A review by takumo_n
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

4.0

A Lebanese woman in her seventies dyes her hair blue, translate great works of literature into arabic from the french and english since she was in her twenties, sees how Beirut is changing. Reminisce about different wars throughout the twentieth century, about her only friend Hannah who killed herself, about her good for nothing impotent husband, about when she used to work in a library, about her abusive mother and stepfather and older stepbrother, about the time that stepbrother tried to bully her into leaving her deceased husband's aparment, because it was a bigger than his, about the time she exchange sex for an automatic rifle with the guy her parents wanted to force her to marry years ago. She talks about her favorite writers and poets, her process of translating. The fact that she doesn't want her senile mother living with her, but goes to visit and cleans her fungi ridden feet. Or when the apartment starts flooding and her neighbours, who she doesn't particularly likes, help her dry the pages of her translations out, and she has to admit that she's been doing this for fifty years just as a whim. And everything is so gripping and entertaining. The main character has a great sense of irony, and an interesting view of the world.