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steveatwaywords's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Rated mostly for its importance rather than its literary style, this collection of personal essays, memoir, historical perspectives, and poetry (re)(dis)locates our thinking about what it means to be Arab, especially in the changing neighborhoods in and around Detroit. What is welcome in this collection is the near absence of works which revolve around politics, favoring instead representations of the titular idea of "home," "our country"--to be sure, a problematic and nuanced idea.
No single essay (save perhaps a far-sighted one by editor Abraham) attempts to answer the question absolutely, but this is just the idea for the work: to the surprise of no one, the lives and experiences of the authors here are diverse and divided (even upon themselves). Indeed, what it means to Arab is itself frequently called into question, especially amongst those writers who sit as second or third generation immigrants, among those who select differing patchworks of cultures (never singular) to make their own.
Little here is pretentious, less is argumentative. All of the readings are personal--even somewhat private--experiences of confusion, despair, optimism, resolve, love. And for this alone, the volume is worth the read. If you have never grown up in the unique space which is Dearborn, if you do not carry a history located in the Middle East, you can not know.
No single essay (save perhaps a far-sighted one by editor Abraham) attempts to answer the question absolutely, but this is just the idea for the work: to the surprise of no one, the lives and experiences of the authors here are diverse and divided (even upon themselves). Indeed, what it means to Arab is itself frequently called into question, especially amongst those writers who sit as second or third generation immigrants, among those who select differing patchworks of cultures (never singular) to make their own.
Little here is pretentious, less is argumentative. All of the readings are personal--even somewhat private--experiences of confusion, despair, optimism, resolve, love. And for this alone, the volume is worth the read. If you have never grown up in the unique space which is Dearborn, if you do not carry a history located in the Middle East, you can not know.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia and Islamophobia
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death, Antisemitism, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Grief, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Domestic abuse
Each of the content warnings appear in different essays, so readers can avoid any difficult content by skipping a particular reading. Nevertheless, all of the areas of difficult content are dealt with as events of personal suffering without graphic or gory details, and never as persecutors.
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