Sitt Marie Rose

by Etel Adnan

Translated from the French by Georgina Kleege, Sitt Marie Rose, is the story of a woman abducted by militiamen during the Civil War in Lebanon. It reveals the tribal mentality which makes the Middle East a dangerous powerhouse. It constitutes a new narrative form and is already a classic of war literature. It won the France-Pays Arabes award in Paris and has been translated into ten languages.

Genres: Fiction, Lebanon, Middle East, War, Literature, Poetry, Literary Fiction

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Etel Adnan was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1925. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, U.C. Berkeley, and at Harvard, and taught at Dominican College in San Rafael, California, from 1958–1972.

In solidarity with the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), Adnan began to resist the political implications of writing in French and became a painter. Then, through her participation in the movement against the Vietnam War (1959–1975), she began to write poetry and became, in her words, “an American poet.” In 1972, she returned to Beirut and worked as cultural editor for two daily newspapers—first for Al Safa, then for L’Orient le Jour. Her novel Sitt Marie-Rose, published in Paris in 1977, won the France-Pays Arabes award and has been translated into more than ten languages.

In 1977, Adnan re-established herself in California, making Sausalito her home, with frequent stays in Paris. Adnan is the author of more than a dozen books in English, including Journey to Mount Tamalpais (1986), The Arab Apocalypse (1989), In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country (2005), and Sea and Fog (2012), winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and the California Book Award for Poetry. Her most recent books are Night (2016) and Surge (2018). In 2014, she was awarded one of France’s highest cultural honors: l’Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Numerous museums have presented solo exhibitions of Adnan’s work, including SFMoMA; Zentrum Paul Klee; Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris; Serpentine Galleries; and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This evening the sky is streaked with huge flashes of lightning that break it up from end to end. The streets I can see from my ninth floor are empty as in the work of a primitive painter. The song of a muezzin drifts from far away t o this Christian quarter of Achrafieh, and has something unearthly about it, even if one knows it is only a record. The Middle East lives its destiny. No sound seems trivial or ordinary.
*
My love for her has grown dim, but she is no stranger to me. I know her, and knowing is a n extraordinarily strong bond. It establishes a kind of magnetic field between beings or even things, and intensifies and illuminates everything. She’s here before me. She‘s familiar to me.
*
Now I‘m afraid that the nostalgia you awaken in me will give me a reason to despise myself, and add another torment to my soul.
*
How can you judge a road that you have neither laid out nor traveled on?
*
In this society where the only freedom of choice. when there is any, is between the different brands of automobiles, can any notion of Justice exist, and can genocide not become an inescapable consequence?
*
It‘s in the dark that the walls close in the most. All through this night I lost track of my ankles, my knees, my stomach, my neck. I lined up numbers in my mind and counted them, I chased fear out of my mind but it impregnated everything. The air thickened and I swallowed it like a ball.

[Gerhard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine bemerkenswerte Darstellung des libanesischen Bürgerkriegs. Eine Christin, geht nach Scheidung eine Beziehung zu einem neuen Mann ein. Er ist jedoch Palästinenser. Das wird zum Problem im Bürgerkrieg zwischen Christen und Arabern. Da sie sich im Widerstand für seine Seite entschieden hat, wird sie angeklagt. Den Ankläger kennt sie aus ihrer Jugend. Der Dialog, wie sich Sitt Marie-Rose jetzt verteidigt, wird zum Höhepunkt der Geschichte. Der Text war für mich so großartig zu lesen und er passt jetzt zur aktuellen politische Lage im Gaza-Krieg. Das Buch verdient für mich 4,5 Sterne.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written take on the senseless, chaotic and incredibly violent war in Lebanon. What surprised me was the author's ability to make such a complex piece of history read so simply. The similarities between this story and Syria's current conflict are a terrible reminder of why this book matters.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a challenging, albeit a short, read.
Chapters are short, sometimes a mere paragraph. Each chapter is narrated from one of a number of characters - Sitt Marie Rose a Christian woman who favours no side, one of a group of Lebanese men who capture her and must pass judgement on her fate or a bystander. The chaotic structure matches the Lebanese Civil War where who is fighting for what is a matter of personnel opinion. Much of the dialogue takes place in a school for deaf-mutes, a sensible parable for those who stand by and pretend nothing is happening.

[MimbleWimble___ Elli Maria Moutsopoulou · Rating 5 out of 5]

4 ή 5; Δεν ξέρω, μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ! Για πολλούς και διαφορετικούς λόγους! Έχω ανάρτηση στο Instagram 💜

[Gabriella Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My eyes are like plants that open during the day and close at night. I begin to wish that two rockets would pass through my head leaving me intact... that's what it means. Everything becomes primitive."

"But me, I say to them, I am absolute order. I am absolute power. I am absolute efficiency. I've reduced all truths to a formula of life and death."

"And how not to get as a whiplash the memory of that one day, when shaking hands to say goodbye, our hands stuck together, sending a current of hot blood through our veins? They remained clasped in one another and I could no longer distinguish my fingers from his, or his breath from mine, and he put his mouth in my hair, and left running."

"I want to say forever and ever that the sea is beautiful, even more so since the blood washed down by the greedy rain opened reddening roads into the sea. Its only in it, in its immemorial blue, that the blood of all is finally mixed."

"It is the explosion of absolute darkness among us. What can one to in this black Feast but dance? The deaf-mutes rise, and moved in the rhythm of falling bombs their bodies receive from the trembling earth, they begin to dance."

[Selmaogesther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Litteratur giver krigen tavse en stemme 🇵🇸❤️‍🩹 Tak til denne bog for at minde mig om litteraturens vigtighed

[νίκη κωνσταντίνου-σγουρού · Rating 5 out of 5]

[ένα βιβλίο ασύλληπτα όμορφο και σκληρό | μια ιστορία που δεν ήξερα καθόλου, ένας πόλεμος, μια δασκάλα σε ένα σχολείο με ανάπηρους μαθητές, σκηνές κυνηγιού και μιας κατεστραμμένης πόλης]
*
«την κάθισαν μπροστά τους και της μιλούν. είναι σκληροί σαν αγάλματα. [...] προκαλεί πολύ φόβο όταν θυμώνει. αλλά εμείς την αγαπάμε. δεν φοβόμαστε. κι εκείνη μας αγαπά. είναι σαν τον ορίζοντα στη θάλασσα.»
*
«η ίδια η πόλη, ως πελώριο πλάσμα, υποφέρει, θεότρελη και επιπόλαιη όσο δεν παίρνει, και τώρα υποταγμένη, ξεκοιλιασμένη, βιασμένη, σαν τις κοπέλες εκείνες που τις βίασαν οι διάφοροι πολιτοφύλακες, κατά τριανταριές ή σαρανταριές, κατέληξαν τρελές στα άσυλα, και οι οικογένειες, μεσογειακές ως τα μπούνια, τις κρύβουν αντί να τις γιατρέψουν... αλλά πώς να γιατρέψεις τη μνήμη; τούτη την πόλη, όπως κι αυτές τις κοπέλες, τη βίασαν.»

[Luis Fraga Lo Curto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela breve pero descomunalmente intensa, que condensa en poco más de 100 páginas la guerra civil libanesa, y por ende, también la colonización francesa, la causa palestina, la violencia tribal, la masculinidad performativa y el abuso de poder.

Etel Adnan escribe un texto polifónico que recuerda al teatro coral y al documental. Tiene voces muy distintas (una profesora militante, una escritora, niños sordomudos, milicianos, un monje) que se entrecruzan de forma poética, dando carne a la división sectaria y al engranaje mental de la guerra.

Es una lectura incómoda, estremecedora, pero hermosísima.

[ΠανωςΚ]

Τεχνικά, απ' άποψη δομής και τα λοιπά, είναι πολύ ενδιαφέρον. Σε ό,τι αφορά το ζουμί, επίσης. Με τον λυρισμό έχω ένα θεματάκι αλλά αυτό το θεματάκι το έχω γενικότερα με τον λυρισμό.
Θεωρητικά, μοιάζει να είναι απ' αυτά τα βιβλία που προβληματίζουν και συγκλονίζουν τον αναγνώστη. Εγώ σκυλοβαρέθηκα διαβάζοντάς το και προβληματίστηκα για το πώς γίνεται να μη με αρέσει ένα βιβλίο που θεωρητικά συγκεντρώνει αρκετά πράγματα που με αρέσουν. Μπορεί και να είμαι σε κακό αναγνωστικό φεγγάρι. Γι' αυτό καλύτερα να μη βαθμολογήσω. Αλλά ρε παιδάκι μου, πολλή βαρεμάρα. Κι αυτό ίσως κάτι να λέει για μένα περισσότερο, παρά για το βιβλίο.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lærte en del om den libanesiske borgerkrig. Meget fin, vigtig og klart relevant i den her tid. Fik en bøde på 10kr for at aflevere den en dag for sent på bib, men det var lowkey det værd:-)

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

À couper le souffle

[Sine Nomine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt shocked after reading the first few pages because of the amount of racism displayed. But then, after reading more pages, I figured out how the style of the book works and understood that it is not racist. It is just too realistic, especially for a Lebanese, to accept it when trying to forget a cruel, complex part of our history. The book tells a true story that happened in the civil war, and unfortunately, the hostile unbelievable events and racism in the book occurred in the past. Unfortunately, some of this racism still lives to our present days, no matter how much we try to live in denial towards this sensitive subject. Each character in the book represents the actual personalities of people who lived during the civil war in Lebanon. This book is compelling and essential to be read, for to get over our past, we have first to accept it.

[Chris]

This short book poetically tells of the horrors of the religious differences that tore apart the cities and people of Lebanon in the 1970s. It is remarkable how there are no villians and no victims, only people innocent, forced to witness, or misguided, destroying others and themselves with their refusal to broaden their thinking.

[Andy Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endelig kom Etel Adnan på dansk. Lever op til sit ry for at være en essential i krigslitteratur, denne gang om Beirut i borgerkrigen. Hård fortælling om skæbne, magt og kampen for den gode sag. Fortællerformen gør underværker for den rå fortælling. En kæmpe anbefaling. 5/5 stjerner.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book had been sitting on my shelf for years; it was the author’s recent death that led me to pull it off and read it. It’s a singular work, like a Miyazaki anime in the way it keeps changing form. There is an amateurness about it that’s endearing. I felt like I was watching the author try things out, a poet writing an extended prose work uncertain what she should be doing, and often not caring. But perhaps this was all planned, all part of her vision of the work.

This is not a great novel about Beirut during the civil war of the 70s or a great portrait of a brave woman with a view of brotherhood shared by almost no one around her, but it is a special reading experience. It's too bad Adnan is not better known in the U.S., where she spent so much of her life.

[Miri · Rating 4 out of 5]

such beautiful writing

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

(I read the book, not the ebook, but that edition is not available to post.) Beautifully written and wrenching novel based on the true story of a woman in Beirut during the Civil War who ran a school for deaf children. She was kidnapped at a checkpoint, interrogated and killed because of her work with Palestinian refugees and her commitment to social, rather than tribal, justice.

[Amira Hanafi]

Shifting, multiple points of view give different perspectives on war in lebanon, late 1970s, all distinctly colored by adnan's fierce anger at religious justifications for brutal violence.

[Jean Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this novel about five years ago and still remember how visceral the experience was. Etel Adnan is a brilliant writer.

[karoline]

vigtig og voldsom fortælling - nærmest en kakofoni (at det brutale bliver til smuk poesi) - om krigen og medmenneskellighed

[nour · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
history, facing the present,
"Mixed in the blood of the dead Palestinians is as much Lebanese blood, Lebanese who died for them, and with them. For the first time in Arab History one group has died for another."

pity and sympathy intertwine, questions are asked, silently, till there's nothing left, but do tell me, what will become of this city?
"He was fighting—that was all there was to it. For what? To preserve. To preserve what? His group’s power. What was he going to do with this power and this group? Rebuild the country. What country? Here, everything became vague. He lost his footing. Because in this country there were too many factions, too many currents of ideas, too many individual cases for one theory to contain. "

beirut, west and east, with its bloodied sea and flowing roads, its haze and sun and glistening souls,
"Never has a city lived under such an iron sky."

love in a funeral, death in a room,
"My love had promised me an apple orchard. Today, it’s death that’s promised me. At this moment I feel closer to him than ever."

thoughts streaming out, in search for words, forgotten prayers hovering in the base of the skull, beneath the skin, silently being watched,
"God, whoever you are, protect the future generations from the genocide that awaits them."

more on history, on the present, on the future, and the intersection of it all
“What love? More than a hundred million Arabs and not one knows how to love!"

[Rami Hamze · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5/5) The author does a great job at understanding the human psychology of war. She also diagnoses the disease of the arab world/ mentality quite well. However, her depiction of the lebanese civil war conflict was very subjective and unbalanced. I rate the book above based on literary merit rather than political opinion.

[Πασχάλης Ρετζέπης · Rating 3 out of 5]

Δυστυχώς δεν μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ αν και η θεματική και η ιστορία είναι δυνατή. Δεν κατάλαβα τον χωρισμό σε δύο κεφάλαια και δεν αναπτύσσει όσο θα ήθελα την ιστορία. Ωστόσο έχει κάποιο ενδιαφέρον. Το συστήνω με επιφυλάξεις.

[Lars Meijer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welke uitgever zal dit boek heruitgeven? Het werk van Etel Adnan kan niet ontbreken in het hedendaagse antikoloniale discours.

[elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

μίσος και αγάπη, βία και τρυφερότητα, συνυπάρχουν σε μια πόλη κατεστραμμένη από τον πόλεμο

[Mira Madsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

[hadyeh | هَدیه · Rating 4 out of 5]

ow

[shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I learned a lot about the Lebanese Civil War, from reading this. War is the heart of this short novel, which is short but dense with motifs that I’m beginning to notice define much civil conflict worldwide— arrogant bravado and violent insecurity that leads to the construction hierarchies; religion being a great tool for both building these systems and for quelling dissent; “civilization” measured as how westernized and willing to exert force one is; women’s bodies as enduring sites of violence during wars fought for ‘progressivism/freedom’; the idea of ‘national identity’ creating borders, creating refugees and an impoverished caste, who then function as a voiceless subclass, easy to scapegoat. A good read, great for understanding some of the ideology behind the war from a left perspective.

”lt's fear, not love, that generates all actions here […] They are ashamed of their appetite for crime, and odiously proud of their ability, and yet they hide, in the night of their veins. a kind of panic that drove them to kill Arabs in Algiers, blacks in the Congo, and Moslems or Christians in Beirut…”

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly one of the most powerful, passionate works of fiction I have ever read. Adnan's Sitt Marie Rose is both an attack and an interrogation of her own history, her own identity, just as much as it is an attack on the tribal and religious justifications for the violence and terror of the civil war in Lebanon. She rails against an Islam that forgets "the divine mercy affirmed by the first verse of the Koran... human mercy" and a Christianity in Lebanon that's "not in communion with any force other than the Dragon." It is these two forces that she sees at work in the conflict, supported by fear and tribalism, or as she puts it, "idolatry towards the group you belong to."

She sets up the opening discussion of making a film with Mounir to carefully show us what she is about to do in part 2, which is create the text he should have made, that she would have made, and it is here that we see her ambivalent feelings towards Lebanon, towards Arabia, towards her own people, towards herself.

I don't want to ruin it for you, but this is ragingly feminist and intellectually pacifist all at once, and I highly recommend it!