المشراف

by عبيد السهيمي

300 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[AHMED · Rating 3 out of 5]

(اعتذر يا أمى العظيمة ، انا بالفعل إرهابى)
#رواية المشراف هى اشبة بالمذكرات التى تدور حول اصل قرية المشراف احدى قرى جازان بالمملكة العربية السعودية وحقيقة الأساطير حول نشأتها والتى يتناقلها اهلها من جيل إلى آخر حفاظا على تاريخها التراثى وكذالك أسطورة كنز الجد الأكبر الذى يناله اهل المشراف بذبح العبد الاسود كأضحية للجن.
# تُسرد الأحداث من خلال حفيد احفاد الجد الأكبر الذى يهتم بجمع القصص والحكايات ليتعرف على حقيقة جده الأكبر وأصل قرية المشراف والذى يموت بمرض السرطان لتكتشف زوجته بأنه أحد أفراد تنظيم القاعدة بالسعودية فهو وزير المالية للتنظيم الذى يوفر المال والنساء للمجاهدين الذين يعملون لحساب التنظيم بالمملكة العربية السعودية.
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#رأيي الشخصى:- الرواية جيدة فمن خلال السرد نتعرف على عادات وتقاليد اهل قرية المشراف وثقافتهم المختلفة وحبهم الحكايات والأساطير.
#وكذالك حقيقة تنظيم القاعدة باليمن الذى يعمل على تجنيد المجاهدين بالسعودية من أجل عمليات إرهابية.
#تنبيه(لست متأكد من حقيقة الأحداث المذكورة فالرواية ليست الا عبارة عن مذكرات سرد للاحداث)

[ocean 99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story starts with the narrator claiming to be suddenly overtaken by an obsession with his village and its long-lost heritage. This obsession arose after he learned that his father had dug his grave in the village’s graveyard. His connection to this place becomes the driving force of the plot. Death, the absurdity of existence, and childhood memories are all prominent themes in this novella. It’s a story that shows how, oftentimes, leaving a place doesn’t mean it ceases to live inside you.

We see the narrator going back and forth between the city where he now lives and the village where he was born and raised. The village has a long, rich history saturated with obscure folklore and myth, which I found infinitely interesting. The narrator also reflects on the power of stories and storytelling—how, through storytelling, one gets to know oneself more deeply, yet how the stories we tell and weave can sometimes swallow us.

Our narrator greatly enjoys his own unreliability; we get to know so little about him and more about his ancestral line and the great legends of the story—the first two who set foot in this faraway place that now flourishes with life and numerous families who all trace their lineage back to them. Their story is filled with myths and dark secrets; it has been ingrained in the villagers’ collective memory as the most sensible of nonsensical truths they grew up hearing.

The narrator’s obstinate attachment to something that seems such an unfounded lie, his struggle to find a place to stand or to hold on to anything, perfectly captures his confrontation with life’s absurdity. Yet I kept asking myself: is this disruptive narration the novel’s way of representing the absurd reality of its world, or is it simply a weakness?

The novel has a great premise and compelling ideas, but the narrative style is weak. Some parts feel abrupt and others unedited, and in the last forty pages the book completely diverts from its original plot in a way that disrupts the narrative more than it enriches it. The failure of this book lies in the fact that it tries to do many things at once and ends up doing none of them. I was greatly disappointed, because I believe the author could have made something truly great out of this.