I went through this one like in a dream: it reads like a reverie, even if you're tired, the flow of the story carries things further and further, like a tide. Even if side-streams are formed once in a while, the narrative is easy to follow and doesn't jump from one idea to another unexpectedly or too often.
I saw that some readers were displeased with the fact that this focuses too much on the main character's past. She is now living in the U.S. but allegedly she describes her current situation and coping mechanisms too little, only to dwell on her past and her childhood in a Bedouin family. I wasn't bothered by this at all - if nostalgia is not a driving force for people (and especially immigrants) then what is?
The portrait of the main character as it emerges is not one of a person you can easily like. It is indeed a person you can easily sympathize with, but so lackluster that it's hard to find reasons to get very invested in her arc. Towards the end of the book, a new female character is introduced and for a while, I kept wondering whether we're switching to another main, although this one was too glamorous to feel real (so, in a way, at the opposite end of a spectrum). Then it all comes together in a beautiful ending, with just a little touch of magical realism.
I won't say more as to not spoil the end of the book, but it definitely made me like it more.
I don't really know how to rate this book. On the one hand it was beautifully written, with poetic and evocative descriptions that brought the two worlds of Egypt and Brooklyn to life. The stories of Hend's childhood in Egypt were my favourite part of the book, partly because the main plot in Brooklyn wasn't really going anywhere, but also because they seemed so much more vivid and alive and meaningful than anything that was happening in Hend's present life.
On the other hand I found the ending of the book unsatisfying and now that I've finished it I'm left wondering what the point of the book was, and why I spent all this time reading it.
This book reminds me of other books I've read that involve a spirited, charismatic girl who grows up into a timid, comparatively-bland adult who seems to have lost most of her personality. I had trouble identifying the child Hend with the adult Hend because they seemed like completely different people. And maybe that's true to life; maybe that's one of the tragedies of adulthood, but I find it horribly depressing and dispiriting to read about. I too look back on my confident, slightly-wild childhood self and wish I could be more like her. But that doesn't mean my adulthood existence is worthless! And Miral al-Tahawy's life clearly isn't like that either, since she's written several books and is a successful author. On the other hand, perhaps my frustration with adult Hend stems from the fact that I haven't experienced the kind of chronic depression that she suffers from. Perhaps I'm being overly critical. But I just found myself wishing that at least one good thing would happen to her!!
I was using Google Translate to try and read some of the reviews written in Arabic and one of the phrases it produced was "excessive gloom", which I think is a pretty good description of this book. And that's not to say it's a bad book. I think it's a very good book, and it was worth reading for the parts that really shone, like the vivid, quietly profound descriptions of small town Egyptian life and the struggles that people face. This book is infused with melancholy, but the melancholy has its own beauty, and perhaps that's worth setting down for its own sake rather than as a temporary state in a quest for happiness.
Very interesting in visualizing the life of contemporary immigrants in the melting pot of Brooklyn (New York City, U.S.) The characters bring the artifacts and memories of their homeland (Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, et al) with them. The story did well in mingling the old home with the new home. Immigrants eked a living from businesses and other sources either unavailable or unacceptable in the former country. The next generation without the memories or appreciation of the immigrants' music, books, language, faraway family place meant those would be forgotten or replaced, or their enhancement would be diminished. Rather than a story with plot, the sequence of events is about the former and present lives of various characters--immensely interesting. Magical book in a way because it draws on big themes, such as how characters experience life differently between birth and death, how dreams must be held onto in the new difficult place, and how characters increase their satisfaction in familiarizing themselves with new places and opportunities.
I always feel slightly cheated when a book begins in the present but then spends a lot of the time going over the past. What interested me about this book was how a single mother, immigrant from Egypt, would cope, thrust into New York. I understand how important her past was but the book didn't really go anywhere. There was a lot of discussion on the other immigrants in her area and a lot of walking around New York. There is no doubt the author is talented but I didn't think the book delivered what I wanted.