A review by serendipitysbooks
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 I found Enter Ghost to be a really well-written and thought provoking novel. Reading it now at a time when violence in the region is at an all time high added an extra layer of poignancy, depth and meaning to my reading experience. The plot begins when Sonia, an actress of Danish- Palestinian descent, travels to Haifa to visit her sister, a trip she hasn’t made for eleven years. While there she is persuaded to join a production of Hamlet which is being planned for the West Bank. I especially appreciated the parallels which were drawn between Hamlet and the political situation faced by Palestinians. Links could also be drawn between Hamlet and its staging for this performance, and between Hamlet and issues in Sonia’s life. Those parallels and the way the play was used as a form of political protest shows why Hamlet is considered a classic and highlights the importance of the arts and what they offer to society. I was struck by the many differences between the Palestinian characters - some lived in refugee camps, some in Israel, some in the West Bank, some were born there, some were born elsewhere, some had left and some had chosen to stay. Sonia, only ever a visitor and one who had been long absent, had to negotiate her identity as a Palestinian personally and politically. The difficulties of everyday life in Israel for Palestinians was undeniable - the passports, the checkpoints, the restrictions on who would go where, the ever changing roadblocks - and frequently exacerbated by the capriciousness of Israeli authorities and soldiers who seemed to enjoy exerting power simply for the sake of it and appeared far too willing to reach for the trigger on their ever present, prominent gun. In the wider scheme of things - and certainly compared to the current situation - these aggressions were relatively minor. And yet they still made me think; they are all part of the same continuum. The prose was excellent, some sentences exquisite, and the fact that some parts were written as a play script and unexpected bonus. All in all an excellent reading experience and one I’d recommend. 
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