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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This was so good. Both parts were enraging, in a good way, but the first one in particular made me feel a disdain that contained so many facets. There's the way the commander refuses to admit he has been bitten by the animal (possibly a snake?), which portrays so well the toxic masculinity of military environments. Then the politics of hygiene, with his efforts to keep himself clean even as he refuses to see his rotten insides; the book emphasises this imagery by repeating the scenes of routine washing and shaving. Later on, he even insists in his head that there is no way that the putrid smell coming from his hut is caused by his own wound. Another facet was obviously the imperialist discourse of the soldiers, the way they speak of their settling. The sterilisation using petrol, the cutting of hair, the humiliation with the water hose...
Yet throughout the violence, a few images appear of life pushing forward regardless. At one point, the commander finds a spider in his hut and spends the next hours looking for insects and crushing them under his feet. The metaphor here is so clear, even more so when considering the military boot as the specific foot that tramples them. And "meanwhile, a little insect advanced towards the edge of the room and slipped through a crack between the floor and the wall, escaping into the gap" (p. 23). After cutting the girl's hair and burning it in a pile alongside her clothes: "Far from the flames that consumed her clothes, a few tiny black ringlets of hair remained scattered across the sand" (34). Finally, on one of the commander's escapades into the hills, "a small black bird charted a line through the sky, which turned a deeper shade of blue [...]" (48).
Each of these minor details, woven so subtly they pass as atmosphere, insist that life prevails, no matter how intense the violence or how unmatched an oppressor may seem. The bird imagery also comes to mind during the second part of the book, as a point of comparison with our narrator's life experience which is in its essence defined by borders (so much so that they are in her head, too).
The second part of the book is so cleverly interwoven with the first, in catastrophic ways that are only apparent once it is too late to turn back. From the beginning we have a parallel in the image of the dog howling, but little by little, as our narrator gets closer to the origin of the story she investigates, details resurface from the first part of the book. Often, these minor details even appear with their wording nearly unchanged from the way they initially appeared. Compare, for example, "carrying a hose wrapped around his arm in equal-sized rings" (30) and "on the sand lies a hose, neatly running from one tree to the next and coiled in equal-sized rings around each trunk" (96). Or "thick clouds of sand sprung from underneath the vehicle's tyres, rose up and followed after them, completely obscuring the view behind" (10), compared to this passage from part 2: "Despite how cautiously I'm driving, thick clouds of dust rise up and swiftly form a halo that obscures the scene behind me" (105).
Through the minor details of our narrator's journey, we realise, in a moment of dramatic irony, that the story she is chasing is one she is already recreating. Her search turns her into a living participant of the story, includes her in ways that go beyond mere research. The truth lies not necessarily in the specific answers of what had happened, but in the shared lived experience between her and the girl from part 1. By the time we follow this logic to its inevitable conclusion, it is much too late.
Yet throughout the violence, a few images appear of life pushing forward regardless. At one point, the commander finds a spider in his hut and spends the next hours looking for insects and crushing them under his feet. The metaphor here is so clear, even more so when considering the military boot as the specific foot that tramples them. And "meanwhile, a little insect advanced towards the edge of the room and slipped through a crack between the floor and the wall, escaping into the gap" (p. 23). After cutting the girl's hair and burning it in a pile alongside her clothes: "Far from the flames that consumed her clothes, a few tiny black ringlets of hair remained scattered across the sand" (34). Finally, on one of the commander's escapades into the hills, "a small black bird charted a line through the sky, which turned a deeper shade of blue [...]" (48).
Each of these minor details, woven so subtly they pass as atmosphere, insist that life prevails, no matter how intense the violence or how unmatched an oppressor may seem. The bird imagery also comes to mind during the second part of the book, as a point of comparison with our narrator's life experience which is in its essence defined by borders (so much so that they are in her head, too).
The second part of the book is so cleverly interwoven with the first, in catastrophic ways that are only apparent once it is too late to turn back. From the beginning we have a parallel in the image of the dog howling, but little by little, as our narrator gets closer to the origin of the story she investigates, details resurface from the first part of the book. Often, these minor details even appear with their wording nearly unchanged from the way they initially appeared. Compare, for example, "carrying a hose wrapped around his arm in equal-sized rings" (30) and "on the sand lies a hose, neatly running from one tree to the next and coiled in equal-sized rings around each trunk" (96). Or "thick clouds of sand sprung from underneath the vehicle's tyres, rose up and followed after them, completely obscuring the view behind" (10), compared to this passage from part 2: "Despite how cautiously I'm driving, thick clouds of dust rise up and swiftly form a halo that obscures the scene behind me" (105).
Through the minor details of our narrator's journey, we realise, in a moment of dramatic irony, that the story she is chasing is one she is already recreating. Her search turns her into a living participant of the story, includes her in ways that go beyond mere research. The truth lies not necessarily in the specific answers of what had happened, but in the shared lived experience between her and the girl from part 1. By the time we follow this logic to its inevitable conclusion, it is much too late.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Tense, devastating, and bleak. Ah, the nature of greed. Read Palestinian authors, educate yourself, and resist.
p1. the use of sound and silence is incredibly deafening. and jarring. the way shibli’s prose makes the story feel so quiet is crazy. every sound she describes feels like a gunshot in a void of emptiness. this enhances all the other senses that are described like the putrid smells and gasoline and touches of skin on skin.
p2. the mundanity and routine of the unnamed narrator’s life and her acceptance of said life and desire and struggle to live is an insane juxtaposition about what it takes to survive. the parallels between minor and major details in history, in their stories, in their experiences is incredibly thoughtful. i have so many thoughts
p2. the mundanity and routine of the unnamed narrator’s life and her acceptance of said life and desire and struggle to live is an insane juxtaposition about what it takes to survive. the parallels between minor and major details in history, in their stories, in their experiences is incredibly thoughtful. i have so many thoughts
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
dark
emotional