A review by atuin
The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih

challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This edition opens with some historical context on the time period and the Author, which was helpful in understanding the text. My favorite was the first story, "The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid", a beautifully written tale of a rural village clashing with industrialization, and the importance of remembering your roots. "A Handful of Dates", is about a child learning his beloved grandfather is not as good a man as he thought. In today's era where many famous people are revealed as being horrible behind closed doors, this story struck home for me. "The Wedding of Zein", is also good, but it bounces around too much for my taste, going through different POV's frequently and going back and forth in time. It has a lot of interesting themes, like true religious devotion, how being a good man doesn't mean being taken seriously, simple joys of life, and several others. Each character is also well detailed and interesting. Overall and excellent book and I am certainly interested in his other work now. 
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