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A review by ambroisie
The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
4.0
The story starts with Isabel, an American journalist, finding a trunk full of diaries and letters. These documents belonged to her English great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne. Since some of them are written in Arabic, Isabel asks for the help of an Egyptian woman, Amal. And through translation, they retrace the history of their family as they discover that they are related. Isabel is Amal’s distant cousin. Thus, The Map of Love paints the portrait of a family that extends from Egypt to England, France to the United States, exploring themes of identity, alterity and national belonging.
The novel juxtaposes two love stories: the one between Anna and Sharif in the 19th century, and the one between Isabel and Omar at the turn of the 21st century. Both love stories are inseparable from the political context of the time. Sharif is fighting the British occupation while Omar is engaged in the Palestinian cause. This book tells the story of a family over several generations while offering an elaborate critique of imperialism and Orientalism. The writing is amazing too: In Egypt, the successive colonial occupations influenced the use of language itself. Characters speak English, French, Arabic, sometimes at the same time, code-switching easily.
As for Orientalism, The Map of Love, at first glance, is an Arab story fitting western expectation of exotism. We can find the usual Orientalist clichés of the harem, the desert, mysticism.... However, what is interesting is the way that the author manipulates them so as to subvert them.
One of the main points that Soueif challenges in her book is the ahistoric and monolithic view of the Middle East which remains pervasive in media. She explores the heterogeneity of Egyptian society, where languages, religions and ethnicities coexist, where political, social, and cultural opinions diverge. We discover Egypt mainly through Anna as she struggles to recognize the country she heard of back home, as she compares it to the paintings and tales of harems and deserts: I sit here in my room at Shepheard’s Hotel possessed by the strangest feeling that still I am not in Egypt.
Another brilliant aspect: Soueif explores the role of women in Egyptian society, particularly in the struggle for independence. Women were actively working to build a modern Egypt, participating in social and political life. The status of Arab women, whether submissive or sensual, is central to the Orientalist discourse. Western feminists often denounce Islamic culture and religion as antithetical to feminism, thinking that Muslim women cannot be feminist, without first going through westernization. Indeed, while Western feminists are able to criticize, subvert and redefine their heritage and environment, Muslim women "can" only do the same by rejecting their culture. Soueif shows that feminism is not a Western product, and most of all, women all around the globe don't have the same one feminist agenda (goals and aspirations) because they don't experience the same one oppression. Soueif's female characters have to navigate between patriarchy and imperialism.
All this to say, Soueif proposes decolonization through deconstruction.
Beautifully done.
The novel juxtaposes two love stories: the one between Anna and Sharif in the 19th century, and the one between Isabel and Omar at the turn of the 21st century. Both love stories are inseparable from the political context of the time. Sharif is fighting the British occupation while Omar is engaged in the Palestinian cause. This book tells the story of a family over several generations while offering an elaborate critique of imperialism and Orientalism. The writing is amazing too: In Egypt, the successive colonial occupations influenced the use of language itself. Characters speak English, French, Arabic, sometimes at the same time, code-switching easily.
As for Orientalism, The Map of Love, at first glance, is an Arab story fitting western expectation of exotism. We can find the usual Orientalist clichés of the harem, the desert, mysticism.... However, what is interesting is the way that the author manipulates them so as to subvert them.
One of the main points that Soueif challenges in her book is the ahistoric and monolithic view of the Middle East which remains pervasive in media. She explores the heterogeneity of Egyptian society, where languages, religions and ethnicities coexist, where political, social, and cultural opinions diverge. We discover Egypt mainly through Anna as she struggles to recognize the country she heard of back home, as she compares it to the paintings and tales of harems and deserts: I sit here in my room at Shepheard’s Hotel possessed by the strangest feeling that still I am not in Egypt.
Another brilliant aspect: Soueif explores the role of women in Egyptian society, particularly in the struggle for independence. Women were actively working to build a modern Egypt, participating in social and political life. The status of Arab women, whether submissive or sensual, is central to the Orientalist discourse. Western feminists often denounce Islamic culture and religion as antithetical to feminism, thinking that Muslim women cannot be feminist, without first going through westernization. Indeed, while Western feminists are able to criticize, subvert and redefine their heritage and environment, Muslim women "can" only do the same by rejecting their culture. Soueif shows that feminism is not a Western product, and most of all, women all around the globe don't have the same one feminist agenda (goals and aspirations) because they don't experience the same one oppression. Soueif's female characters have to navigate between patriarchy and imperialism.
All this to say, Soueif proposes decolonization through deconstruction.
Beautifully done.