Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Mornings in Jenin

This beautifully written debut novel from Susan Abulhawa tells the story of four generations of the Palestinian Abulheja family. Beginning with their forced removal from Ein Hod in 1948 to the Jenin refugee camp where Amal is born and brings us through her life. We experience her childhood, love, loss, marriage and motherhood.

From heartbreaking moments of loss to the wonderfully magical stories of joy this is a wonderful book.

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kimschouwenaar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Expect to finish this book sobbing.

Woah. And I mean that in every sense of the expression. This multi-generational story about a Palestinian family grabs you by the throat, nails digging in, and does not relent. I expect it to retain its hold on me for months to come. Abulhawa takes you by the hand and leads you through history and grief, leads you through the relentless suffering of Palestinians, and does not hold back.

Each chapter I was left questioning Can this really happen? Can a people be this ruthless and arrogant to believe they have the rights to invade a country and act like they are the only victims?

Yes. In fact, it is happening and has been happening for decades. We need to stop trying to justify genocide. The safety of one people should not come at the cost of another country and culture.

"The roots of out grief coil so deeply into loss that death has come to live with us like a family member who makes you happy by avoiding you, but who is still one of the family. Our anger is a rage that Westerners cannot understand. Our sadness can make the stones weep. And the way we love is no exception, Amal."

It's a tough read, but I strongly believe it's one that we should all know.

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

The network of pain throughout this family, each responding in a different way to dispossession (of land, of culture, of family) and death. Mornings in Jenin is a gruelling read that made my heart ache and never let up, even to the last page. But it's also full of tender moments between these loving and hopeful characters and beautiful writing that gives a sweet reprieve from the dark. Careful, considered language that makes the ache of losses deeper and more impactful.
A truly outstanding debut, I will continue my journey through Susan Abulhawa's writing knowing I'm in the hands of a talented author. I'm struck by the years of apartheid covered in this novel and its echoes in the present day genocide of Gazans and continued oppression of Palestinians in their homelands and beyond. Free Palestine.

"Love, David
... Love, Ismael"💔🇵🇸

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

this book broke me. this was definitely hard to get through at some parts, knowing it was first published in 2006, because despite it being 2023 almost nothing has changed. this is technically historical fiction but so much of this has been written around real life events in palestine and even if the characters are fictional their trauma isn't. the story is beautifully written (albeit slightly confusing with the switching of narrator) and gut-wrenchingly painful. it follows the lives of 4 generations within a single family against the backdrop of 1948-2002 palestine.

it feels weird to rate this book like i would other fiction novels, since many of these fictional events are recurring as we speak. what i will say is that anyone even slightly interested in learning about palestine stands to gain a lot from reading this book. while it is definitely heavy and dark, it shows so much beauty in the land and culture too. the story switches hands between characters a fair amount here but i think it works in its favour and is necessary to tell this particular story. i don't think anything i write here could do this book justice but i loved this book from front to cover and i don't think the contents will ever leave my mind.

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

So much sadness in this book. I am admittedly anti Zionist. I cannot fathom the entitlement they feel they have based on the writings of men long gone. Neither can i fathom the pain that brought them back. But it seems they too cannot fathom the pain they are rendering on people undeserving of it. This book seems to reinforce all of that for me - people behaving badly, people trying to survive.

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purely_romantic's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CWs at the end.

I finished this book minutes before writing this review so forgive me if this is not as polished, nor as coherent. A stream of consciousness is perhaps more appropriate because I cannot review *Mornings in Jenin* as if style and plot and narrative structure were at the forefront of my mind. I do not care about technicalities because I can only speak about how this made me feel. About how I am crying even as I write this, and my grief for an entire people is too large for words, too large for my body.

Language fails me at this moment as I try to describe what reading this book at this particular moment in time feels like. At some points, the images described on the page of people wailing at the sight of their dead families, mothers crying over their children’s corpses, children being shot as they played were blurring with the real footage I see every day. There is no separation of fact from fiction, only a grim, bleak reality of endless grief and rage.

I cannot care about literary analysis while reading this because to do so is to create a cognitive distance entrenched in me by Western academic disciplines that requires I observe from afar. I reject that practice at this moment. While I have in no way experienced these levels of pain and fear, there is a generational sense memory I carry in my bones that knows colonial violence, that knows how a heart can break when my land is ravaged, that feels like shattering when my people are hurting. Through these four generations of characters, each who experiences the same violence over and over again, Abulhawa creates the sense of an endless cycle of occupation, of stolen land and dreams, a never-ending nightmare of lost loved ones and homes, with only smatterings of reprieves that could be pierced by a bullet, by a bomb at any moment. Yehya’s pain was Hasan’s pain was Dalia’s pain was Yousef’s pain was Amal’s pain was my pain. It should be all our pain to watch other human beings suffer like this.

And yet, through all this horror, my god did I feel the characters’ unceasing pride and love for their country. The fondness for their homes, the laughter and joy at being around family, the intricacies of large, community-based cultures that I recognize in my own society, shone through like a beacon. The cheeky pranks of children, the matchmaking relatives, the sounds of older family members’ never-ending advice and instructions knitted the fabric of ancient traditions and customs, livelihoods and sacred love for their home. I am so grateful I was allowed to look into these moments of joy and endurance, that I see still in the faces of the adults and children of Ga*a.

Saying I’m glad this book exists feels strange because these horrors should have never happened. But I am. I am privileged to know the people of Pa*est*ne through the journeys of these characters, to find moments of connection and to bear witness to their past and present. I pray for a day when writers and artists need only write of their love for their olive trees and orange trees, of the sea and their bustling cities, of their families and the nuances of Arab culture, and don’t have to beg for the world to see them.

CWs: war; gen*ci*e; eth*ic clean*ing; injury and death in graphic detail; forced exile and displacements; grief; mentions of tor*ure, assault and beatings; kidnapping and child abduction; oppression, racism and xenophobia and Islamaphobia

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