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A review by nsaphra
Palestine + 100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini
3.0
An anthology of Palestinian sci-fi, set in 2048: close enough to project current Palestinian fantasies and fears onto, far enough to accommodate technological and political divergence. I found the perspectives in it interesting, but I'm only reviewing this collection on the quality and creativity of the stories.
Don't be put off by the uninspired first story, which reads like overwrought dystopian YA. The second story, "Sleep It Off, Dr Schott", immediately recovers in presenting a cynic's fantasy of Palestinian prosperity, an areligious scientific community in independent Gaza with a surveillance apparatus to ensure that even exclaimed profanity is totally secular. I liked the third story even more: "N" is beautifully written and translated, suggesting the isolation of parallel Israel and Palestine through conversations presented jarringly with only one side of the dialog.
"The Key" introduces with distaste a common Israeli belief that, if Palestinians in Israel and the territories could be made a bit more prosperous and integrated into the economy, they would lose the political will to mount internal threats to current power structures. The naively utopian "Digital Nation" plays straight a parallel belief among Palestinians that, if they could only do enough damage to the Israeli economy, its spoiled citizens would eagerly submit to full Palestinian rule to retain their material wealth.
The collection is uneven, as expected of any anthology. Most of the worst stories are tedious in their premise: "what if same but more technology". Most of the best stories, like "Sleep It Off" and "Final Warning", find a bitter comedy in their cynicism, while others like "N" and "Curse of The Mud Ball Kid" are mournfully poetic.
Don't be put off by the uninspired first story, which reads like overwrought dystopian YA. The second story, "Sleep It Off, Dr Schott", immediately recovers in presenting a cynic's fantasy of Palestinian prosperity, an areligious scientific community in independent Gaza with a surveillance apparatus to ensure that even exclaimed profanity is totally secular. I liked the third story even more: "N" is beautifully written and translated, suggesting the isolation of parallel Israel and Palestine through conversations presented jarringly with only one side of the dialog.
"The Key" introduces with distaste a common Israeli belief that, if Palestinians in Israel and the territories could be made a bit more prosperous and integrated into the economy, they would lose the political will to mount internal threats to current power structures. The naively utopian "Digital Nation" plays straight a parallel belief among Palestinians that, if they could only do enough damage to the Israeli economy, its spoiled citizens would eagerly submit to full Palestinian rule to retain their material wealth.
The collection is uneven, as expected of any anthology. Most of the worst stories are tedious in their premise: "what if same but more technology". Most of the best stories, like "Sleep It Off" and "Final Warning", find a bitter comedy in their cynicism, while others like "N" and "Curse of The Mud Ball Kid" are mournfully poetic.