This Side of Innocence (Emerging Voices

by Rachid al-Daif

“‘Who tore down the picture?’ That is the whole story, from A to Z. They wanted to know who tore down the picture.” So opens Rashid Al-Daif’s This Side of Innocence, the story of one man’s run-in with the secret police of his unnamed, war-torn country. In ironic contrast with Al-Daif’s typically clear and frank literary style, this unreliable, “innocent” narrator relates much more than an A-to-Z tale. The novel’s real story is about the deeply obscure events of a personal encounter with tyranny—the tyranny of the instability and chaos of a country at war with itself and consequently preyed upon by internal and external forces. In the end, we are left with the story of how one man (or country) can innocently invent his own executioner.

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Yasmeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is written in the perspective of a civilian man being wrongfully accused and interrogated in a tyrannical disorientated government. His thoughts and series of truly unfortunate events which aren’t explicitly said but only implied gives the reader anxiety and too much freedom to conjure up the worst of thoughts of what occurs in the lapses between the narrators story line. The ending is...

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book details a man’s experience with the secret police in an unnamed country and is written as stream-of-consciousness. He’s essentially experiencing psychological torture, and reading it kinda feels like psychological torture. It’s well written and effective in conveying what it’s meant to convey. But it was not enjoyable to read.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lebanese author Al-Daif has read his Kafka. Once again an ordinary man finds himself in the grip of a nightmarish tyranny, in which he is as much the victim of himself as that of a brutal modern state. There are elements of a novel here (character, narrator, conflict, setting) but the narrative goes in and out of focus, like a dream with a logic of its own. On one level, it's a suspenseful political thriller and on another it's an inquiry into the nature of guilt and innocence themselves.

The subjective experience of innocence collides in the story with the interests of interrogators who are determined to get potentially incriminating information. In this case, a poster has been maliciously torn, and a man suspected of knowing the identity of the person who tore it is brought into custody for questioning. Left alone for several hours, he agonizes over circumstantial evidence that points toward his complicity, and he rehearses strategies to outsmart his captors and to divert suspicion from himself.

Meanwhile, he is confronted with the knowledge that he has made "mistakes" in his life that give the lie to his profession of innocence. While starting out sympathetic with him, we begin to realize that the narrator has been withholding information that would affect our own judgment of his character. Eventually, in a protracted scene involving his wife, we come to understand that in the attempt to save his own life, he is no better and no worse than anyone else. In these increasingly polarized times, it's a lesson that speaks to the assumptions and fears of many.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rashid Al Daif is an amazing writer with an uncanny ability to capture the unconscious thought processes and feelings we all experience without over-explaining them. This book deals with a very disturbing topic, but the experience of reading it is invaluable to anyone who wants insight into what many people are put through all the time.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very disturbing look at what it's like to live under a repressive regime. Al Daif employs a very modernist style to evoke the paranoid and psychopathic states of mind that ensue. With its claustrophobic atmosphere of violence, it is the literary equivalent of Max Beckmann's painting "Night."

[Menna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read!