania Shibli, translated by Paula Haydar

This novella is a very unusual book. The main character is only identified as "the girl" and all the other characters have equally general descriptors. As one slowly gathers, the girl is the ninth and youngest daughter of a Palestinian family. Her story ranges from everyday occurrences, such as interacting with her siblings and spending time with her family and the neighbour she begins a relationship with, to experiences more specific to her situation such as watching her family mourn her brother and participating in a funeral procession. She seems both part of things and an observer. In one scene, she is ostracized by her sisters, left on her own while the other sisters spend time with their mourning mother. She craves silence, but also wants to know and understand what is going on, but only seems to find out pieces of things, like overhearing family members discussing the massacre at Sabra and Shatila.
The author has won awards for her writing, and the way she uses language her shows why. The translator also is skilled to be able to convey such a story to us.
Moving and seemingly simple, this story begs to be reread as soon as you finish it.

Sad Mystery

Finished May 21
The Collaborator of Bethlehem by Matt Beynon Rees
This is the first mystery is what promises to be a series featuring Omar Yussef, a teacher at the UN girls school in Bethlehem. Omar is in his fifties and has lived in Bethlehem since he was a child. He lives with his wife Maryam and their son and his family. He has two other children who have left to go abroad. He is a teacher who believes in using reason and judgment rather than just believing what you are told or what you read and he encourages this kind of thinking in his students, sometimes drawing the criticism of administration or parents. Omar used to teach at the Freres school, which is where his grandchildren now go.
When one of his former students George Saba, a Christian, is accused of being a collaborator in the death of a young Palestine guerilla, he finds that he must try all avenues to clear George's name. The guerilla is the husband of another of his students and she gives him important information in his cause. He finds himself up against the guerilla organization, the police, and sometimes his own friends and family. Omar is a man who fears the outcome, but who cannot stand back and watch while his friend is framed.
I was moved by this story, and found Omar a complex character.