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A review by shonatiger
Alligator and other stories by Dima Alzayat
4.0
3.5, rounding up.
Stories and mini reviews:
Ghusl
Incredibly hard read. A woman washes her dead brother. Was hard for me to stomach.
Daughters of Manāt
Cw Suicide.
Disappearance
A very moving story about a boy and his younger brother with special needs, set when Etan Patz disappeared. (I nearly cried.) A beautiful portrayal of the confusion and innocence of childhood.
Only Those Who Struggle Succeed
(Spoiler) A #MeToo story. Took a few minutes to gel for me, but I got so involved and so mad and then really truly incensed, and I’m so glad there was resolution.
But more than that, she longed to tell the young woman to carry fire, soon and often, to tell the others, and to set alight everything she saw, to waste no time burning all her bridges down.
In the Land of Kan’an
…
Alligator
I watched an interview with the author where she talked about the construction of Whiteness by Arab Americans, and also about the structure of this story (unusual in that it feels like collected archival material). That makes it interesting.
Summer of the Shark
(spoiler) … is about 9/11.
Once We Were Syrians
Had a hard time with this, which story was actually the reason I moved the book up my tbr list, as it was featured in Week 3 of the course I’m on. The course says this is dialogue, but it reads like a slightly confusing monologue (which is good writing, actually, because old ladies can seem confusing when they talk to their grandkids).
A Girl in Three Acts
is about a girl, is lonely, and is beautiful.
Conclusion: Gut-churning start to the anthology, bumpy in parts, but ends beautifully.
Stories and mini reviews:
Ghusl
Incredibly hard read. A woman washes her dead brother. Was hard for me to stomach.
Daughters of Manāt
Cw Suicide.
Disappearance
A very moving story about a boy and his younger brother with special needs, set when Etan Patz disappeared. (I nearly cried.) A beautiful portrayal of the confusion and innocence of childhood.
Only Those Who Struggle Succeed
(Spoiler) A #MeToo story. Took a few minutes to gel for me, but I got so involved and so mad and then really truly incensed, and I’m so glad there was resolution.
But more than that, she longed to tell the young woman to carry fire, soon and often, to tell the others, and to set alight everything she saw, to waste no time burning all her bridges down.
In the Land of Kan’an
…
Alligator
I watched an interview with the author where she talked about the construction of Whiteness by Arab Americans, and also about the structure of this story (unusual in that it feels like collected archival material). That makes it interesting.
Summer of the Shark
(spoiler) … is about 9/11.
Once We Were Syrians
Had a hard time with this, which story was actually the reason I moved the book up my tbr list, as it was featured in Week 3 of the course I’m on. The course says this is dialogue, but it reads like a slightly confusing monologue (which is good writing, actually, because old ladies can seem confusing when they talk to their grandkids).
A Girl in Three Acts
is about a girl, is lonely, and is beautiful.
Conclusion: Gut-churning start to the anthology, bumpy in parts, but ends beautifully.