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A review by millionaire
The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine
3.0
The Hakawati took me a long time to read (2 months on and off) and I even relegated it to my sin bin for a few weeks because I was dreading going back to reading it.
This book is a split in to smaller "books" chronicling the history of the al-Kharrat family, the titular hakawati (storyteller) being the narrator's paternal grandfather. Each book follows an al-Kharrat family story interlaced with stories of magical realism, almost like bedtime stories...if bedtime stories had a lot of violence and sex.
The structure was confusing at first as I got used to the rhythm of the real and mythical stories' structure. I enjoyed the stories of popular well known Middle Eastern and Islamic figures, rituals and objects of significance. The al-Kharrat family was written with such complexity and colour. The narrator entertains with an anecdote for almost all his family members (there are a lot of them so be prepared to have a cheat sheet!) I felt like I was actually getting to know this group of people.
My main gripe is that the book felt like it dragged on. As it's a compilation of many stories, it was hard for me to stay engaged with the lack of developing plot and, early on in the book, I honestly didn't care enough about some of the family members yet to sit through their whole life story. So when it was characters I didn't connect with, I found myself falling asleep more easily but when I was hooked, I was HOOKED.
This book also highlights the art of storytelling to pass on and enrich a family history, woo a potential partner, earn money etc. which I thought was a unique perspective.
This book is a split in to smaller "books" chronicling the history of the al-Kharrat family, the titular hakawati (storyteller) being the narrator's paternal grandfather. Each book follows an al-Kharrat family story interlaced with stories of magical realism, almost like bedtime stories...if bedtime stories had a lot of violence and sex.
The structure was confusing at first as I got used to the rhythm of the real and mythical stories' structure. I enjoyed the stories of popular well known Middle Eastern and Islamic figures, rituals and objects of significance. The al-Kharrat family was written with such complexity and colour. The narrator entertains with an anecdote for almost all his family members (there are a lot of them so be prepared to have a cheat sheet!) I felt like I was actually getting to know this group of people.
My main gripe is that the book felt like it dragged on. As it's a compilation of many stories, it was hard for me to stay engaged with the lack of developing plot and, early on in the book, I honestly didn't care enough about some of the family members yet to sit through their whole life story. So when it was characters I didn't connect with, I found myself falling asleep more easily but when I was hooked, I was HOOKED.
This book also highlights the art of storytelling to pass on and enrich a family history, woo a potential partner, earn money etc. which I thought was a unique perspective.