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ceeemvee's review against another edition
4.0
Hanan al-Shaykh tells Kamila’s story of life in Lebanon beginning in the 1930’s. Kamila and her brother are raised by their divorced mother in extreme poverty. There is no money to buy food, so they scavenge the harvested wheat fields to find enough wheat to make a loaf of bread. Eventually, they find their way to Beirut and live off the generosity of extended family. Kamila is forced into marriage at an early age, but already is in love with another, Muhammad. She has two children with her husband, then makes the decision to divorce her husband and marry Muhammad, which means abandoning her children. She and Muhammad have another five children. Her daughter, Hanan, grows up to be an accomplished author, and Kamila wants her to write her life story.
Where to start with Kamila? She is definitely an enigma. She’s fiercely passionate about her love for Muhammad, and fiercely hates her husband. She abandons two daughters and aborts at least two more children, yet feeds the beggars and spends what little money she has to buy coffee for her Coffee Club when she barely has enough to feed her family. She is articulate and dictates moving letters to Muhammad, yet she never learns to read or write. She is childlike throughout her adult life, then suddenly seems to grow up in one visit to her childhood home. She is never really a likeable person, yet I was captivated by her.
In the end, the best description of the book is a quote: “And here is Hanan, writing about her mother, who loved and suffered, who ran away, who raised her fist against the rules and traditions of the world into which she was born, and who transformed her lies into a lifetime of naked honesty.’”
I really liked the writing itself. It is poetic yet fluid, and full of foreign idioms and sayings that will make you smile.
Where to start with Kamila? She is definitely an enigma. She’s fiercely passionate about her love for Muhammad, and fiercely hates her husband. She abandons two daughters and aborts at least two more children, yet feeds the beggars and spends what little money she has to buy coffee for her Coffee Club when she barely has enough to feed her family. She is articulate and dictates moving letters to Muhammad, yet she never learns to read or write. She is childlike throughout her adult life, then suddenly seems to grow up in one visit to her childhood home. She is never really a likeable person, yet I was captivated by her.
In the end, the best description of the book is a quote: “And here is Hanan, writing about her mother, who loved and suffered, who ran away, who raised her fist against the rules and traditions of the world into which she was born, and who transformed her lies into a lifetime of naked honesty.’”
I really liked the writing itself. It is poetic yet fluid, and full of foreign idioms and sayings that will make you smile.
bites_of_books's review against another edition
5.0
This memoir spoke to me in so many ways! Let's explore them:
Literacy: I have the privilege to be able to write these words, and you have the same privilege in being able to read them and understand them. I can communicate with people who are thousands of miles away just through a piece of paper and pen or electronic means. There are people in this world who don't have those privileges and who don't have ways to tell their stories other than by narrating them. This memoir is basically a daughter giving her mother a voice through her ability to write. It's a beautiful memoir because it encompasses everything that her mother wanted to tell to the world, her story of hardship but also of deep and unbreakable love.
Mother & Daughter Relationships: As I said above, it's a story where the daughter tells her mother's story, and she does so at the insistence of her mother. Hanan has always thought that she knew her mother's story of how she divorced her father and gave up both Hanan and her sister Fatima. What Hanan doesn't know is the rest of the story, the parts that show her mother's reasons for leaving her behind. We sometimes assume that we know what happened, and that might be true, we might know a fact or two, but the context can make all the difference. In this memoir, that context is everything.
The power of women: Even when at their lowest, the women in this memoir found ways to get what they needed and wanted. It wasn't always the best way to go about things, lying, stealing, blackmailing, but they found a way. I found myself judging these women for doing these things but then I thought "what other way was there?" and I couldn't find an answer. It's an incredibly difficult situation they lived in, one where they had no power, where men dictated everything that they got to do in their lives, and where only other men could save them (in most situations).
Lebanon: I had never before read a book set in Lebanon, through this book I got to know a bit about the culture and history of Beirut and what happened there from the 1930s to the 1970s. History is usually focused on the "big" players, the United States, Germany, the UK, etc., but the histories of other countries is just as important, as well as the perspectives of the people who lived during those times and who were not exactly in the middle of the action.
This book really got me thinking, it's a story of hardship yes, but also of overcoming every obstacle and hanging on to love as best as you can.
I highly recommend it to everyone.
I was never to read and write as I am now, if for no other reason but to write my story.
Let me tell you how it hurts when a piece of wood and a piece of lead defeat me. -Kamila,
Hanan's mother
Literacy: I have the privilege to be able to write these words, and you have the same privilege in being able to read them and understand them. I can communicate with people who are thousands of miles away just through a piece of paper and pen or electronic means. There are people in this world who don't have those privileges and who don't have ways to tell their stories other than by narrating them. This memoir is basically a daughter giving her mother a voice through her ability to write. It's a beautiful memoir because it encompasses everything that her mother wanted to tell to the world, her story of hardship but also of deep and unbreakable love.
Mother & Daughter Relationships: As I said above, it's a story where the daughter tells her mother's story, and she does so at the insistence of her mother. Hanan has always thought that she knew her mother's story of how she divorced her father and gave up both Hanan and her sister Fatima. What Hanan doesn't know is the rest of the story, the parts that show her mother's reasons for leaving her behind. We sometimes assume that we know what happened, and that might be true, we might know a fact or two, but the context can make all the difference. In this memoir, that context is everything.
The power of women: Even when at their lowest, the women in this memoir found ways to get what they needed and wanted. It wasn't always the best way to go about things, lying, stealing, blackmailing, but they found a way. I found myself judging these women for doing these things but then I thought "what other way was there?" and I couldn't find an answer. It's an incredibly difficult situation they lived in, one where they had no power, where men dictated everything that they got to do in their lives, and where only other men could save them (in most situations).
Lebanon: I had never before read a book set in Lebanon, through this book I got to know a bit about the culture and history of Beirut and what happened there from the 1930s to the 1970s. History is usually focused on the "big" players, the United States, Germany, the UK, etc., but the histories of other countries is just as important, as well as the perspectives of the people who lived during those times and who were not exactly in the middle of the action.
This book really got me thinking, it's a story of hardship yes, but also of overcoming every obstacle and hanging on to love as best as you can.
I highly recommend it to everyone.
mtmteres's review against another edition
5.0
Hanna al-Shaykh relata la història de la seva mare, i explica perquè ho fa. La seva mare, que l'havia abandonat, en divorciar-se del seu primer marit, per poder casar-se amb el seu gran amor, li va demanar que escrigués la seva història.
L'autora explica com va accedir a aquesta petició en la introducció, i al final, explica perquè va decidir narrar la història en primera persona, donant la veu i tot el protagonisme a la seva mare, que mai no va aprendre a llegir ni a escriure.
És el retrat d'una dona rebel, tossuda i, de vegades, arbitrària. Nascuda en una família humil del sud del Líban, passa molts problemes en la seva infància. Moltes de les dificultats provenen del fet que la seva mare ha estat abandonada pel seu pare, que l'ha deixat per casar-se amb una altra dona, i no ha volgut fer-se responsable dels fills. La mare lluita amb tots els mitjans que pot per pujar Kamila (la mare de Hanan) i el seu germà, i acaba marxant a Beirut amb ells, buscant el suport dels familiars que viuen allí.
Kamila no pot anar a l'escola perquè ha d'ajudar a mantenir la familia i cuidar els nebots. Als 14 anys, ja la casen. Ella, però anirà trobant la manera de sobreviure a les limitacions que li imposen el fet de ser una dona dins d'una societat tan masclista com és la del Líban de començaments dels segle XX, i acabarà casant-se amb el qui és l'amor de la seva vida.
Si bé, en alguns moments Kamila ens pot semblar capriciosa, arbitrària, immadura i fins i tot cruel, acabem veient, com alguns dels seus actes o actituds que ens poden xocar, són bàsicament, estratègies per sobreviure i tirar endavant, sortejant el gran nombre de prohibicions o barreres que se li posen al davant.
M'ha semblat molt interessant per conéixer una mica més com pot ser viure i créixer en un país com el Líban.
L'autora explica com va accedir a aquesta petició en la introducció, i al final, explica perquè va decidir narrar la història en primera persona, donant la veu i tot el protagonisme a la seva mare, que mai no va aprendre a llegir ni a escriure.
És el retrat d'una dona rebel, tossuda i, de vegades, arbitrària. Nascuda en una família humil del sud del Líban, passa molts problemes en la seva infància. Moltes de les dificultats provenen del fet que la seva mare ha estat abandonada pel seu pare, que l'ha deixat per casar-se amb una altra dona, i no ha volgut fer-se responsable dels fills. La mare lluita amb tots els mitjans que pot per pujar Kamila (la mare de Hanan) i el seu germà, i acaba marxant a Beirut amb ells, buscant el suport dels familiars que viuen allí.
Kamila no pot anar a l'escola perquè ha d'ajudar a mantenir la familia i cuidar els nebots. Als 14 anys, ja la casen. Ella, però anirà trobant la manera de sobreviure a les limitacions que li imposen el fet de ser una dona dins d'una societat tan masclista com és la del Líban de començaments dels segle XX, i acabarà casant-se amb el qui és l'amor de la seva vida.
Si bé, en alguns moments Kamila ens pot semblar capriciosa, arbitrària, immadura i fins i tot cruel, acabem veient, com alguns dels seus actes o actituds que ens poden xocar, són bàsicament, estratègies per sobreviure i tirar endavant, sortejant el gran nombre de prohibicions o barreres que se li posen al davant.
M'ha semblat molt interessant per conéixer una mica més com pot ser viure i créixer en un país com el Líban.
kamila79's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes reading books in translation, especially in Polish, I feel I miss out on a lot. This was the case with Hanan Al-Shaykh’s “The Locust and the Bird: My Mother’s Story”, which I read in Polish as I got the Polish edition of the book from my Polish friend. Fragments of songs, exchanges between lovers from films and poems are originally, as it is often mentioned, in Egyptian Arabic, and in Polish they sound overly sentimental, pompous and exalted. Where there should be lyricism and passion there is cringe-worthy silly loftiness. The book was originally written in English and I wonder how Arabic was handled in it.
As for the story, it reads very well. Certainly, the author’s mother was a charismatic and strong woman, a unique personality, though not a very likeable one. Others often considered her to be frivolous and selfish and having read the book I tend to somewhat agree with those who knew her well. She was also a woman of a certain time and upbringing, having grown up in Lebanon of the 1930 and lacking formal education, remaining illiterate until her death, therefore I don’t judge her decisions and choices. I was looking in the book for the ambiance of the 20th century Beirut and in that respect Al-Shaykh’s memoir disappointed me but at the same time showed what emancipation of Lebanese women looked like then.
I must also mention the shocking cultural ignorance of the Polish publisher. The title, as one can see on the cover, as well as the titles of all chapters, though written in Polish, are supposed to imitate hindi script, whereas the cover shows a photograph (taken by famous Polish journalist and writer Konrad Piskała) from the Moroccan city Chefchaouen. Both have no relation to the story and its location whatsoever I cannot find any explanation for why a reputable Polish publisher would decide to use them. This is a good example of Polish orientalism, “Let’s put something vaguely oriental on the cover and make the font look ‘exotic’ to give a reader a feeling of reading a book from a foreign culture”, which I despise.
As for the story, it reads very well. Certainly, the author’s mother was a charismatic and strong woman, a unique personality, though not a very likeable one. Others often considered her to be frivolous and selfish and having read the book I tend to somewhat agree with those who knew her well. She was also a woman of a certain time and upbringing, having grown up in Lebanon of the 1930 and lacking formal education, remaining illiterate until her death, therefore I don’t judge her decisions and choices. I was looking in the book for the ambiance of the 20th century Beirut and in that respect Al-Shaykh’s memoir disappointed me but at the same time showed what emancipation of Lebanese women looked like then.
I must also mention the shocking cultural ignorance of the Polish publisher. The title, as one can see on the cover, as well as the titles of all chapters, though written in Polish, are supposed to imitate hindi script, whereas the cover shows a photograph (taken by famous Polish journalist and writer Konrad Piskała) from the Moroccan city Chefchaouen. Both have no relation to the story and its location whatsoever I cannot find any explanation for why a reputable Polish publisher would decide to use them. This is a good example of Polish orientalism, “Let’s put something vaguely oriental on the cover and make the font look ‘exotic’ to give a reader a feeling of reading a book from a foreign culture”, which I despise.
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