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orianafnm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
magdon's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
patchworkculture's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
hevlav's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This is a really dense book of interwoven stories. I fought myself laughing along in some places, and cringing in others. While I feel it set out to do exactly as it intended, it was not exactly my cup of tea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Sexual content, Violence, and Incest
liter_ely's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
scarletohhara's review against another edition
5.0
I savored this book, told these stories to myself again and again and read just a few pages a day in the fear of finishing it too early - that’s how I read, not devoured, this book. This book took me back to the evenings I spent with my cousins in the courtyard of our grandparents’ home as an elder cousin would regale family stories, stuff we had all heard a zillion times and yet couldn’t get enough of. This book made me recollect fondly of the stories told in my family, immediate and extended.
This book made me feel like I want to tell stories like this too, someday. At times I felt like I was hugging a warm body as I read this book on winter evenings.
I loved this book, I loved every minute, every page of it. Most importantly, my love for the author is now more, for I have now found another favorite author. How can one write a story so beautiful, full of interwoven stories all that hold the reader’s attention, which is primarily a family history, tell just enough about the lives of the main protagonists and give an idea on the various influences the Lebanese culture would have (Druze, Armenian, Colonial etc) without being preachy and in prose & metaphors so rich and florid.
I loved how there is one Hakawati every generation - the grandfather al-Kharrat, Uncle Jihad and Osama, and how there are always people who ridicule them for spreading lies and yet cannot get enough of them. I enjoyed reading about Osama’s childhood, about his Mom, Lina, Fatima and Mariella, Elif, the various aunts and uncles and grandparents and how they all lived through the land over decades, in peace and turmoil, the stories of the pigeon wars. Through the Hakawatis, I enjoyed the life of Baybars, with his majestic horse al-Awwar, his friends Othman, Harhash, Ma’rouf, the Uzbeks, the Turks, Layla and her doves; the love story of Layl and Shams, the pain of Majnoun; the courageous Fatima; the brilliant variation in the story of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael and the various other stories.
It really did feel like Arabian Nights with a good dose of reality thrown in.
And I loved how Alameddine held his promise, the best stories always begin with the appearance of a woman, by telling stories of women even when they were stories of the men around them.
We need stories, the Hakawatis to carry down our untold histories, vagaries of lives, and unbelievable experiences. And we need willing audience to indulge us. How else will our next generation know our exploits! :-D
This book made me feel like I want to tell stories like this too, someday. At times I felt like I was hugging a warm body as I read this book on winter evenings.
I loved this book, I loved every minute, every page of it. Most importantly, my love for the author is now more, for I have now found another favorite author. How can one write a story so beautiful, full of interwoven stories all that hold the reader’s attention, which is primarily a family history, tell just enough about the lives of the main protagonists and give an idea on the various influences the Lebanese culture would have (Druze, Armenian, Colonial etc) without being preachy and in prose & metaphors so rich and florid.
I loved how there is one Hakawati every generation - the grandfather al-Kharrat, Uncle Jihad and Osama, and how there are always people who ridicule them for spreading lies and yet cannot get enough of them. I enjoyed reading about Osama’s childhood, about his Mom, Lina, Fatima and Mariella, Elif, the various aunts and uncles and grandparents and how they all lived through the land over decades, in peace and turmoil, the stories of the pigeon wars. Through the Hakawatis, I enjoyed the life of Baybars, with his majestic horse al-Awwar, his friends Othman, Harhash, Ma’rouf, the Uzbeks, the Turks, Layla and her doves; the love story of Layl and Shams, the pain of Majnoun; the courageous Fatima; the brilliant variation in the story of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael and the various other stories.
It really did feel like Arabian Nights with a good dose of reality thrown in.
And I loved how Alameddine held his promise, the best stories always begin with the appearance of a woman, by telling stories of women even when they were stories of the men around them.
We need stories, the Hakawatis to carry down our untold histories, vagaries of lives, and unbelievable experiences. And we need willing audience to indulge us. How else will our next generation know our exploits! :-D