A review by kamckim
Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa, خالد خليفة

5.0

Khalifa’s writing and Price’s translation is haunting. In describing the journey of Bolbol and his attempt to simply bury their father’s body in his hometown, according to his dying wishes, Khalifa tells the story of the suffering that is happening in Syria, but more importantly he explains the how and why, delving into the psyche of the Syrian people. Plenty of Syrian writers have covered the war. I’m immediately reminded of Samar Yazbek’s work. What elevates Khalifa’s work to literary fiction is his stream of consciousness storytelling. He flows seamlessly from present events to his characters observations of those events into past memories, jumbled in time and space. And the memories of the characters tell not only their stories, but also the stories of those they loved and lost, of success and failure. These stories, in turn, are a bit of a metanarrative for the Syrians in conflict, their motives, their choices to leave or to stay, their survival techniques. These large issues come under the microscope in the lives of his Bolbol, his brother, his sister, and their dead father. There is a good balance between describing the trip and moving the plot forward and the flashbacks in the minds of the characters. He also manages to change voice very subtly without the reader even recognizing it. It’s a true art, and I would compare his style to William Faulkner in this regard. It’s also existential, similar to Camus, but more interesting to read, as there are quite a few moments of sardonic humor. And, if I may, it’s a bit like The Walking Dead, in that the title Death is Hard Work is a bit misleading. There’s the existential recognition that we will all eventually die. It’s just a question of where and when. But in Khalifa’s Syria, if death is hard work, living is the hardest work.