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A review by lauren_endnotes
The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing by Mohamed Kacimi, Darina Al-Joundi
4.0
"I was at an ungrateful age, neither woman nor child, but prematurely adult as well because the war had robbed us of our childhood."
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From THE DAY NINA SIMONE STOPPED SINGING by Darina al-Joundi and Mohamed Kacimi, translated from the French (Lebanon) by Marjolijn de Jager
I've had varied experiences with memoirs. Some are beautifully done with rich details, others need a good editor to slice and dice and build a narrative. A few good life stories does not always a good memoir make... Or something like that.
Now take Darina al-Joundi. Her writing style (co-authored with Kacimi) is spare. Bare even. In one short sentence, she'll mention some sort of horrific atrocity or major life-changing event, and then just move on to the next thing with little to no detail or description of the lasting effects. Other writers would spend (at least) half the book describing what she just synthesized into ONE sentence.
Is this resilience? Is it dismissal? Still trying to figure out... But what I know is that I've never read anything like it.
The daughter of a secular Syrian father, and a Lebanese mother, she describes the Lebanon War/invasion, and its various factions (Muslims, Christians, and Druze - Israelis, refugee Syrians, and Lebanese) her unconventional "no rules" childhood and an experimental (taboo) youth. It is violent and brutal, and in the end it's about a woman who has been through a whole bunch of shit in her life, and is now an actor and director in France, advocating for women's rights.
#witmonth #womenintranslation
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From THE DAY NINA SIMONE STOPPED SINGING by Darina al-Joundi and Mohamed Kacimi, translated from the French (Lebanon) by Marjolijn de Jager
I've had varied experiences with memoirs. Some are beautifully done with rich details, others need a good editor to slice and dice and build a narrative. A few good life stories does not always a good memoir make... Or something like that.
Now take Darina al-Joundi. Her writing style (co-authored with Kacimi) is spare. Bare even. In one short sentence, she'll mention some sort of horrific atrocity or major life-changing event, and then just move on to the next thing with little to no detail or description of the lasting effects. Other writers would spend (at least) half the book describing what she just synthesized into ONE sentence.
Is this resilience? Is it dismissal? Still trying to figure out... But what I know is that I've never read anything like it.
The daughter of a secular Syrian father, and a Lebanese mother, she describes the Lebanon War/invasion, and its various factions (Muslims, Christians, and Druze - Israelis, refugee Syrians, and Lebanese) her unconventional "no rules" childhood and an experimental (taboo) youth. It is violent and brutal, and in the end it's about a woman who has been through a whole bunch of shit in her life, and is now an actor and director in France, advocating for women's rights.
#witmonth #womenintranslation