Reviews

Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad by Alia Mamdouh

tayba's review against another edition

4.0

Good book, dragged on slightly. Would be better to read in the original Arabic.

perfectplaces's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

3.5

“My father and I had the same constitution. Our fear of one another had no mask. He could not bear the loss of me, and it was the same with me. We attacked each other’s walls, and did not confuse anything that passed between us. We plotted together, and publicly: the arena, that place of rancor and celebration, all this sameness. We spread out there and waited for one another.

They said, “Huda was suckled by Satan.””

- 

this book is so hard to read but once you get past that it has such a fascinating dissection of gender dynamics and parent-daughter relationships. I hope you die I hope we both die (TM)

corar's review against another edition

3.0

Naphtalene is the story of a young girl (at the beginning she is 9 years old, at the end she is about 12) growing up in Baghdad in the 1950s. It is very descriptive and atmospheric. The author does a good job bringing to life the everyday life of women in Iraq during this time period. Unfortunately for me, it was very hard to read. It is written in a stream of consciousness style. The author switches from first person to second person and back to first often, even in the middle of paragraphs. There are flashbacks that you don't realize are flashbacks until it mentions a character who has already gone. The writing style really made it hard for me to follow what was going on in the story. The parts I was able to look past the style and absorb the story were wonderfully evocative of the place and time.