You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nour_jallad 's review for:
Minor Detail
by Adania Shibli
This was heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and unsettling, but not for the reasons I thought it would be!
It took me considerably longer than usual to navigate through this book, primarily due to the distinctive writing style. This was not an easy read, filled with discomfort, unease, and plenty of details.
Normally, this writing style isn’t my cup of tea. However, in this case, I recognized that the discomfort and details were intentional, and essential to the narrative, and that realization allowed me to appreciate it much more.
The book is split into two parts: the first part, where the incident takes place, was the part I mostly struggled with. Many details felt both repetitive and redundant. I didn't understand why the book was focusing on irrelevant details that I didn't even care about, leaving me clueless about the major incident that I wanted to understand. That is until I put the book down and started to reflect; then, it all clicked into place. That's when the writing style and author’s decisions made sense and I was able to appreciate the risks the author took.
I understand why the major event was, in reality, irrelevant (as cruel as that might sound). The author was not addressing this single incident alone as it wasn’t an isolated incident; the girl in that story was one of thousands that had a similar fate but was never written about. As I dove deeper into that theory, other things started to click into place. The story of this incident was told from the aggressor's point of view, so it makes sense that the brutality and gruesomeness of it wouldn't make it into the report. Instead, they were downplayed as minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things, serving as evidence of the pervasive dehumanization that took place.
The second part felt like a different book altogether, following the main character who wants to understand this incident and feels somehow linked to it. Her journey to uncover the truth of what happened is driven by a need to find even the smallest details. We follow her on a journey that wouldn't make sense in our day and age, as almost everything is a few clicks away. That was, in fact, my first thought: "Couldn't she have looked it up online or something?" But then again, that wasn't an option back then, which made me think of how long this aggression has been going on.
This section was hard for multiple reasons, exposing glimpses of a harsh reality and the everyday trauma experienced by the main character. It shed light on how seemingly ordinary aspects of her life, which left her unfazed, were, in fact, deeply traumatizing and stripped her of basic human rights. And the inevitable of how her story would end.
This book was a masterpiece! Not for the actual story or the words written on its pages, but everything between the lines and folds of this book tells a much painful reality that can't be told in a story, that can't be collected or contained in one binding. The collective suffering of a people that words can only attempt to convey.
It took me considerably longer than usual to navigate through this book, primarily due to the distinctive writing style. This was not an easy read, filled with discomfort, unease, and plenty of details.
Normally, this writing style isn’t my cup of tea. However, in this case, I recognized that the discomfort and details were intentional, and essential to the narrative, and that realization allowed me to appreciate it much more.
The book is split into two parts: the first part, where the incident takes place, was the part I mostly struggled with. Many details felt both repetitive and redundant. I didn't understand why the book was focusing on irrelevant details that I didn't even care about, leaving me clueless about the major incident that I wanted to understand. That is until I put the book down and started to reflect; then, it all clicked into place. That's when the writing style and author’s decisions made sense and I was able to appreciate the risks the author took.
I understand why the major event was, in reality, irrelevant (as cruel as that might sound). The author was not addressing this single incident alone as it wasn’t an isolated incident; the girl in that story was one of thousands that had a similar fate but was never written about. As I dove deeper into that theory, other things started to click into place. The story of this incident was told from the aggressor's point of view, so it makes sense that the brutality and gruesomeness of it wouldn't make it into the report. Instead, they were downplayed as minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things, serving as evidence of the pervasive dehumanization that took place.
The second part felt like a different book altogether, following the main character who wants to understand this incident and feels somehow linked to it. Her journey to uncover the truth of what happened is driven by a need to find even the smallest details. We follow her on a journey that wouldn't make sense in our day and age, as almost everything is a few clicks away. That was, in fact, my first thought: "Couldn't she have looked it up online or something?" But then again, that wasn't an option back then, which made me think of how long this aggression has been going on.
This section was hard for multiple reasons, exposing glimpses of a harsh reality and the everyday trauma experienced by the main character. It shed light on how seemingly ordinary aspects of her life, which left her unfazed, were, in fact, deeply traumatizing and stripped her of basic human rights. And the inevitable of how her story would end.
This book was a masterpiece! Not for the actual story or the words written on its pages, but everything between the lines and folds of this book tells a much painful reality that can't be told in a story, that can't be collected or contained in one binding. The collective suffering of a people that words can only attempt to convey.