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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
I recently read this book wondering if it would be appropriate for my ninth grade students, and while I would not choose it for them, I loved the book myself. I found it engaging throughout the entire read. It grabbed my attention right from the beginning and didn't let go. It provides a realistic portrayal of life in Iraq during this time period. One thing about The Corpse Washer I came to enjoy was how the main narrative is interrupted with brief memories or vignettes from the past. To me it gave the book a true sense of realism. I can only imagine that Iraqis trying to survive this time period spent quite a lot of time reflecting on the past. The vignettes gave the book a disorienting feeling, which again must have been the way that many Iraqis felt. I highly recommend this book, in fact I've already purchased another book by Sinan Antoon, I'jaam: an Iraqi Rhapsody, and I can't wait to start it.
3.5 rounded down. I’ve had such a dichotomy with this book and my rating of it. I wasn’t a fan of the sexual themes of the book, and i found the sudden conclusion wanting me to read more, but also isn’t that just what happens in war? life goes on, death comes to haunt and life goes on . jawad finds and loses love, he’s tormented by death and comes to his own peace with it. Even with this I wish the book was longer, I wish there was more introspection of death and grief, but that’s also just war. Sometimes there isn’t more, and you have what you can bare. Still, it’s a 3.5 at the end of the day, but I can understand why this book is important and why others find so much importance in it.
If the Middle East is misunderstood in general, maybe there is a country paying the highest price of all in terms of external ignorance and general lack of interest: Iraq.
In The Corpse Washer - a self-translated novel by Iraqi-American poet, professor, and author Sinan Antoon, the writer takes us into a world that rarely reaches us: the everyday life or ordinary people bearing with something as heavy, haunting and mastodontic as the Iraqi history in the span of three wars - the war with Iran, the Gulf War and the 2003 war. Just the fact history is counted in wars, tells of an aching epopeya.
Jawad comes from a Shiite family of corpse washers and shrouders of Baghdad, but he dreams of arts and chooses to go to the University to become a sculptor. Arts never die and, while Iraq crumbles under the weight of wars, sanctions, unscrupulous politics, Jawad can tend and create beauty. The outside world, though, is a show of violence and chaos where corpses simply lay and pile up, leaving no alternative to Jawad than to return to the family business.
Iraq can be no country for aesthetics seems to be the message and when Jawad tries to leave for good, at the border with Jordan he is sent back to Baghdad, to his destiny.
The Corpse Washer, despite the general sadness, the heaviness of the socio-political-religious context, delivers unexpected sublime images and words of poetry that perhaps only an Iraqi writer could capture.
A must read.
In The Corpse Washer - a self-translated novel by Iraqi-American poet, professor, and author Sinan Antoon, the writer takes us into a world that rarely reaches us: the everyday life or ordinary people bearing with something as heavy, haunting and mastodontic as the Iraqi history in the span of three wars - the war with Iran, the Gulf War and the 2003 war. Just the fact history is counted in wars, tells of an aching epopeya.
Jawad comes from a Shiite family of corpse washers and shrouders of Baghdad, but he dreams of arts and chooses to go to the University to become a sculptor. Arts never die and, while Iraq crumbles under the weight of wars, sanctions, unscrupulous politics, Jawad can tend and create beauty. The outside world, though, is a show of violence and chaos where corpses simply lay and pile up, leaving no alternative to Jawad than to return to the family business.
Iraq can be no country for aesthetics seems to be the message and when Jawad tries to leave for good, at the border with Jordan he is sent back to Baghdad, to his destiny.
The Corpse Washer, despite the general sadness, the heaviness of the socio-political-religious context, delivers unexpected sublime images and words of poetry that perhaps only an Iraqi writer could capture.
A must read.