rane_reads 's review for:

The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon

4.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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“The corpse washer” by Sinan Antoon (He’s Iraqi)

The original title is وحدها شجرة الرمان 

It was a recommendation by a friend after I asked for Arab authors suggestions 

It hurts my soul as a Syrian to see how many times the history can repeat itself without us learning from it, magnificent read it left me in such unease.. but helped me partially process what’s happening in Syria now

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it too, as I personally think art is at its best when it’s tragic 

Excerpts I liked:

“History is a struggle of statues and monuments, Father. I will not have a share in all of this, because I have yet to sculpt anything important. Even Saddam’s huge statue in Firdaws Square was brought down right after your death. I thought I would be happy since I detested him so much, but I felt I’d been robbed of the happiness. That was not the end I had imagined. Those who brought him down were the ones who put him there in the first place. (..)

Now some want to sever the head of Abu Ja’far al-Mansour, the founder of Baghdad, and bring down the statue of the poet al-Mutanabbi. Even the statues are too terrified to sleep at night lest they wake up as ruins.”

“Marx used to say that ‘history always repeats itself twice, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.’ And what we are witnessing now in Iraq is a farce. Who would’ve ever believed that Iraq’s prime minister would be from the Da’wa Party, spear-heading a backward sectarian list? When I left Iraq, the Da’wa Party was banned and later the Americans placed it on the list of terrorist organizations. Now Bush shakes hands with al-Ja’fari? It’s a bizarre world.”