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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
Gives a detailed portrait of what it is like to grow up in America within a Muslim immigrant culture. I really enjoyed learning about all the aspects of American culture that seemed so weird and poor form to the Syrian family. She uses lots of Arabic words and references to Muslim religion and culture, and I got lost at times, so I gave it just 4 stars for that reason. Would have been nice to have more explanation. But a very worthwhile read to understand current events via a coming of age novel.
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really loved this book. The language was very poetically descriptive in places while completely diving you into Islam and all of its principles and how conflicting nationalities aren’t conflicting at all and it’s just a beautiful book. Definitely will be revisiting it.
I can not recommend this book highly enough.
Mohja Kahf's somewhat autobiographical novel about growing up Muslim in 1970s Indiana is often a tough read, especially for anyone who clings to myths of the US as a fair-minded and welcoming place for immigrants: (“Liar,” she says to the highway sign that claims “The People of Indiana Welcome You.”) It will be equally disturbing for those who insists that there is no racism within Islam, or that allegations of sexism are a Western canard. Instead this brilliant debut novel presents Muslim American life in all its complexity and contradictions.
Khadra is the daughter of Syrian missionaries, determined to establish a Muslim community in the heart of the Midwest. While in some ways the center they create is an idyllic blend of Muslims from various ethnicities and traditions, there are conflicts; between Shia and Sunni, between political factions, and between ethnic groups. Then there are the pressures from outside; while some neighbors are friendly the majority of the white community makes it clear that these "towel heads" are not wanted.
Khadra's school experience is traumatic, especially after the Iranian revolution and American hostage crisis of 1979. Relentlessly bullied, she has her hijab ripped off and soiled while teachers silently watch, white teens drive around the center shouting "Go Home ragheads!' and elderly "militia" members threaten to report them to immigration. Even those who are not openly hostile are culturally clueless, blithely unaware of the pain Khadra and her friends feel watching Muslim homes in Iran, Iraq, Palestine and later Syria under attack. Most traumatically, a brilliant young Muslim woman fro the center is murdered, her killer never found.
As a young adult Khadra experiments with various levels of Islamic fervor and political militancy, eventually settling on a level of observance that feels right for her, while resisting the judgements of friends and her parents. A beautiful element of Kahf's writing is how she presents the spiritual incandescence of Khadra's faith. While on hajj in Saudi Arabia, the call to prayer
"thrilled her, bringing pure glory to all her senses. She'd never experienced a real adhan before, the kind that rang out over the rooftops...She had run to the window, flinging it open and leaned her head out in the early morning darkness as if to bring her whole self closer to the call. It was the long awaited invitation".
Yet while she never loses faith in Islam, the Islamic community continues to disappoint her. Following the beautiful call to prayer, she slips out to pray in the mosque...and is promptly accosted by the Saudi religious police, who mock her (valid) assertion that Islam grants women this right. Her supposedly progressive husband, uncomfortable with what others will say, forbids her to ride her bicycle. Her parents and her beloved Aunt Teta turn out to have racist beliefs.
After a spiritually healing visit to Syria with Teta, Khadra comes to accept herself and reject rigid definitions of what it means to be Muslim...or American. She moves to Philadelphia, and connects with a politically conservative upper class African American Muslim family, a young Iranian survivor of the Iranian revolution, (who sees Khadra's dark blue hijab as a reminder of the people who murdered her parents), and a "secular Muslim" guy who attempts to pressure her into having sex and who, like her mother sees Islam as "rigid and homogenous".
Khadra also develops a remarkable relationship with Bluma, a young Jewish woman, whose struggles with Orthodoxy parallel Khadra's own. And here's what I love about this story: unlike almost every fictional and nonfictional depiction of Muslim/Jewish friendships Kahf makes it clear that their only conflict is political, over Zionism. Blu is a staunch Zionist, while Khadra remembers her great uncle's murder by Zionists during the Nakba of 1948. They manage to preserve their friendship but it is clear that while Blu is not Islamophobic and Khadra is not antisemitic, this issue will always be a barrier between them.
Throughout the novel, Khadra's hijab, and her relationship to veiling and unveiling, mark stages in her spiritual maturity. As a child, buying her first hijab is an important mother/daughter moment, as well as a spiritual coming of age:
The sensation of being hijabed was a thrill. Khadra has acquired vestments of a higher order. Hijab was a crown on her head. She went forth lightly and went forth heavily into the world, carrying the weight of a new grace. [. . .] hijab soon grew to feel as natural to her as a second skin, without which if she ventured into the outside world she felt naked.
As a rigid, judgmental Islamist student, she wears dark heavy hijab, but during her transformational visit to Syria she begins to wear a beautiful lightweight tangerine scarf, a gift from Teta, which symbolizes everything she loves about Islam: faith, family, heritage, and spiritual joy. No matter how much "every Middle East crisis dredges up more American hate" she will never give it up.
A remarkable and beautiful novel which many Americans desperately need to read.
Mohja Kahf's somewhat autobiographical novel about growing up Muslim in 1970s Indiana is often a tough read, especially for anyone who clings to myths of the US as a fair-minded and welcoming place for immigrants: (“Liar,” she says to the highway sign that claims “The People of Indiana Welcome You.”) It will be equally disturbing for those who insists that there is no racism within Islam, or that allegations of sexism are a Western canard. Instead this brilliant debut novel presents Muslim American life in all its complexity and contradictions.
Khadra is the daughter of Syrian missionaries, determined to establish a Muslim community in the heart of the Midwest. While in some ways the center they create is an idyllic blend of Muslims from various ethnicities and traditions, there are conflicts; between Shia and Sunni, between political factions, and between ethnic groups. Then there are the pressures from outside; while some neighbors are friendly the majority of the white community makes it clear that these "towel heads" are not wanted.
Khadra's school experience is traumatic, especially after the Iranian revolution and American hostage crisis of 1979. Relentlessly bullied, she has her hijab ripped off and soiled while teachers silently watch, white teens drive around the center shouting "Go Home ragheads!' and elderly "militia" members threaten to report them to immigration. Even those who are not openly hostile are culturally clueless, blithely unaware of the pain Khadra and her friends feel watching Muslim homes in Iran, Iraq, Palestine and later Syria under attack. Most traumatically, a brilliant young Muslim woman fro the center is murdered, her killer never found.
As a young adult Khadra experiments with various levels of Islamic fervor and political militancy, eventually settling on a level of observance that feels right for her, while resisting the judgements of friends and her parents. A beautiful element of Kahf's writing is how she presents the spiritual incandescence of Khadra's faith. While on hajj in Saudi Arabia, the call to prayer
"thrilled her, bringing pure glory to all her senses. She'd never experienced a real adhan before, the kind that rang out over the rooftops...She had run to the window, flinging it open and leaned her head out in the early morning darkness as if to bring her whole self closer to the call. It was the long awaited invitation".
Yet while she never loses faith in Islam, the Islamic community continues to disappoint her. Following the beautiful call to prayer, she slips out to pray in the mosque...and is promptly accosted by the Saudi religious police, who mock her (valid) assertion that Islam grants women this right. Her supposedly progressive husband, uncomfortable with what others will say, forbids her to ride her bicycle. Her parents and her beloved Aunt Teta turn out to have racist beliefs.
After a spiritually healing visit to Syria with Teta, Khadra comes to accept herself and reject rigid definitions of what it means to be Muslim...or American. She moves to Philadelphia, and connects with a politically conservative upper class African American Muslim family, a young Iranian survivor of the Iranian revolution, (who sees Khadra's dark blue hijab as a reminder of the people who murdered her parents), and a "secular Muslim" guy who attempts to pressure her into having sex and who, like her mother sees Islam as "rigid and homogenous".
Khadra also develops a remarkable relationship with Bluma, a young Jewish woman, whose struggles with Orthodoxy parallel Khadra's own. And here's what I love about this story: unlike almost every fictional and nonfictional depiction of Muslim/Jewish friendships Kahf makes it clear that their only conflict is political, over Zionism. Blu is a staunch Zionist, while Khadra remembers her great uncle's murder by Zionists during the Nakba of 1948. They manage to preserve their friendship but it is clear that while Blu is not Islamophobic and Khadra is not antisemitic, this issue will always be a barrier between them.
Throughout the novel, Khadra's hijab, and her relationship to veiling and unveiling, mark stages in her spiritual maturity. As a child, buying her first hijab is an important mother/daughter moment, as well as a spiritual coming of age:
The sensation of being hijabed was a thrill. Khadra has acquired vestments of a higher order. Hijab was a crown on her head. She went forth lightly and went forth heavily into the world, carrying the weight of a new grace. [. . .] hijab soon grew to feel as natural to her as a second skin, without which if she ventured into the outside world she felt naked.
As a rigid, judgmental Islamist student, she wears dark heavy hijab, but during her transformational visit to Syria she begins to wear a beautiful lightweight tangerine scarf, a gift from Teta, which symbolizes everything she loves about Islam: faith, family, heritage, and spiritual joy. No matter how much "every Middle East crisis dredges up more American hate" she will never give it up.
A remarkable and beautiful novel which many Americans desperately need to read.
This book is about growing up Muslim in Indiana in the 1970s. I think that there was a lot that I didn’t get from the first reading, lacking the cultural references, but overall I found this book enjoyable. Really the main character as she develops into a woman is searching her spiritual, cultural, feminist, intellectual and religious identity. And while all her cues were different than mine, I felt that it was still identifiable. Her parents are fundamentalist Islam, but I liked them. And Kahdja self awareness moments were soft and seemed real. I will have to read this book again, but look forward to taking my time with it the second time around, as I think there is a lot to uncover. Or cover. Depending.
Even though the material was interesting, I just didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped. It's a coming of age story of a Muslim girl living in Indianapolis and struggling not only with the tempestuous teen-age years, but with being a minority in, of all places, Indiana, as well as her struggles with her religion, her parents and peers.
3.5
It is a story without a plot - much like real life. It is a tale of growing up in a conservative Muslim family in the 1970s as Syrian immigrants who settle in Indiana and build a like minded community around them.
I enjoyed the time spent with the main character and her family - but the writing was clunky and lacked flow at times; however, there were other moments where it was incredibly poetic.
I enjoyed this book, and it definitely has me thinking - but it isn’t something that I would call a must read.
It is a story without a plot - much like real life. It is a tale of growing up in a conservative Muslim family in the 1970s as Syrian immigrants who settle in Indiana and build a like minded community around them.
I enjoyed the time spent with the main character and her family - but the writing was clunky and lacked flow at times; however, there were other moments where it was incredibly poetic.
I enjoyed this book, and it definitely has me thinking - but it isn’t something that I would call a must read.
challenging
reflective
slow-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Sexual harassment
This pissed me off way too much. Her confusion was just boring me to death at some point. And honestly, I didn’t enjoy the story that much no matter how hard I tried to. The problem is that its very realistic, yet the story itself is very boring.
It was okay. Not excellent but not awful. It was average but the majority of the time Khadra bothered me. She was racist, unknowlegdable of anything outside her own version of Islam.
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated