Lina: Portrait of a Damascene Girl

by Samar Attar

A revealing study of a girl and woman in middle class Syria and of her family changing and sometimes barely surviving in the tumultuous days of the 1950-60 period of Damascus. This work shows a ferocious eye for the daily scene, a cat's ear for conversation, and a tragic sense of history. 213 pages.

217 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Samar Attar was born in Damascus, Syria. She studied at Damascus University (two Licence es Lettres degrees, English and Arabic Literature), Dalhousie
University, Canada (M.A., English Literature), and State University of New York at Binghamton (Ph.D., Comparative Literature: English, French, German). She taught English, Arabic, and Comparative Literature
in the United States, Canada, Algeria, West Germany, Australia, and Turkey.

During 1990-1991, she was a Rockefeller Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and in 1994-1995, 1999-2000, and 2003-2006 a
visiting research scholar at Harvard.

She has extensive publications in both English and Arabic in the fields of literary criticism, gender studies, migration, philosophy, translation, language
teaching, and creative writing. Her books include The Intruder in Modern Drama (Frankfurt am Main 1981), A Journey at Night: Poems by Salah ‘Abd
Al-Sabur (Cairo, 1970),
Modern Arabic For Foreign Students, four volumes plusteacher’s manual and seventeen cassettes (Beirut, 1988 and 1991),
The Arab European Encounter:An Advanced Course for Foreign Students (Beirut, 1998) and
Grammar in Context (Beirut, 1998).
She has two novels: Lina: A Portrait of A
Damascene Girl (Beirut, 1982 in Arabic and Colorado Springs, 1994 in English), and The House On Arnus Square (Sydney, 1988 in Arabic and Pueblo,
Colorado, 1998 in English).
Her poems have appeared in anthologies in
Canada, the United States, and England, including The Penguin Book of Women Poets (London, 1978) and Women of the Fertile Crescent (Washington, 1981). Herradio play Australia Day appeared in Australian Writing 1988 (Penguin).

Reviews

[Marwan Asmar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Samar Attar's book reflects a specific era in modern Syrian history. The politics of upheaval is seen through the prism of a young girl growing up into adulthood and amongst her family surroundings. Its an interesting book not only because of the familial relationships but because these are linked to their external surroundings, first in school and university and later through party ideologies and nationalisms that are also bought into the classroom and lecture theatres. In turn as well, there is the cross-cultural dimension of East and West impacted by different philosophers and philosophies. Here, and inevitable, there is a debate on Islam and God and I felt at times, there is a certain amount of doubt on the very existence of the Almighty in the face of different ideologies like communism. A well-worthwhile read, though I must say, people might like to look at the narrative twice to get a grip of the vivid picture the author seeks to portray that seem at times intentionally abstract with lines and threads deliberately cut.