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I, The Divine
'In this delightful novel, Alameddine takes his greatest risks yet, and succeeds brilliantly, in a work that while marked by radical formal innovation, manages to be warm, sad, funny and moving' Michael Chabon
Named by her grandfather after 'the Divine' Sarah Bernhardt, Sarah Nour El-Din grows up in Beirut against the tense background of civil war. But the young Sarah finds pleasure in the everyday - her first cigarette, first kiss, seeking revenge on her tight-lipped stepmother. Then, with adulthood, comes an awareness of the fragility of life. After two failed marriages, the loss of her son, the death of one sister and the imprisonment of another, Sarah begins to tell her story. But this story is not so easy to tell.
A novel written entirely in first chapters, I, THE DIVINE is an honest and touching story of one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
66 people are currently reading
2638 people want to read
About the author
Rabih Alameddine
25 books951 followersRabih Alameddine (Arabic: ربيع علم الدين; born 1959) is an American painter and writer. His 2021 novel The Wrong End of the Telescope won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alameddine was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California to pursue higher education. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Business in San Francisco.
Alameddine began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. His debut novel Koolaids, which touched on both the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco and the Lebanese Civil War, was published in 1998 by Picador.
The author of six novels and a collection of short stories, Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. His queer sensibility has added a different slant to narratives about immigrants within the context of what became known as Orientalism.
In 2014, Alameddine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and he won the California Book Awards Gold Medal Fiction for An Unnecessary Woman.
Alameddine is best known for this novel, which tells the story of Aaliya, a Lebanese woman and translator living in war-torn Lebanon. The novel "manifests traumatic signposts of the [Lebanese] civil war, which make it indelibly situational, and accordingly latches onto complex psychological issues."
In 2017, Alameddine won the Arab American Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction for The Angel of History.
In 2018 he was teaching in the University of Virginia's creative writing program, in Charlottesville.
He was shortlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Short Story Award for his story, "The July War".
His novel The Wrong End of the Telescope won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Alameddine was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California to pursue higher education. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Business in San Francisco.
Alameddine began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. His debut novel Koolaids, which touched on both the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco and the Lebanese Civil War, was published in 1998 by Picador.
The author of six novels and a collection of short stories, Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. His queer sensibility has added a different slant to narratives about immigrants within the context of what became known as Orientalism.
In 2014, Alameddine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and he won the California Book Awards Gold Medal Fiction for An Unnecessary Woman.
Alameddine is best known for this novel, which tells the story of Aaliya, a Lebanese woman and translator living in war-torn Lebanon. The novel "manifests traumatic signposts of the [Lebanese] civil war, which make it indelibly situational, and accordingly latches onto complex psychological issues."
In 2017, Alameddine won the Arab American Book Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction for The Angel of History.
In 2018 he was teaching in the University of Virginia's creative writing program, in Charlottesville.
He was shortlisted for the 2021 Sunday Times Short Story Award for his story, "The July War".
His novel The Wrong End of the Telescope won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews
September 3, 2016
There are colors all through this book, starting perhaps with the red of the protagonist’s hair, a red she inherited from her American mother. Sometimes, in writing, color is just a prop, like cigarette smoke or a sunset; but sometimes it can be definitional, like this:
I was in New York last week and saw two retrospectives, Pierre Bonnar’s and Rothko’s. Besides noting that Bonnard could not draw if his life depended on it and that Rothko did not even try, I was stunned by a major realization. When it came to a choice between a beautiful color and the correct color, Bonnard always picked the beautiful one, while Rothko, in his great paintings, picked the correct one. I realized when it came to men, I did not pick the beautiful or the correct. I picked the wrong one. I picked David.
_____ _____ _____ _____
First….
This was actually the second book by Alameddine that I’ve read, after his latest, An Unnecessary Woman. He writes exceptionally well in a female voice. I read in an interview he gave that it annoys him when someone brings this up, that it’s not really unusual. But it is. In any event, on the basis of just two books, it’s clear to me that Alameddine will never write the same story twice, nor will he use the same structure. But there’s more than standard tuning and missionary sex, one just needs the confidence to go with change. Alameddine is a very confident writer.
A completest, I will read everything Alameddine writes.
_____ _____ _____ _____
1. The format, apparent from the subtitle, appealed to me, and should appeal to you too if you like different structure as well as different plot. Once again, think Drop D or Open G tunings. In less able hands, of course, this would have been childish, but Alameddine made it refreshing. Imagine writing every chapter as if it was the start of the book. This changed the look, by font and by title: 1., Chapter One, One, Chapter 1, 1-----, and ending with an Introduction. It allowed for different POVs, shifting times and places. It also allowed the book to be part Memoir, part novel, part introspection. And it really worked. Of course, the reader is always alert to each new start: is this really how a book would begin? I’d say, for the most part, yes.
_____ _____ _____ _____
Alameddine begins, as shall I, with Sarah Bernhardt. The protagonist is named for her, named by her grandfather who was, uh, obsessed. But so was Mark Twain, we are told, who said there are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses – and then there was Sarah Bernhardt. It was a long line of obsession. After Twain was D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, Henry James, Victor Hugo and Sigmund Freud.
Thus, Sarah Nour El-Din’s destiny was already written. She was indeed, as the title suggests, divine.
_____ _____ _____ _____
What I want to start with is a story that our protagonist’s grandfather tells her. I want to start there because this book is full of stories; and family, and religion, and country. The grandfather is Lebanese; our protagonist is half-Lebanese and half-American. So she is wide-eyed when her grandfather tells her about the Crusades. All the Christians, he told her, got together and decided to invade Lebanon because they could not stand that fact that not everyone was a Christian. They kept coming like ants but kept being beaten back. One crusader was especially smart and evil. His name was Richard Nixon. It was a long story that the grandfather told, both fable and fabulous. I won’t tell it here. But when he’s done, he is confronted by his granddaughter:
”Grandfather,” I said, “Richard Nixon is the president of the United States.”
“That was a different Nixon.”
“I’m ten years old now, Grandfather,” I said. “Don’t you think I would know the difference between the Crusaders and the president of the United States?”
Don’t you love it when they’re both right?
_____ _____ _____ _____
This is a book about art, and marriage; about Beirut. It is about the Lebanese Civil War, seen from inside and outside. There is an obligatory rape and an obligatory suicide, which really were unnecessary plot standards given the wonderful writing. I read this on vacation and gulped it down. So when the woman a few beach chairs away from me walked over and said, “It’s so fucking hot. Would you mind holding my bikini top and copy of The Magic Mountain - you know, the John Woods translation – while I take a quick dip in the ocean?”, I distractedly said, “Yea, sure, sure.”
Maybe that’s true and maybe that isn’t. Anyhow, I thought that would be a good starting point for my review.
I was in New York last week and saw two retrospectives, Pierre Bonnar’s and Rothko’s. Besides noting that Bonnard could not draw if his life depended on it and that Rothko did not even try, I was stunned by a major realization. When it came to a choice between a beautiful color and the correct color, Bonnard always picked the beautiful one, while Rothko, in his great paintings, picked the correct one. I realized when it came to men, I did not pick the beautiful or the correct. I picked the wrong one. I picked David.
_____ _____ _____ _____
First….
This was actually the second book by Alameddine that I’ve read, after his latest, An Unnecessary Woman. He writes exceptionally well in a female voice. I read in an interview he gave that it annoys him when someone brings this up, that it’s not really unusual. But it is. In any event, on the basis of just two books, it’s clear to me that Alameddine will never write the same story twice, nor will he use the same structure. But there’s more than standard tuning and missionary sex, one just needs the confidence to go with change. Alameddine is a very confident writer.
A completest, I will read everything Alameddine writes.
_____ _____ _____ _____
1. The format, apparent from the subtitle, appealed to me, and should appeal to you too if you like different structure as well as different plot. Once again, think Drop D or Open G tunings. In less able hands, of course, this would have been childish, but Alameddine made it refreshing. Imagine writing every chapter as if it was the start of the book. This changed the look, by font and by title: 1., Chapter One, One, Chapter 1, 1-----, and ending with an Introduction. It allowed for different POVs, shifting times and places. It also allowed the book to be part Memoir, part novel, part introspection. And it really worked. Of course, the reader is always alert to each new start: is this really how a book would begin? I’d say, for the most part, yes.
_____ _____ _____ _____
Alameddine begins, as shall I, with Sarah Bernhardt. The protagonist is named for her, named by her grandfather who was, uh, obsessed. But so was Mark Twain, we are told, who said there are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses – and then there was Sarah Bernhardt. It was a long line of obsession. After Twain was D.H. Lawrence, Marcel Proust, Henry James, Victor Hugo and Sigmund Freud.
Thus, Sarah Nour El-Din’s destiny was already written. She was indeed, as the title suggests, divine.
_____ _____ _____ _____
What I want to start with is a story that our protagonist’s grandfather tells her. I want to start there because this book is full of stories; and family, and religion, and country. The grandfather is Lebanese; our protagonist is half-Lebanese and half-American. So she is wide-eyed when her grandfather tells her about the Crusades. All the Christians, he told her, got together and decided to invade Lebanon because they could not stand that fact that not everyone was a Christian. They kept coming like ants but kept being beaten back. One crusader was especially smart and evil. His name was Richard Nixon. It was a long story that the grandfather told, both fable and fabulous. I won’t tell it here. But when he’s done, he is confronted by his granddaughter:
”Grandfather,” I said, “Richard Nixon is the president of the United States.”
“That was a different Nixon.”
“I’m ten years old now, Grandfather,” I said. “Don’t you think I would know the difference between the Crusaders and the president of the United States?”
Don’t you love it when they’re both right?
_____ _____ _____ _____
This is a book about art, and marriage; about Beirut. It is about the Lebanese Civil War, seen from inside and outside. There is an obligatory rape and an obligatory suicide, which really were unnecessary plot standards given the wonderful writing. I read this on vacation and gulped it down. So when the woman a few beach chairs away from me walked over and said, “It’s so fucking hot. Would you mind holding my bikini top and copy of The Magic Mountain - you know, the John Woods translation – while I take a quick dip in the ocean?”, I distractedly said, “Yea, sure, sure.”
Maybe that’s true and maybe that isn’t. Anyhow, I thought that would be a good starting point for my review.
September 16, 2020
Tante false partenze
Sarah Nour el-Din nasce a Beirut da un padre libanese e una madre americana che ben presto sparirà dalla sua vita.
Una famiglia medio borghese con un nonno follemente innamorato della Divina Sarah Bernhardt, tanto da riversare sulla nipote non solo il nome della beniamina ma il destino travagliato di una donna alla continua e spasmodica ricerca di amore.
” Crebbi con la convinzione di essere la Divina Sarah. Potevo fare qualunque cosa volessi. Quello di mio nonno fu il dono più prezioso che mi venne fatto. Diventare una donna in Libano non era facile. Nonostante l’incoraggiamento dei genitori alle figlie, le pressioni nei loro confronti, leggere e non così leggere, portavano le ragazze a sperare in nient’altro che in un buon matrimonio. Essendo la Divina Sarah, ero incurante di quelle pressioni...”
Dal Libano agli Stati Uniti;
dagli anni settanta al XXI° secolo;
dalla propria storia a quella dei componenti di una numerosa famiglia;
dal conformismo al individualismo.
Un viaggio che non ha nulla di lineare ma con la costante di essere fatto solo da Un Primo Capitolo come chiaramente espresso nel titolo originale”I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters”.
Sarah prova e riprova a riscrivere la propria vita partendo da angolazioni diverse, cambiandone la voce narrante distanziandosi ed avvicinandosi in una continua altalena, salvo poi rendersi conto che nulla di sé può essere raccontato senza parlare di chi, nel bene o nel male, ti sta attorno.
Un romanzo molto interessante soprattutto nelle ambientazioni libanesi.
Un entusiasmo per la struttura narrativa è moderato da un apprezzamento altalenante per alcuni episodi raccontati.
Una autore che comunque vorrei approfondire.
” Avevo cercato di scrivere la mia autobiografia dicendo a un lettore immaginario di ascoltare la mia storia. Vieni a imparare qualcosa di me, gli dissi. Ho una storia meravigliosa da raccontarti perché ho avuto una vita interessante. Vieni a conoscermi. Ma come posso aspettarmi che i lettori mi conoscano se non raccontò loro della mia famiglia, dei miei amici, dei rapporti della mia vita? Chi sono io se non il posto che occupo nel mondo, il posto che occupo nelle vite delle persone a me care? Devo spiegare come l’individuo prende parte a un organismo più grande, devo mostrare come mi inserisco in questo insieme più grande. Così, invece di dire al lettore, Vieni a conoscermi, devo dire qualcos’altro.
Vieni a conoscere la mia famiglia.
Vieni a conoscere i miei amici.
Vieni qui, dico.
Vieni a conoscere il mio branco”
Sarah Nour el-Din nasce a Beirut da un padre libanese e una madre americana che ben presto sparirà dalla sua vita.
Una famiglia medio borghese con un nonno follemente innamorato della Divina Sarah Bernhardt, tanto da riversare sulla nipote non solo il nome della beniamina ma il destino travagliato di una donna alla continua e spasmodica ricerca di amore.
” Crebbi con la convinzione di essere la Divina Sarah. Potevo fare qualunque cosa volessi. Quello di mio nonno fu il dono più prezioso che mi venne fatto. Diventare una donna in Libano non era facile. Nonostante l’incoraggiamento dei genitori alle figlie, le pressioni nei loro confronti, leggere e non così leggere, portavano le ragazze a sperare in nient’altro che in un buon matrimonio. Essendo la Divina Sarah, ero incurante di quelle pressioni...”
Dal Libano agli Stati Uniti;
dagli anni settanta al XXI° secolo;
dalla propria storia a quella dei componenti di una numerosa famiglia;
dal conformismo al individualismo.
Un viaggio che non ha nulla di lineare ma con la costante di essere fatto solo da Un Primo Capitolo come chiaramente espresso nel titolo originale”I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters”.
Sarah prova e riprova a riscrivere la propria vita partendo da angolazioni diverse, cambiandone la voce narrante distanziandosi ed avvicinandosi in una continua altalena, salvo poi rendersi conto che nulla di sé può essere raccontato senza parlare di chi, nel bene o nel male, ti sta attorno.
Un romanzo molto interessante soprattutto nelle ambientazioni libanesi.
Un entusiasmo per la struttura narrativa è moderato da un apprezzamento altalenante per alcuni episodi raccontati.
Una autore che comunque vorrei approfondire.
” Avevo cercato di scrivere la mia autobiografia dicendo a un lettore immaginario di ascoltare la mia storia. Vieni a imparare qualcosa di me, gli dissi. Ho una storia meravigliosa da raccontarti perché ho avuto una vita interessante. Vieni a conoscermi. Ma come posso aspettarmi che i lettori mi conoscano se non raccontò loro della mia famiglia, dei miei amici, dei rapporti della mia vita? Chi sono io se non il posto che occupo nel mondo, il posto che occupo nelle vite delle persone a me care? Devo spiegare come l’individuo prende parte a un organismo più grande, devo mostrare come mi inserisco in questo insieme più grande. Così, invece di dire al lettore, Vieni a conoscermi, devo dire qualcos’altro.
Vieni a conoscere la mia famiglia.
Vieni a conoscere i miei amici.
Vieni qui, dico.
Vieni a conoscere il mio branco”
August 15, 2020
'I, The Divine' retells the story of Sarah, a woman whose life is floating on a sea of ennui and intermittent bouts of self-loathing and nostalgia; a woman whose past is told and retold in different ways and, on occasion, by different narrators and whose aims isn't to reach an apotheosis per se, but more of an acceptance of herself and her imperfections. Quite often novels which choose experimental narrative techniques are overly-focused on technique in favour of the story, however Alameddine uses his style to enhance the retelling of Sarah's past, with each chapter adding different perspectives and nuances to her story and helping to flesh her out as a person.
Ostensibly the main focus of the story is on family and Alameddine riffs on Tolstoi's quote about happy families being all alike by exploring the superficially functional and happy family which Sarah belongs to, but which harbours dark secrets, from the jovial grandfather who is in fact cruel and conniving, to the constant infidelities and violent impulses which long remain hidden but eventually surface to devastating effect. Alameddine's style also captures the fractured and often false nature of our memories, as we get glimpses and snapshots of various parts of Sarah's life, each offering a glimpse into her life and allowing Alameddine to create a well-rounded, convincing and flawed, if sympathetic character. The story also explores the idea of identity, both on a personal level, but also on a cultural level, as Sarah's Lebanese-American identity and sense of rebelliousness is the source of much of her discontent.
'I, The Divine' is an original and brilliantly told novel, a novel which uses its experimental technique to draw the reader in to the life of the protagonist and those around her, whilst also exploring the nuances and intricacies of Lebanese society.
Ostensibly the main focus of the story is on family and Alameddine riffs on Tolstoi's quote about happy families being all alike by exploring the superficially functional and happy family which Sarah belongs to, but which harbours dark secrets, from the jovial grandfather who is in fact cruel and conniving, to the constant infidelities and violent impulses which long remain hidden but eventually surface to devastating effect. Alameddine's style also captures the fractured and often false nature of our memories, as we get glimpses and snapshots of various parts of Sarah's life, each offering a glimpse into her life and allowing Alameddine to create a well-rounded, convincing and flawed, if sympathetic character. The story also explores the idea of identity, both on a personal level, but also on a cultural level, as Sarah's Lebanese-American identity and sense of rebelliousness is the source of much of her discontent.
'I, The Divine' is an original and brilliantly told novel, a novel which uses its experimental technique to draw the reader in to the life of the protagonist and those around her, whilst also exploring the nuances and intricacies of Lebanese society.
June 1, 2014
This is a novel that, to all intents and purposes, should not work at all. The gimmick of an entire novel composed of false stops and starts of a Lebanese-American woman’s memoir – hence the ‘A Novel in First Chapters’ of the sub-title – should just be that, a gimmick.
For how else how can you possibly engage the reader emotionally if you are constantly highlighting its form? Surely, then, character and feeling are subjugated to the artifice inherent in the novel’s form.
And yet it works, magnificently, and also most importantly, coherently. From a technical point of view, Rabih Alameddine is a writer of incredible skill, precision and daring. The Sarah Bernhardt theme, the use of colour, art and painting as a motif, the use of extended family as narrative linkages ... this novel reminded me of a good piece of jazz music: from the outset, it all seems jumbled and chaotic, but one glimpse behind the façade reveals just controlled it really is.
However, the supreme achievement of this novel has to be the character of Sarah Nour El-Din, and how much life, love and yearning Alameddine packs into her story. The fractured narrative reflects the way that memory functions in real life, and how history is an accretion of lived moments, many of them quiet and not really noteworthy. Taken all together though, you have the inexorable ebb and flow of time.
This is also a very funny and hugely entertaining novel, from Sarah’s grandfather coaching her in the subtleties of Lebanese cursing, to Kooky the parrot’s vendetta against the family dog, and the grey hairs that Sarah gave her stepmother when she plays soccer, to her best friend Dina’s mother’s conviction that Sarah’s waywardness and contrariness turned her beloved daughter into a lesbian.
This is also a sad, grim and often brutal novel, from the account of the impact of the civil war on Beirut, to Sarah’s rape at the hands of a taxi driver, to the dissolution of her various relationships and marriages.
I was reminded of a remark by Michael Cunningham in a recent Lambda Literary interview that he hoped we were moving into an era of ‘post-gay fiction’, where characters are not merely defined by their sexuality, with it simply being taken as a single facet of their lives and identities.
The corollary of this statement is that gone are the days where we can comfortably have novels populated solely by gay (male) characters, for, at the end of the day, this is restrictive and niche, and is likely to appeal only to a narrow band of readers.
Yes, there is a range of gay characters in this novel, but one can expect the author of The Perv to be subtle and inclusive, and this is indeed what Alameddine achieves here: a glorious polyphony of the messy and polymorphous essence of human relationships.
For how else how can you possibly engage the reader emotionally if you are constantly highlighting its form? Surely, then, character and feeling are subjugated to the artifice inherent in the novel’s form.
And yet it works, magnificently, and also most importantly, coherently. From a technical point of view, Rabih Alameddine is a writer of incredible skill, precision and daring. The Sarah Bernhardt theme, the use of colour, art and painting as a motif, the use of extended family as narrative linkages ... this novel reminded me of a good piece of jazz music: from the outset, it all seems jumbled and chaotic, but one glimpse behind the façade reveals just controlled it really is.
However, the supreme achievement of this novel has to be the character of Sarah Nour El-Din, and how much life, love and yearning Alameddine packs into her story. The fractured narrative reflects the way that memory functions in real life, and how history is an accretion of lived moments, many of them quiet and not really noteworthy. Taken all together though, you have the inexorable ebb and flow of time.
This is also a very funny and hugely entertaining novel, from Sarah’s grandfather coaching her in the subtleties of Lebanese cursing, to Kooky the parrot’s vendetta against the family dog, and the grey hairs that Sarah gave her stepmother when she plays soccer, to her best friend Dina’s mother’s conviction that Sarah’s waywardness and contrariness turned her beloved daughter into a lesbian.
This is also a sad, grim and often brutal novel, from the account of the impact of the civil war on Beirut, to Sarah’s rape at the hands of a taxi driver, to the dissolution of her various relationships and marriages.
I was reminded of a remark by Michael Cunningham in a recent Lambda Literary interview that he hoped we were moving into an era of ‘post-gay fiction’, where characters are not merely defined by their sexuality, with it simply being taken as a single facet of their lives and identities.
The corollary of this statement is that gone are the days where we can comfortably have novels populated solely by gay (male) characters, for, at the end of the day, this is restrictive and niche, and is likely to appeal only to a narrow band of readers.
Yes, there is a range of gay characters in this novel, but one can expect the author of The Perv to be subtle and inclusive, and this is indeed what Alameddine achieves here: a glorious polyphony of the messy and polymorphous essence of human relationships.
August 25, 2014
هنا لبنان المهجر ...وهذه أفعال الفربة التي نكست بمهاجريها قسرا ....رواية مليئة بتفاصيل موجعة رغم سلاسة سردها ... الأتراح فيها تفوق الأفراح والوجع يطن أنينه في قلب قارئ الرواية قبل أن تدمع عيناه.
في أواخر سبيعنيات القرن السابق وبداية ثمانينياته فعلت الحرب أهوالها بلبنان حزين ممزق أثره واضح في رواية ربيع علم الدين ...راقت لي وأحببتها
في أواخر سبيعنيات القرن السابق وبداية ثمانينياته فعلت الحرب أهوالها بلبنان حزين ممزق أثره واضح في رواية ربيع علم الدين ...راقت لي وأحببتها
January 6, 2025
As the adage states, imitation is the insincerest form of plagiarism. Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveller is the lodestar for this novel told entirely in first chapters, aborted and reattempted by the novel’s heroine Sarah. A novel about the impossibility of writing a memoir that even scratches the surface of a person, each first chapter still moves with sly chronology across the Lebanese émigré Sarah’s life, honing in on the pivotal and trivial moments in a voice that is often irritatingly self-indulgent, casually callous, then shockingly intimate and revealing. This unique form cleverly exposes the cracks in any self-portrait while allowing the reader the space to inhabit the messiness and difficulty of its subject in a way that’s far more illuminating than any me-me-memoir. Superb stuff.
April 7, 2017
"I have been blessed with many curses in my life, not the least of which was being born half Lebanese and half American. Throughout my life, these contradictory parts battled endlessly, clashed, never coming to a satisfactory conclusion."
An exceptionally brilliant prose.
The story of Sarah....Alameddine's language....Many many many pieces that NEVER come together....An irresistible journey through continents, times, secrets...LIVES...
A fascinating narrating. Witty and amazing.
A novel WRITTEN by a male author in a FEMALE's voice that's so LITERALLY unique, astonishing, addictive, irresistible, complex, delightful, powerful, emotional, intimate, heart-wrenching, profound, funny, moving, memorable, poignant in SOOOOO MANY MANY MANY WAYS.
Like a kaleidoscope...
BEAUTIFUL.
CREATIVE.
REFRESHING.
INGENIOUS.
February 22, 2019
Overall, a great disappointment. Despite being a smooth and fast read, the structure got frustrating, but mostly, I couldn’t sympathize with Sarah as much as I was probably expected to. I have a whole bucketful of sympathy but not much of it for women who choose to be passive in their lives and willingly play the role of the victim.
January 1, 2017
رواية عظيمة، أصعب من أن تُختصر في مراجعة سريعة، بل ربّما من الأخلاقي أن يكتب عنها شيء طويل يستحقّها. الرواية تطرح سؤالًا سابقًا عليها: لماذا يتم القفز عن العرب الذين يكتبون بلغات سوى العربيّة؟ على الأقل المجيدين منهم؟. هذا نصّ هائل، سواء على مستوى التقنية أم وجودة الكتابة. أعود إلى مسألة القفز، هذه الرواية، وإن تأخرت ترجمتها 12 عامًا، لكنّها وصلتنا قبل أن يشتهر ربيع علم الدين في الغرب، أي أنّ ثمّة اهتمام ما، وهذا الاهتمام لم يكن مشروطًا بجوائز غربيّة. لعلّه ضعف الدعاية، من دار النشر لا الكاتب. عمومًا، كان يلزم ربيع علم الدين جائزة ما (جائزة فيمينا عن روايته "امرأة غير ضرورية" في هذه الحالة)، حتّى يذيع اسمه أكثر، وإن كان ضمن دوائر ضيقة من المهتمّين.
في بداية الرواية، كان المستوى ضعيفًا، لكن تبيّن، مع تقدّم الرواية، أنّ هذا الضعف مقصود، فالرواية لا تقدّم نفسها كأنّها قطعة واحدة، بل أنّ كلّ فصلٍ هو فصل أوّل؛ أي أنّ كل فصل هو احتمال لرواية كاملة مستقلّة بذاتها. أو حتّى أنّه فصلٌ كُتِبَ وتمّ التخلّص منه لسبب في نفس الكاتب/البطلة. هذه التقنية، أتاحت مساحة واسعة من حريّة التنقل في الأصوات، بين راوٍ أوّل وراوٍ عليم أو حتّى روي الأحداث على لسان أيّ شخصيّة تمّ ذكرها في أيّ فصل دون أي إحساسٍ بالغرابة.
دائمًا ما كنت أشعر، أمام أي نصٍ محكم، بأنّ النص حال نشره لا يعود ينتمي لكاتبه/كاتبته، بل إلى الزمن عينه، يصير كأنّه مسلمة، وجدها الناس على هذا الحال، شيء مثل ألف ليلة وليلة أو كليلة ودمنة، نصوص ليست ملك أحد، وبالتبعيّة ملك جميع البشر.
حسب دار نوفل، فإنّ العمل على ترجمة "امرأة غير ضروريّة" جارٍ الآن، وإلى حينها، هذه الرواية نصيحة لكلّ من يقرأ المكتوب (بالمناسبة، لا إراديًا، أخذت أقارن بين انجذابي الفوري لربيع علم الدين، ونفوري من ربيع جابر. حاولتُ قراءة روايتين لجابر، وصدّتني عنه في كلّ محاولة لغته الباردة. بالمقابل، ومع علم الدين، ومع إدراكي بأن النص مترجم، فإنّ نصّه أكثر حميميّة، حسّي أكثر، وأعنى بعباراته من ربيع جابر.).
في بداية الرواية، كان المستوى ضعيفًا، لكن تبيّن، مع تقدّم الرواية، أنّ هذا الضعف مقصود، فالرواية لا تقدّم نفسها كأنّها قطعة واحدة، بل أنّ كلّ فصلٍ هو فصل أوّل؛ أي أنّ كل فصل هو احتمال لرواية كاملة مستقلّة بذاتها. أو حتّى أنّه فصلٌ كُتِبَ وتمّ التخلّص منه لسبب في نفس الكاتب/البطلة. هذه التقنية، أتاحت مساحة واسعة من حريّة التنقل في الأصوات، بين راوٍ أوّل وراوٍ عليم أو حتّى روي الأحداث على لسان أيّ شخصيّة تمّ ذكرها في أيّ فصل دون أي إحساسٍ بالغرابة.
دائمًا ما كنت أشعر، أمام أي نصٍ محكم، بأنّ النص حال نشره لا يعود ينتمي لكاتبه/كاتبته، بل إلى الزمن عينه، يصير كأنّه مسلمة، وجدها الناس على هذا الحال، شيء مثل ألف ليلة وليلة أو كليلة ودمنة، نصوص ليست ملك أحد، وبالتبعيّة ملك جميع البشر.
حسب دار نوفل، فإنّ العمل على ترجمة "امرأة غير ضروريّة" جارٍ الآن، وإلى حينها، هذه الرواية نصيحة لكلّ من يقرأ المكتوب (بالمناسبة، لا إراديًا، أخذت أقارن بين انجذابي الفوري لربيع علم الدين، ونفوري من ربيع جابر. حاولتُ قراءة روايتين لجابر، وصدّتني عنه في كلّ محاولة لغته الباردة. بالمقابل، ومع علم الدين، ومع إدراكي بأن النص مترجم، فإنّ نصّه أكثر حميميّة، حسّي أكثر، وأعنى بعباراته من ربيع جابر.).
July 25, 2014
I may have a new favorite author. Spoiler alert: I'm not giving any plot spoilers, but if you'd rather discover how the writing style makes this book so unique... I might spoil that.
It really is written in first chapters, and once you get into it, doesn't that make a lot of sense? There are so many points in our lives that could be the first chapter, and each deserving of its own tone, style, point of view. Sarah is clearly the subject of the story, but by writing this way her story can also be told be her family when that's more fitting.
Not gimmicky, not confusing, just a wonderful read.
It really is written in first chapters, and once you get into it, doesn't that make a lot of sense? There are so many points in our lives that could be the first chapter, and each deserving of its own tone, style, point of view. Sarah is clearly the subject of the story, but by writing this way her story can also be told be her family when that's more fitting.
Not gimmicky, not confusing, just a wonderful read.
August 4, 2019
4 1/2 stars. A very unique book written with a unique voice & format.
January 18, 2021
Maravilloso. Cuando me recomendaron este libro con la premisa de que era una novela escrita en primeros capítulos, no tenía muy claro con qué me iba a encontrar. Me gustan las técnicas narrativas innovadoras, las estructuras originales, pero demasiado a menudo me encuentro con que luego me dejan fría sus tramas y personajes. Aquí no ocurre. El libro tiene la forma de unas falsas memorias, de una mujer con un pie en cada parte del mundo (el Líbano y Estados Unidos) y su disfuncional familia. Está escrito como decía, en forma de primeros capítulos de una supuesta biografía escrita por ella, que de forma curiosa acaba dándonos una visión completa de su vida. Recomendadísimo.
December 10, 2014
I kept going... but only because I had just read The Unnecessary Woman by Alameddine and rated it an unprecedented 5 stars (for a novel). This was rough. I felt like I was reading a rough draft, which I guess was the point? But much too disjointed to ever engage in. Disappointed.
January 18, 2023
Rep: Lebanese cast, gay & lesbian characters
CWs: rape, misogyny, violence, suicide
CWs: rape, misogyny, violence, suicide
July 30, 2024
This is my fourth book by Alameddine and I've come to the conclusion that the man is brilliant. This is a book that, like the subtitle suggests, is a book with only first chapters. How he did it was by making each chapter a new beginning of a separate story about events in the life of the protagonist, Sarah Nour El-Din. So, basically, it's a short story collection. Many of the chapters are about the same event but told from different perspectives that go back and forth in time while most of the other chapters are about new events. Sarah was the daughter of a Lebanese man and an American woman. Her father divorced from her mother when she was very young and her mother left to go back to America, never to be seen again, but Sarah stayed with her father and her stepmother in Lebanon. Although the chapters were told as individual stories they all combined to give a complete picture of Sarah's very troubled and dysfunctional life both in Lebanon and later when she moved to America herself. An exceptional book.
February 16, 2015
بطلة الرواية، سارة نور الدين تحاول كتابة مذكراتها.
نعرف من البداية، وهذه كلمة مفصلية، أنها من دروز لبنان، وأن أمها أميريكية، وأن لديها أختين آمال ولمياء، وأختين غير شقيقتين رنا وماجدة وأخ غير شقيق اسمه رمزي.
هي تحاول كتابة مذكراتها، ولذا لا تترك الفصل الأول أبداً - ككاتب مغمور غير سعيد وغير مكتف أبداً ببداية قصته ويرغب دوماً كتابة بداية أكثر كمالاً وأكثر جمالاً. عبر هذه البدايات المستمرة والفصول الأولى طوال الراوية، نتعرف على حياة سارة علم الدين من شذرات مختلفة من طفولتها ومراهقتها وشبابها وعلاقتها بعائلتها وأزواجها وأصدقائها. تغير سارة رأيها في بعض الأحيان وتقرر أنها ستكتب رواية بدلاً من مذكرات، فيتغير صوت الراوي من سرد شخصي "أنا سارة" إلى سرد الشخص الثالث "هي سارة"، كما أنها تغير باستمرار اسم مذكراتها، فنرى بعد قراءة خمس فصول أولية مثلا صفحة كتب عليها "نصف ونصف: مذكرات سارة نور الدين"، ثم تتبع تلك الصفحة صفحة إهداء إلى دينا. هذه الراوية ما بعد الحداثية تبدو لي كقراءة أولية أنها تعليق على فعل الكتابة وإشكالياتها وعوائقها وخياراتها الواسعة، ولكن ما أدهشني للغاية، أن هذا التكنيك الحداثي والفريد لم يأتِ على حساب القصة بل العكس تماماً فقد أثراها وأضاف إليها بعداً جديداً وفهماً مختلفاً.
تتداخل قصة سارة مع إشكالات ثقافية ومجتمعية كونها من دروز لبنان وقصص الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية والمجتمع الذكوري وقصص مختلفة متعلقة بالجندر والجنسانية - ولذا أعتبر هذه الرواية مدهشة وتستحق القراءة.
نعرف من البداية، وهذه كلمة مفصلية، أنها من دروز لبنان، وأن أمها أميريكية، وأن لديها أختين آمال ولمياء، وأختين غير شقيقتين رنا وماجدة وأخ غير شقيق اسمه رمزي.
هي تحاول كتابة مذكراتها، ولذا لا تترك الفصل الأول أبداً - ككاتب مغمور غير سعيد وغير مكتف أبداً ببداية قصته ويرغب دوماً كتابة بداية أكثر كمالاً وأكثر جمالاً. عبر هذه البدايات المستمرة والفصول الأولى طوال الراوية، نتعرف على حياة سارة علم الدين من شذرات مختلفة من طفولتها ومراهقتها وشبابها وعلاقتها بعائلتها وأزواجها وأصدقائها. تغير سارة رأيها في بعض الأحيان وتقرر أنها ستكتب رواية بدلاً من مذكرات، فيتغير صوت الراوي من سرد شخصي "أنا سارة" إلى سرد الشخص الثالث "هي سارة"، كما أنها تغير باستمرار اسم مذكراتها، فنرى بعد قراءة خمس فصول أولية مثلا صفحة كتب عليها "نصف ونصف: مذكرات سارة نور الدين"، ثم تتبع تلك الصفحة صفحة إهداء إلى دينا. هذه الراوية ما بعد الحداثية تبدو لي كقراءة أولية أنها تعليق على فعل الكتابة وإشكالياتها وعوائقها وخياراتها الواسعة، ولكن ما أدهشني للغاية، أن هذا التكنيك الحداثي والفريد لم يأتِ على حساب القصة بل العكس تماماً فقد أثراها وأضاف إليها بعداً جديداً وفهماً مختلفاً.
تتداخل قصة سارة مع إشكالات ثقافية ومجتمعية كونها من دروز لبنان وقصص الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية والمجتمع الذكوري وقصص مختلفة متعلقة بالجندر والجنسانية - ولذا أعتبر هذه الرواية مدهشة وتستحق القراءة.
July 9, 2018
Imagine that someone opens a puzzle box in front of you without showing you the lid. Then they pick up a piece of the puzzle and describe it to you. Once they are done, they put the piece back, pick up another, and describe it to you. They do this for every single piece of the puzzle, but at no point do they ever put the puzzle together. You're able to recognize patterns, but at no point do you ever truly see the whole picture.
That's what reading this book felt like. It was so disjointed, it made it difficult to enjoy. I kept waiting for the whole story to emerge, for a linear narrative to start, but that didn't happen.
I'm not saying that this book was uninteresting. But it was a bit frustrating to get through, and I honestly can't recommend it.
That's what reading this book felt like. It was so disjointed, it made it difficult to enjoy. I kept waiting for the whole story to emerge, for a linear narrative to start, but that didn't happen.
I'm not saying that this book was uninteresting. But it was a bit frustrating to get through, and I honestly can't recommend it.
August 13, 2014
روايه مثيره للقراءة وغريبه..طريقه كتابتها لم نعتد عليها. ليست بالنمط الكلاسيكي المتعاد. يستخدم فيها اسلوب اقرب للواقع لسيدة تريد كتابة مذكراتها ولكنها مترددة. فتبتدأ من جديد بطريقة جديدة كل فصل وأخر..
الرواية مترجمة للعربيه والترجمة رائعة وسلسه ومن اسباب أعجابي الشديد بها.
الرواية مترجمة للعربيه والترجمة رائعة وسلسه ومن اسباب أعجابي الشديد بها.
December 26, 2019
Espediente interessante. Libro fatto solo da primi capitoli. Peccato che verso la fine perda smalto ma era partito benissimo.
Read
March 12, 2020رواية «أنا سارة سارة أنا» لربيع علم الدين يولّدها عجز النهايات
تنطلق أحداث هذه الرواية من الفصل الأوّل لتنتهي بالمقدّمة، هكذا تفرغ الراوية من سرد قصتها قبل أن تبدأ بها. تظلّ بطلة ربيع علم الدين في روايته الصادرة ترجمتها عن دار «نوفل» بعنوان «أنا سارة سارة أنا» (نقلتها من الانكليزية أمل ديبو ونجلاء رعيدي شاهين) عالقة في الفصل الأول، إلاّ أنّ فعل «السرد» لم يبرح لحظة واحدة في مكانه. وعلى خلاف ذلك، انسابت حياة بطلة العمل وراويته سارة نور الدين وانفلتت أحداثها المتشابكة والمتباعدة وكأنها سيناريو طويل من فصل واحد.
تنتقل البطلة من مرحلة إلى مرحلة أخرى مختلفة زمانياً ومكانياً، إلاّ أنّها تُبقي على عنونة الفصل الجديد بـ «الفصل الأوّل» أو «الفصل 1» أو «واحد»… وتأتي هذه التقنية لتُكرّس رغبة الكاتب في تقديم لعبة سردية جديدة تصحّ تسميتها تحايلاً على الكتابة، إذ إنّ الروائي يترك لبطلته مهمة سرد الأحداث كلّها من دون وجود نيّة لكتابتها. فهي تكتب مذكراتها من ألفها إلى يائها أثناء رحلة بحثها عن الفصل الأوّل الذي منه تنطلق.
سارة نور الدين تعرف أنّ حياتها لا تقلّ درامية عن حياة الأسطورة التي سمّاها جدّها باسمها، وهذا كان أوّل ما فكّرت به وكتبته كانطلاقة لمذكراتها: «أسماني جدّي على اسم سارة برنار العظيمة. كان يعتبر لقاءه بها شخصياً أهمّ حدث في حياته. كان يتحدّث عنها بلا انقطاع. عندما بلغت الخامسة من العمر، كان باستطاعتي أن أعيد كلّ قصّة من قصصه حرفاً بحرف. هكذا فعلت».
حياتها التي سالت من بين يديها لم تكن بنعومة سردها، بل هي سلسلة من الصعود والهبوط تكاد تكون الخواتيم فيها شبه مفقودة. فهي كلّما سقطت تعود وتنهض لتدخل في بداية جديدة. وربما أراد الكاتب من وراء استخدام تقنية «الفصل الأول» – إلى جانب وظيفتها الفنية والجمالية – أن يُشدّد على فكرة البدايات التي تجتاح عالم البطلة.
الراوية (سارة نور الدين) هي التي تحكي قصتها بضمير المتكلّم «أنا». وعلى رغم أنّها لا تفصح عن نيتها في كتابة مذكراتها بداية، إلاّ أنّنا سرعان ما نفهم سرّ رغبتها في السرد من خلال بعض العبارات التي تتوجّه بها مباشرة إلى القارئ عند بداية أكثر من فصل: «أريد أن أخبركم قصتي، ولكن ليس لأبيّن لكم كيف تألمت، علماً أنني تألمت بالفعل. أريد ببساطة، أن يعلم أحدٌ بما جرى…»، أو «لديّ قصة رائعة أخبركم إيّاها. كنت هناك، وهذا ما رأيته».
عمل يستحقّ الوقوف عنده لرصد تجربة غنيّة ومختلفة تمزج ما بين روح الرواية العربية وتقنية الرواية الغربية.
Source: http://artsgulf.com/113061.html
تنطلق أحداث هذه الرواية من الفصل الأوّل لتنتهي بالمقدّمة، هكذا تفرغ الراوية من سرد قصتها قبل أن تبدأ بها. تظلّ بطلة ربيع علم الدين في روايته الصادرة ترجمتها عن دار «نوفل» بعنوان «أنا سارة سارة أنا» (نقلتها من الانكليزية أمل ديبو ونجلاء رعيدي شاهين) عالقة في الفصل الأول، إلاّ أنّ فعل «السرد» لم يبرح لحظة واحدة في مكانه. وعلى خلاف ذلك، انسابت حياة بطلة العمل وراويته سارة نور الدين وانفلتت أحداثها المتشابكة والمتباعدة وكأنها سيناريو طويل من فصل واحد.
تنتقل البطلة من مرحلة إلى مرحلة أخرى مختلفة زمانياً ومكانياً، إلاّ أنّها تُبقي على عنونة الفصل الجديد بـ «الفصل الأوّل» أو «الفصل 1» أو «واحد»… وتأتي هذه التقنية لتُكرّس رغبة الكاتب في تقديم لعبة سردية جديدة تصحّ تسميتها تحايلاً على الكتابة، إذ إنّ الروائي يترك لبطلته مهمة سرد الأحداث كلّها من دون وجود نيّة لكتابتها. فهي تكتب مذكراتها من ألفها إلى يائها أثناء رحلة بحثها عن الفصل الأوّل الذي منه تنطلق.
سارة نور الدين تعرف أنّ حياتها لا تقلّ درامية عن حياة الأسطورة التي سمّاها جدّها باسمها، وهذا كان أوّل ما فكّرت به وكتبته كانطلاقة لمذكراتها: «أسماني جدّي على اسم سارة برنار العظيمة. كان يعتبر لقاءه بها شخصياً أهمّ حدث في حياته. كان يتحدّث عنها بلا انقطاع. عندما بلغت الخامسة من العمر، كان باستطاعتي أن أعيد كلّ قصّة من قصصه حرفاً بحرف. هكذا فعلت».
حياتها التي سالت من بين يديها لم تكن بنعومة سردها، بل هي سلسلة من الصعود والهبوط تكاد تكون الخواتيم فيها شبه مفقودة. فهي كلّما سقطت تعود وتنهض لتدخل في بداية جديدة. وربما أراد الكاتب من وراء استخدام تقنية «الفصل الأول» – إلى جانب وظيفتها الفنية والجمالية – أن يُشدّد على فكرة البدايات التي تجتاح عالم البطلة.
الراوية (سارة نور الدين) هي التي تحكي قصتها بضمير المتكلّم «أنا». وعلى رغم أنّها لا تفصح عن نيتها في كتابة مذكراتها بداية، إلاّ أنّنا سرعان ما نفهم سرّ رغبتها في السرد من خلال بعض العبارات التي تتوجّه بها مباشرة إلى القارئ عند بداية أكثر من فصل: «أريد أن أخبركم قصتي، ولكن ليس لأبيّن لكم كيف تألمت، علماً أنني تألمت بالفعل. أريد ببساطة، أن يعلم أحدٌ بما جرى…»، أو «لديّ قصة رائعة أخبركم إيّاها. كنت هناك، وهذا ما رأيته».
عمل يستحقّ الوقوف عنده لرصد تجربة غنيّة ومختلفة تمزج ما بين روح الرواية العربية وتقنية الرواية الغربية.
Source: http://artsgulf.com/113061.html
August 6, 2017
'I, the Divine' (2001) van Rabih Alameddine heeft een briljant postmodern uitgangspunt: de ik-vertelster (Sarah Nour El-Din) weet niet voorbij het eerste hoofdstuk van haar roman te komen. Het is geen vloeiend geheel met een afgerond plot en rechtlijnige karakterontwikkeling, maar een vastgelopen plaat waarin gebeurtenissen en personages steeds vanuit een iets ander perspectief worden beschouwd. Compleet met veranderingen in stijl, genre en vorm, met wisselingen in vertellersperspectief en met typografische foefjes. (Al klinkt het concept nu experimenteler dan het in de roman uitpakt, want Alameddine houdt duidelijk een psychologische lezing open.) Het resultaat is een tragikomische meta-roman over ontworteling, (oorlogs-) trauma, familiebanden en het narrativiseren van onbetrouwbare herinneringen. De literatuur als die ene plek waarin de chaotische werkelijkheid enige samenhang weet te krijgen, maar is dat werkelijk zo in het immer uitdijende spel van intertekstuele verwijzingen? Waar de auteur zijn/haar werkelijkheid vervormt met de subjectieve keuzes die gemaakt worden om 'de realiteit' mee te beschrijven?
May 1, 2022
This is my first novel by this author and I was not disappointed. I will be reading more by this author. I loved the way it was written, and the way the story is structured. It’s essentially a novel told in first chapters. The story follows a Lebanese American woman, who is struggling to write her memoirs, and the story is written in a series of false starts. The fractured way it was written is a great representation of the way memory works. The theme of the use of colour, aft and painting is used as a motif, the use of extended family as narrative linkages and Sarah Bernhardt. It was funny and well written. But there is also a moment of sadness and often brutal portrayal of the impact of the civil war on Beirut. The rape of Sarah at the hands of a taxi driver was hard to read, and the dissolution of her relationships and marriages. Highly recommend this book.
‘I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a deep need to belong? Are we simply pack animals desperately trying to pretend we are not?’
‘I wonder whether there is such a thing as a sense of individuality. Is it all a facade, covering a deep need to belong? Are we simply pack animals desperately trying to pretend we are not?’
May 14, 2020
ان تبقى في الفصل الأول وتكتب المقدمة في آخر صفحتين تكون في عالم ربيع علم الدين.... مختلف... مبدع... غريب... مستفز
December 15, 2025
new fav author alert
November 7, 2019
“An Unnecessary Woman” by Rabih Alameddine is one of my favourite novels, definitely in the top 10, so I decided to read “I, the Divine. A Novel in First Chapters”, following the recommendation of a bookseller, who sold me this book in Dar Bistro and Books in Beirut earlier this year. Though I thoroughly enjoyed it, it didn’t have the same power as “An Unnecessary Woman” and I feel my love for the “An Unnecessary Woman”’s protagonist makes me not as satisfied as a reader as I probably should be.
Alameddine explores some of the same ideas, mainly complicated family relations, trauma of estrangement and abandonment and the lies we all surround ourselves with which make certain truths that much palatable.
Sarah Nour El-Din, a middle-aged Lebanese-American artist, describes her life in fragments, repeating, retelling, correcting and expanding on some facts and details she deems relevant. Very attached to her grandfather, who named her after Sarah Bernhardt, she is rooted in the Druze traditions, but she also yearns for her American mother, who had to leave the family when she and her sisters were young and return to the New York. Unable to build lasting relationships with men she hopes for a better future, unable to shake off the traumatic events from the past.
Alameddine brilliantly balances between humour and tragedy and I am in love with his language. Even though - or maybe because of the fact that - families he lets us meet on the pages of his novels are dysfunctional they are fascinating to observe and scrutinise. There are few male authors who have the talent and perception to create such colourful female characters, flesh and blood strong women who take life into their own hands and make an effort to not let it slip between their fingers, not always with success.
“I, the Divine” is a captivating novel that reads like a memoir of a woman, whose life resembles a jigsaw puzzle and who is determined to put all pieces together. The fragility and vulnerability, not only Sarah’s but of all family members, are fantastically shown and the wry sense of humour covers all possible pathos really well. Read it and get lost between the pages.
Alameddine explores some of the same ideas, mainly complicated family relations, trauma of estrangement and abandonment and the lies we all surround ourselves with which make certain truths that much palatable.
Sarah Nour El-Din, a middle-aged Lebanese-American artist, describes her life in fragments, repeating, retelling, correcting and expanding on some facts and details she deems relevant. Very attached to her grandfather, who named her after Sarah Bernhardt, she is rooted in the Druze traditions, but she also yearns for her American mother, who had to leave the family when she and her sisters were young and return to the New York. Unable to build lasting relationships with men she hopes for a better future, unable to shake off the traumatic events from the past.
Alameddine brilliantly balances between humour and tragedy and I am in love with his language. Even though - or maybe because of the fact that - families he lets us meet on the pages of his novels are dysfunctional they are fascinating to observe and scrutinise. There are few male authors who have the talent and perception to create such colourful female characters, flesh and blood strong women who take life into their own hands and make an effort to not let it slip between their fingers, not always with success.
“I, the Divine” is a captivating novel that reads like a memoir of a woman, whose life resembles a jigsaw puzzle and who is determined to put all pieces together. The fragility and vulnerability, not only Sarah’s but of all family members, are fantastically shown and the wry sense of humour covers all possible pathos really well. Read it and get lost between the pages.
April 3, 2012
The format of this entire book is a series of first chapters, whether titled, prologue, or written in French. I flew through it in 24 hours. I loved the novelty of it up til halfway through, and loved the main character Sarah Nour el-Din and all her family members too. Sarah's mother is American and her father Lebanese, she grows up in one country and then the other grappling with issues multi-cultural, psychological and otherwise.
There was a graphic rape scene that bothered me entirely because it seemed so obviously written by a man and then I looked at the back cover and realized for the first time this author is in fact a man; and then I didn't love the book as much from that point on. But I only ding Alameddine half a star for that scene, the other half because the first chapter gimmick couldn't sustain an entire book, for me. I think he's a great writer and I can't wait to start reading Hakawati next.
This is the second book about Lebanon that I've read, the first one was House of Stone by Anthony Shadid and the two could not be more different. I'm slowly learning bits of history like Beirut 1975 and gaining context for words like Druze and Maronite, and figuring them in among Shi'ite and Sunni frameworks.
There was a graphic rape scene that bothered me entirely because it seemed so obviously written by a man and then I looked at the back cover and realized for the first time this author is in fact a man; and then I didn't love the book as much from that point on. But I only ding Alameddine half a star for that scene, the other half because the first chapter gimmick couldn't sustain an entire book, for me. I think he's a great writer and I can't wait to start reading Hakawati next.
This is the second book about Lebanon that I've read, the first one was House of Stone by Anthony Shadid and the two could not be more different. I'm slowly learning bits of history like Beirut 1975 and gaining context for words like Druze and Maronite, and figuring them in among Shi'ite and Sunni frameworks.
July 10, 2013
This book is such genius: every single chapter is written as though it's a first chapter ... and it is such a wonderful, engrossing read! It felt like meeting a new friend and getting to know her bit by bit; every story (chapter) stands on its own, but when combined as a larger piece (an entire book) the whole story comes to light. It flips back and forth, from characters perspectives, from Lebanon to New York City to San Francisco. Although this is mainly the story of Sarah Nour El-Din, you also get to know her sisters, stepmother, mother, father, brother, ex-husbands and best friend: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Highly addictive story.
Highly addictive story.
September 13, 2015
Alameddine's eye for details succeeds again in light-heartingly portraying a figment of Lebanese society, that of the Druze.
Do not expect to quench your thirst for a heart warming linear narrative, or for a cathartic dramatic piece through this work. Reading this novel requires a little more effort on your behalf by an unguided weaving and reweaving webs of narrations.
Alameddine celebrates womanhood, family and identity conflict in a masterful design of first chapters with no endings; a cyclic rendition of all these resonating literary and social themes.
Do not expect to quench your thirst for a heart warming linear narrative, or for a cathartic dramatic piece through this work. Reading this novel requires a little more effort on your behalf by an unguided weaving and reweaving webs of narrations.
Alameddine celebrates womanhood, family and identity conflict in a masterful design of first chapters with no endings; a cyclic rendition of all these resonating literary and social themes.
May 16, 2016
This book was excellent! It is 'a novel in first chapters'. Sarah is trying to write her memoir and never gets past the first chapter. Each chapter in the book is another attempt to start the memoir. She knows she has a story to tell and is trying to find herself through the process. Rabih Alameddine, captures the voice of Sarah beautifully. At each attempt at a first chapter more is revealed about Sarah's life growing up in Lebanon, her move to the United States and why she never really feels at home in either place. Highly recommend.
July 28, 2020
Ho trovato questa lettura molto piacevole e a tratti anche appassionante, nonostante la struttura a dir poco inusuale. Ecco, la struttura tutta in primi capitoli è il punto di forza e di debolezza di questo romanzo: da un lato decisamente incuriosisce, dall'altro rende la narrazione estremamente frammentaria e, seppur comunque non troppo difficile da seguire (e per questo l'autore merita un plauso) alla fine lascia la sensazione di storia "incompiuta", come se nulla, alcun episodio fosse davvero approfondito mentre la storia si conclude e avrebbe potuto continuare a lungo.
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