Reviews with content warning for Racism - Minor Detail

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Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

109 reviews

aprilyvonne's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

*possible spoilers, which were also mentioned in the book summary.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Minor Detail” by Adania Shibli was an incredible novella highlighting the past and present history of life under occupation in
Palestine. Even though the story is short, it packs a lot within the context of violence, fear, and the mundane of daily life no matter the year or setting.

The novella is first set a year after the Nakba in 1949, while the Israeli soldiers capture, rape, and eventually kill a young girl burying her in the sand. The minor details written about the main commander’s adjustment to the climate, the heat and dealing with a festering spider bite is both simplistic and repetitive. Yet, this style was also captivating in a strange sense. The vicious cycle of sexual violence almost the soldiers seemed to increase with the intensity of the infected soldier, and was disturbing. Maybe this was a political commentary upon the occupation itself by Shibli.

The second part takes place many years later, and follows a young Palestinian woman from Ramallah. She becomes obsessed with finding out more information about this tragic story - a minor detail- from the past, which eerily fell on her birthday 25 years earlier. But, what unfolds next is the attempt to gain said information while living under a different set of rules. A small glimpse of life under the occupation is shared. Yet, the curiosity to discover new truths despite the ongoing erasure is still very dangerous.

Both parts of the novella overlap with unique minor details and motifs such as the barking dog, sand, and an individual’s focus with minute concerns. Overall, the narrative highlights the importance of telling stories no matter their seemingly trivial nature when the greater picture pulls it altogether. This book did just. Considering the painful reality today, remember that existence is resistance. Keep reading and lifting up Palestinian voices. 🍉

Content Warnings

dragongirl271's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

“I'm looking forward at the road which cuts through the rippling hills, where the color of earth has changed from pale yellow to light brown. And she looks out to the right.”
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

You know those emotional, heart-wrenching short stories you used to have to read to analyze? The ones that linger with you years later? This is like that, but longer. There are many, many re-reads of this in my future. I'm not going to stop thinking about it anytime soon.

Minor Detail is the story of the rape and murder of a young Bedouin woman a year after the Nakba and another Palestinian woman's obsession with the story decades later. It's my understanding that the young woman's murder is actually a true story and Haaretz has an article about it published in October of last year. I also understand that Shibli was scheduled to win an award for this novel, but the ceremony in Frankfurt was canceled in the wake of the current genocide in Gaza. Incredibly unfair, as the writing in this book is phenomenal and worthy of as many awards as it can qualify for.

The book is in two parts. The first point tells the story of the murdered Bedouin woman from a distant, 3rd-person POV of the soldier overseeing the camp that captured her. The second, longer part follows the 1st-person POV of a woman in modern-day Ramallah who uncovers the story and wants to learn more of the details, refusing to let the woman fade into history.

Shibli utilizes symbolism expertly throughout the book, using all sorts of small details to tie the past and present to each other. Even the routine of the soldier and the travel of the researcher are shown through minor details. It's the kind of writing that gives you more and more each time you read.

3rd person POV in the first part. 1st person POV in the second part. Slow pacing. Heartbreaking. The kind of book that will stay with you for a long time.

Content Warnings

ashleybakerwrites's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Important read in the times, but literally soul crushing. Describes horrifying things in the past and their echos and recreation in the present. It feels like there will be another minor detail written about the future where it's contents will mirror this one.

Didn't like that the first few scenes were in the pov of the attackers, but I know that the victims pov would have been unbearable.

Content Warnings

yajairat's review against another edition

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dark informative sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Impactful read, one that will stay with me for a long time. We get two completely different perspectives and narrative voices that have a deep effect on the story being told. Here are somethings that stood out while reading both:

- First Part: An Israeli occupation soldier commits heinous acts against a Palestinian girl. The tone in the first part is so cold, detached, very matter-of-fact that I felt.. disturbed by it. What I like about it is that because I am so detached from this person, there is no inkling to feel anything but disgust for this person and what he stands for. It was a purposeful choice by Shibli, one that I really admire.

- Second Part: A complete tonal shift, we are now in a first person POV of a Palestinian woman that is determined to find out more information about the girl who was killed in Part 1. I was fully immersed in this woman's thoughts about not only this case, but of what living in an occupied Palestine is like. And it's in these thoughts where I felt.. anger for her, frustration, sadness. And this doesn't end well for her either, and this brought me back to the title of this book. Are these deaths just "minor details" in the grand scheme of things? How can we make sure that this is not the case, especially in light what this genocide that has now gained worldwide attention?

It is a shame that I only read this just now, but I will now try to do better and commit to reading more from Palestinian authors.

Here are some quotes that stood out to me:

"It is here... that our creativity and innovation will be tested, once we succeed in turning the Negev into a flourishing, civilized region and a thriving center of learning, development, and culture" - from part 1, typical colonizer rhetoric, other imperialist nations would be so proud of this. disgusting!

"let me remind you of the phrase we found when we arrived here, on that partially destroyed wall: 'Man, not the tank, shall prevail'" - from part 1, did Israeli forces appropriate this phrase not originally theirs? If so, it's hilarious how they can believe that they relate to that at all, since what they have done is use machinery and tanks to forcefully remove natives of the land.

"the sound of helicopters, warplanes, and shelling, the subsequent wail of ambulances; not only do these noises precede breaking news reports, but now they have to compete with the dog's barking" - from part 2, this stuck out to me because Palestinians continue to live in these conditions to this day. We see these things now all over social media.

"And while his action, by which I mean him pointing his gun at me, cannot be described as humane, it was enough for me to understand what he meant, and that I had to find another way to my new job. Up until this point, I had not found the situation to be unusual, or not so unusual that I should turn around and go back to my house." - from part 2, it's anger-inducing that these restrictions and actions from the IOF are so ingrained in daily life, that Palestinian people have learned to assess situations this way.

"Jerusalem, whose very existence constitutes a security threat if they utter a word of Arabic outside their areas.' from part 2, Palestinian people are restricted to areas that they usually cannot travel outside of, so this occupation goes far beyond just stripping them of their land.

"It was she (an old woman), not the military museums or the settlements and their archives, who might hold a detail that could help me uncover the incident as experienced by the girl. and finally arrive at the whole truth." - from part 2. I recently read another book dealing with memory, and who gets to tell histories. this quote brought me back to that book, and I agree with this statement of maybe someone outside of these institutions knows more. What we are presented with by certain museums or institutes of learning is never the whole truth.

Content Warnings