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stephmcoakley's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Religious bigotry, War, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Death, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, and Grief
sabotheking's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Domestic abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Hate crime, Death, War, Violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Islamophobia, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Xenophobia, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, and Drug use
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Sexism, Sexual assault, Cursing, Homophobia, and Medical content
now_booking's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was incredibly unexpected! I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t quite what this book turned out to be. I think I expected sort of a “finding herself”/ “finding narrative of a traumatized Syrian refugee overcoming being lost in a web of PTSD-induced silence, but this was instead a rather intellectual, linguistically-astute work of literary fiction-cum- social commentary and I liked it. Based on the title, as you’d expect, it’s a very quiet and introspective sort of book with strong themes around religious extremism, revolution, racism, nationalism and bigotry.
The premise is that the unnamed (till the very end) narrator is a Syrian refugee in England, a part-time student, part-time freelancer about her experiences for a magazine, who is still dealing with the extreme trauma of being a single woman fleeing Syria on her own late in the Civil War and making her way across all of Europe to England. Suffering a psychotic break as a result of her experience, she finds solace and strength in silence, not speaking for years till her neighbours believe her to be deaf and unable to speak. In her silence, she develops her own self-awareness as well as an understanding of others, especially her neighbors in the apartment blocks around hers who she spies on all day, becoming embroiled against her will, in the tragedies of their lives.
.
.
This was written by an author who obviously loves literature and it is clear she’s writing what she knows because her narrator is also a bibliophile. There are numerous references to renowned middle eastern writers and their quotes are sprinkled throughout this book, and the narrator’s analysis of these quotes make them appear like her own well-worn, thoroughly digested thoughts about home, belonging, memory and identity. But she is also well-versed in Western classics revealing a kinship with the melancholy and human frailty they reveal versus the “silence” in her own literary heritage. I don’t know enough about middle eastern writers or the melancholy white Western classics writers she prefers to comment either way but I did like the exploration of this theme.
Because the protagonist/narrator observes rather than speaks and lives so much in her head, she has a self-awareness AND an almost non-judgmental understanding of others. On bigotry, she recognizes that irrational fear of loss and lessening rather than a lack of rational knowledge and facts is the key. I think the narrator is so lost to herself from everything she’s experienced that she recognizes herself almost as a chameleon, someone whose experiences and trauma have ripped away their identity, someone who has been called so many names that she can’t help be simultaneously all and none of them. But what we do know is that physically she can be “whatever you see. Arab. University student. Writer. Fatty. Muslim. Whore.”
The narrator is filled with clever and smart but somewhat unpopular opinions that many people will be offended by. For example, she has really interesting and different ideas about blaming terrorist attacks on Islam and questioning whether people’s personal definitions and interpretations of Islam were invalid because a fellow Muslim didn’t think they were right. Great points were made but not sure that I agree from a religious perspective that someone defines their religion rather than a holy book or the tenets after religion is more than a spiritual identity. But I also get her meaning and she does discuss how religion-justified terrorism is a cycle that is supported by interpretation rather than the religion itself. She also analyzes the futility of democracy and how it is impossible without an informed electorate and a free, fair and responsible press doing that informing, none of which exists in any part of the world where bias is the order of the day. It’s very interesting and she is very good at these thought pieces which exist throughout the book.
Silence is definitely a theme. Not only in the narrator’s presentation of herself and her unwillingness or inability to speak, but also it is a philosophical question to her, a being to explore, a memory, a punishment, a culture, a literary heritage. More than a theme, in this book, very much on the nose, silence might even be a character.
There’s a lot of sex and sexuality and talk about bodies in this book but it’s not at all a sexy book. Sex isn’t pleasure, it’s more pain and forgetting and loss of self, but also a place of bitter memories of a means to an end, a loss of control, a release even if not a pleasurable one. It’s as though sex in this book is a proxy for human contact for dealing with a silence that is oppressive and that needs to be released.
I’m not sure what to feel about this book. I didn’t not like it. But I also didn’t love it. I liked that it told a different story gave a different perspective than the refugee narratives that journalists typically take on. This is a pretty emotionally devastating book and I liked the way emotion was captured in this book, being simultaneously explosive and repressed, buried under silence, struggling to stay contained so that the heroine doesn’t break even further. I do feel like this felt like separate ideas in one book. The plot of the snooping, always watching neighbour and the narrator’s increasing involvement in the community was somewhat slowed down by the tangents and opinion articles the narrator would go on, which didn’t have much to do with her increasing interactions with others. But again arguably, this wasn’t a book where the author wanted to have an A to B narrative telling that sort of story. This is more a snapshot-style book of flashbacks, ideas and thoughts and ways of looking at society. The “should I tell, shouldn’t I tell” conflict of the book was to me weak and underdeveloped so that when it escalated at the end, it didn’t feel like the escalation matched the amount of attention that had been given to that conflict. And I felt that way about the plot in general. I liked the broad strokes of the plot, but I think the editorial bits kind of distracted and took away from the plot development. I would have liked the narrator to have a bit more to do with her neighbours and to develop that tension and conflict a bit more. As it was, to me this book was strongest whenever she was giving her opinions and writing her articles and think pieces or doing her linguist thing with words. I enjoyed this book for those novel ideas and the beautiful way everything was written more than I enjoyed it as a work of fiction. I am glad I read this though. The gorgeous writing and use of language had me highlighting half the book and taking notes so that I can think even more deeply about and discuss the narrator’s idea.
Many thanks to Algonquin Books for an advance review copy!
The premise is that the unnamed (till the very end) narrator is a Syrian refugee in England, a part-time student, part-time freelancer about her experiences for a magazine, who is still dealing with the extreme trauma of being a single woman fleeing Syria on her own late in the Civil War and making her way across all of Europe to England. Suffering a psychotic break as a result of her experience, she finds solace and strength in silence, not speaking for years till her neighbours believe her to be deaf and unable to speak. In her silence, she develops her own self-awareness as well as an understanding of others, especially her neighbors in the apartment blocks around hers who she spies on all day, becoming embroiled against her will, in the tragedies of their lives.
.
.
This was written by an author who obviously loves literature and it is clear she’s writing what she knows because her narrator is also a bibliophile. There are numerous references to renowned middle eastern writers and their quotes are sprinkled throughout this book, and the narrator’s analysis of these quotes make them appear like her own well-worn, thoroughly digested thoughts about home, belonging, memory and identity. But she is also well-versed in Western classics revealing a kinship with the melancholy and human frailty they reveal versus the “silence” in her own literary heritage. I don’t know enough about middle eastern writers or the melancholy white Western classics writers she prefers to comment either way but I did like the exploration of this theme.
Because the protagonist/narrator observes rather than speaks and lives so much in her head, she has a self-awareness AND an almost non-judgmental understanding of others. On bigotry, she recognizes that irrational fear of loss and lessening rather than a lack of rational knowledge and facts is the key. I think the narrator is so lost to herself from everything she’s experienced that she recognizes herself almost as a chameleon, someone whose experiences and trauma have ripped away their identity, someone who has been called so many names that she can’t help be simultaneously all and none of them. But what we do know is that physically she can be “whatever you see. Arab. University student. Writer. Fatty. Muslim. Whore.”
The narrator is filled with clever and smart but somewhat unpopular opinions that many people will be offended by. For example, she has really interesting and different ideas about blaming terrorist attacks on Islam and questioning whether people’s personal definitions and interpretations of Islam were invalid because a fellow Muslim didn’t think they were right. Great points were made but not sure that I agree from a religious perspective that someone defines their religion rather than a holy book or the tenets after religion is more than a spiritual identity. But I also get her meaning and she does discuss how religion-justified terrorism is a cycle that is supported by interpretation rather than the religion itself. She also analyzes the futility of democracy and how it is impossible without an informed electorate and a free, fair and responsible press doing that informing, none of which exists in any part of the world where bias is the order of the day. It’s very interesting and she is very good at these thought pieces which exist throughout the book.
Silence is definitely a theme. Not only in the narrator’s presentation of herself and her unwillingness or inability to speak, but also it is a philosophical question to her, a being to explore, a memory, a punishment, a culture, a literary heritage. More than a theme, in this book, very much on the nose, silence might even be a character.
There’s a lot of sex and sexuality and talk about bodies in this book but it’s not at all a sexy book. Sex isn’t pleasure, it’s more pain and forgetting and loss of self, but also a place of bitter memories of a means to an end, a loss of control, a release even if not a pleasurable one. It’s as though sex in this book is a proxy for human contact for dealing with a silence that is oppressive and that needs to be released.
I’m not sure what to feel about this book. I didn’t not like it. But I also didn’t love it. I liked that it told a different story gave a different perspective than the refugee narratives that journalists typically take on. This is a pretty emotionally devastating book and I liked the way emotion was captured in this book, being simultaneously explosive and repressed, buried under silence, struggling to stay contained so that the heroine doesn’t break even further. I do feel like this felt like separate ideas in one book. The plot of the snooping, always watching neighbour and the narrator’s increasing involvement in the community was somewhat slowed down by the tangents and opinion articles the narrator would go on, which didn’t have much to do with her increasing interactions with others. But again arguably, this wasn’t a book where the author wanted to have an A to B narrative telling that sort of story. This is more a snapshot-style book of flashbacks, ideas and thoughts and ways of looking at society. The “should I tell, shouldn’t I tell” conflict of the book was to me weak and underdeveloped so that when it escalated at the end, it didn’t feel like the escalation matched the amount of attention that had been given to that conflict. And I felt that way about the plot in general. I liked the broad strokes of the plot, but I think the editorial bits kind of distracted and took away from the plot development. I would have liked the narrator to have a bit more to do with her neighbours and to develop that tension and conflict a bit more. As it was, to me this book was strongest whenever she was giving her opinions and writing her articles and think pieces or doing her linguist thing with words. I enjoyed this book for those novel ideas and the beautiful way everything was written more than I enjoyed it as a work of fiction. I am glad I read this though. The gorgeous writing and use of language had me highlighting half the book and taking notes so that I can think even more deeply about and discuss the narrator’s idea.
Many thanks to Algonquin Books for an advance review copy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, and Violence
internationalreads's review
dark
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence
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