A review by kamckim
I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti

3.0

Fiction draws me into the story. This book is memoir, so it didn't speak to me about the Palestinian feeling of displacement as other works have. However, there is something deeply moving, at once a sense of being shamed and being ashamed, that Barghouti is able to capture. For example, at one point he wonders why the people of Ramallah didn't take better care of the "refugees" who fled there from the coast in 1948. Now, suddenly, he finds he can identify with their displacement in a city he had thought was his home. You cannot say you've read Palestinian literature without having read this book. It will speak volumes, to some more strongly than to others. For a really good review of the contents and style of the book, check out this review from THE GUARDIAN: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/apr/17/highereducation.biography