Reviews

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj

reads2cope's review against another edition

3.0

I found the writing beautiful and was totally captivated by the stories, but deeply disappointed that a cop was the star of this book. After reading such detailed and honest stories discussing Orientalism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, the way fatphobia and ableism were left under-interrogated left me a little shocked.

Especially after Marcus recognized his own practices in how the IOF treated him, I hoped he would return home to deeply reflect on his work and leave his role, but no. A cop is still somehow the hero of that community in the end.

thebookhousegirl's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

bethpriddy's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

amy_egg's review

4.0

Beautiful prose, beautiful characters. Susan Muaddi Darraj highlights the complexities of immigration and diaspora through her short stories. 

I went to a book club where the author joined us via Zoom. Thought I would share some highlights.

She considers Marcus the protagonist of the story. The book almost began and ended with his story, until she decided to open the book with Reema. Also… Rita is the Palestinian blogger behind #JusticeForRasha.

thearieslibrary's review against another edition

A lot of problematic content like copaganda and ableism, which really caught me off guard as I was not expecting that. At the very least, I thought the author would challenge this commentary by having other characters call out this problematic behaviour from the characters/content but unfortunately, that never happened so I decided to DNF as I couldn’t see my opinion/the content within the book changing to where accountability was taken as it continued to be left unchecked. 

This was sent to me by the publisher, which I am grateful for but unfortunately I will not be continuing to read this book due to this problematic content. 

mc1945's review

medium-paced

4.75

himalaya's review

4.0

 This is good! I like how it explored so many different types of characters and narratives. , I definitely liked some more than others but they all came together in an interesting way.

I liked the chapter about the girl trying to speak up about her school doing aladdin as their play. and also the one about the young woman staying with her grandparents,  and the last chapter about marcus returning to Palestine with his father’s body (even if I don’t like that he was a cop. but I mean that’s not portrayed as a positive thing necessarily) 

gigireadswithkiki's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

1.0

i'm disappointed in this read because I had only heard good things about it. Unfortunately, the story fell flat for me due to it being:

•  poorly researched (a Palestinian cop character I can handle, especially among the myriad of flawed and messy characters, but a Palestinian U.S. cop character that never mentions his feelings about being directly trained by the IDF as a cop?)
• fatphobic (the uni student's characterization was completely one-dimensional and cliche. Okay, we get it you're fatphobic to yourself because your mother/your culture bullied you and that led you to make some questionable choices. A kindergartener could've written this story during their nap time? and the way that the intersectionality of fatphobia and misogyny AND racism isn't fully explored, not necessarily in her internal dialogue but in the way she makes decisions and how she's perceived by other characters, was lazy. Which I suppose is unsurprising coming from a thin author!)
• ableist  (the way that this author wrote about autism from the perspective of a "concerned" mother trying to protect her son from her abusive husband was complete bullshit? i understand that many immigrant families don't understand the full scope of autism but did you really have to make her THAT ableist with "he is JUST like everyone else!". No he's not. He has a learning ability and the way that her "advocacy" for him is framed as a great act of motherhood will in fact have major repercussions in his later life)
• more pro-cop than I was expecting (just the CASUAL whipping out of guns by the women around him felt like it was supposed to be "subversive" and yet the author might as well have flashed a siren in my face)

For a book that supposedly "faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on and, shifting perspectives to weave a complex social fabric", I felt like every stereotype that was faced, ended up "shifting perspective" into a complete-180 in characterization built on devaluing an entire subsect of underprivileged people. I'm all for messy characters with massive flaws, and don't get me wrong there were some characters that I felt were really interestingly explored (the father at the wedding, the woman who worked as a maid in another family's home, among others), but overall the weakness of the more poorly written characters outweighed the more interesting characters. This is definitely one of, if not the weakest immigrant culture story I've read and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. 

khohenbe's review

emotional inspiring reflective sad

5.0

kayloric's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted tense fast-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

4.5

A slice of life into a family and the different members as they navigate through the world. I enjoyed some stories more than others just like any family member I would feel about. Some of them just have interesting lives and it has you wanting hearing more!