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Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging
Named a Michigan Notable Book for 2023! Hadha Baladuna ("this is our country") is the first work of creative nonfiction in the field of Arab American literature that focuses entirely on the Arab diaspora in Metro Detroit, an area with the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the US. Narratives move from a young Lebanese man in the early 1920s peddling his wares along country roads to an aspiring Iraqi-Lebanese poet who turns to the music of Tupac Shakur for inspiration. The anthology then pivots to experiences growing up Arab American in Detroit and Dearborn, capturing the cultural vibrancy of urban neighborhoods and dramatizing the complexity of what it means to be Arab, particularly from the vantage point of biracial writers. Included in these works is a fearless account of domestic and sexual abuse and a story of a woman who comes to terms with her queer identity in a community that is not entirely accepting. The anthology concludes with explorations of political activism dating back to the 1960s and Dearborn's shifting demographic landscape.
Hadha Baladuna : Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging contains stories of immigration and exile by following newcomers' attempts to assimilate into American society. Editors Ghassan Zeineddine, Nabeel Abraham, and Sally Howell have assembled a cast of emerging and established writers from a wide array of communities, including cultural heritages originating from Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Yemen. The strong pattern in Arab Detroit today is to oppose marginalization through avid participation in almost every form of American identity-making. This engaged stance is not a byproduct of culture, but a new way of thinking about the US in relation to one's homeland.
Hadha Baladuna : Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging contains stories of immigration and exile by following newcomers' attempts to assimilate into American society. Editors Ghassan Zeineddine, Nabeel Abraham, and Sally Howell have assembled a cast of emerging and established writers from a wide array of communities, including cultural heritages originating from Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Yemen. The strong pattern in Arab Detroit today is to oppose marginalization through avid participation in almost every form of American identity-making. This engaged stance is not a byproduct of culture, but a new way of thinking about the US in relation to one's homeland.
- GenresNonfictionShort Stories
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
14 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Ghassan Zeineddine
2 books56 followersGhassan Zeineddine was born in Washington, DC, and raised in the Middle East.
He is the author of the short story collection Dearborn (2023) and coeditor of the creative nonfiction anthology Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging (2022).
His fiction has appeared in the Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, The Arkansas International, Witness, Pleiades, Fiction International, The Common, Epiphany, FOLIO, Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts, and the Iron Horse Literary Review, among other publications.
He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Oberlin College and has previously taught at the American University of Beirut, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kenyon College, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
He is the author of the short story collection Dearborn (2023) and coeditor of the creative nonfiction anthology Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging (2022).
His fiction has appeared in the Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Michigan Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, The Arkansas International, Witness, Pleiades, Fiction International, The Common, Epiphany, FOLIO, Grist: A Journal of the Literary Arts, and the Iron Horse Literary Review, among other publications.
He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Oberlin College and has previously taught at the American University of Beirut, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kenyon College, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 4, 2023
A well edited collection of stories showcasing the beautiful, complicated, and emotional experiences of Arab Americans in Dearborn. Because I know about 25% of the contributors personally, this was an especially enjoyable read.
September 21, 2022
Rated mostly for its importance rather than its literary style, this collection of personal essays, memoir, historical perspectives, and poetry (re)(dis)locates our thinking about what it means to be Arab, especially in the changing neighborhoods in and around Detroit. What is welcome in this collection is the near absence of works which revolve around politics, favoring instead representations of the titular idea of "home," "our country"--to be sure, a problematic and nuanced idea.
No single essay (save perhaps a far-sighted one by editor Abraham) attempts to answer the question absolutely, but this is just the idea for the work: to the surprise of no one, the lives and experiences of the authors here are diverse and divided (even upon themselves). Indeed, what it means to Arab is itself frequently called into question, especially amongst those writers who sit as second or third generation immigrants, among those who select differing patchworks of cultures (never singular) to make their own.
Little here is pretentious, less is argumentative. All of the readings are personal--even somewhat private--experiences of confusion, despair, optimism, resolve, love. And for this alone, the volume is worth the read. If you have never grown up in the unique space which is Dearborn, if you do not carry a history located in the Middle East, you can not know.
No single essay (save perhaps a far-sighted one by editor Abraham) attempts to answer the question absolutely, but this is just the idea for the work: to the surprise of no one, the lives and experiences of the authors here are diverse and divided (even upon themselves). Indeed, what it means to Arab is itself frequently called into question, especially amongst those writers who sit as second or third generation immigrants, among those who select differing patchworks of cultures (never singular) to make their own.
Little here is pretentious, less is argumentative. All of the readings are personal--even somewhat private--experiences of confusion, despair, optimism, resolve, love. And for this alone, the volume is worth the read. If you have never grown up in the unique space which is Dearborn, if you do not carry a history located in the Middle East, you can not know.
January 11, 2026
Book Review
Hadha Baladuna
2/5 stars
Unfocused. Low wheat to chaff ratio.
*******
(231 pages)
Big thoughts:
1. This book is an obvious example of ethnogenesis, it's just that it's done Arab style.
What else would it look like?
You have a bunch of people from a bunch of different regions/countries, with different local cultures, speaking different versions of Arabic. (I have met Yemenis and Lebanese who work at the same gas station that choose to converse with each other in English for convenience because their Arabic is so far apart.)
No, not everybody wants to maintain that much 7th century Bedouin substrate in their everyday life in Western country, especially when there are 3.2 mln mi² of options of the United States in which to live a life away from nosy neighbors and relatives.
2. Andrzej Kulczycki has studied Arabs and interracial marriage over many decades, and the pattern is the same. About 4/5 of the men marry non-arabs and about 3/5 of the women--and that's *just* in the first generation.
So, for those of us that live in the Real World there's nowhere near as much anguish about what is ones racial identity. (p. 79: "Abu Ali and Abu Ahmed's wives were white 'Americans.'' Abu Jawad's wife was Filipino. Abu Hadi's wife was Costa Rican.")
The Arab men have been loving the white trim (like everybody else) for a long time. (In places like UAE, notice what race most of the prostitutes are.)
3. The book is very Islamocentric. Most Arabs in the United States are Christian, and a good fraction of Lebanon. If you did not know that, you would not find it from this book.
4. Academics find a bunch of problems where none exist, and I'm taking this book with a bushel of salt.
We have had many different groups of white people come here since the 1600s that may have had a lifelong hatred of each other wherever they were from, but they just moved here and became White. (English and Irish, for the classic example.)
Without much commentary--leastways, not as much as in this book.
5. Somebody was trying to publish something for purposes of an application for tenure. I think two out of the three of the authors already have tenure, and the other one was hired in 2023 at Oberlin College.
So, if he gets enough paper in between two covers then that goes on his CV.
Of the book:
1. There are 21 chapters over 230 pages, which is exactly 11 pages per chapter.
2. The three authors of the book have a total of 75 pages (34%).
Chapters that are a waste of time:
1. A series of lame poems (including one channeling of EE Cummings by Yasmine Rukia, the "Shia queer experimental poet"): Alifabet Soup... Thinking Detroit, Personal Political Poem, The Day Phil Levine Died, That Summer That Year During The Heat Wave, 1979, Apokaluptein, Baghdad in Detroit (8 chapters).
If I'm reading a book about characteristics of real people, I don't want to wade through a poem to speculate about what it could mean.
Prose will do just fine for these purposes.
2. A lame attempt at stream of consciousness writing--American Road Trip. (Don't know who this author is trying to mimic.) 1 chapter.
3. A Conversation with Rania Matar=a series of photographs of 3 hot Arab women, one fatty (Fatima), and one with no face, all about 21 years old. Some low value added commentary. Only one picture of each. Basically a space filler, since good pictures don't need words. 1 chapter.
4. On the Margins: Queer, Arab, American. A non-binary half Arab / half-white baby elephant (Instagram, "Mai Jakubowski") makes an issue that exists nowhere except in her mind/Gender Studies class about these things. (Who knows? Maybe there is some good cooter there for somebody who wants to dig up under all those layers of fat to find it.) 1 chapter.
Chapters that were good:
1. Not Arab Enough. He seems just like a normal guy who is describing the process of assimilation as it actually exists. He is a convert to Christianity, though the grandchild of an Arab sheikh.
2. Watan. A fairly neutral refugee describes her experience starting in Iraq and coming to the United states.
3. Notes on a Dearborn. The process of ethnogenesis as it existed about 30 years ago.
4. My Dearborn. Sally Howell gives us a relatively short biography (11 pages) and explains to us how she came to be a director of the center for Arab American studies in spite of speaking Arab as a second language and having no Arab ancestry. (She is silent on whether she is a muslim, but honest that she is an Arab groupie.)
5. An Atlas of Homes. A series of migrations that culminated in living in the United States. (Two generations in one story that had no problem leaving their children behind with relatives as a condition of accepting a second marriage.)
6. Urban Nomad. A woman describes horrific abuse at the hands of her Arab (step?) father. From the pictures, it appears that her mother was a troubled white woman that found an abusive Arab husband. (He did question her paternity, and I kind of see why.)
7. In Retrospect. A Yemeni woman gets married and divorced and deals with the conflicts when her family/husband begins to realize that we are not in a village in Yemen in the 11th century. (I would have thought that the snow and indoor plumbing would have been definite clues, but what do I know?)
7 chapters.
The remaining 4 chapters were okay, but nothing in particular to write home about.
One chapter of those 5 (Word Man: A Quest....) is a bit uncomfortable, because it says a lot without even saying it: a teenager decides to be stupid and perform poorly, so it only makes logical sense that he would identify with black people.
(Thanks a lot!)
Verdict: Not recommended. Save your money.
Hadha Baladuna
2/5 stars
Unfocused. Low wheat to chaff ratio.
*******
(231 pages)
Big thoughts:
1. This book is an obvious example of ethnogenesis, it's just that it's done Arab style.
What else would it look like?
You have a bunch of people from a bunch of different regions/countries, with different local cultures, speaking different versions of Arabic. (I have met Yemenis and Lebanese who work at the same gas station that choose to converse with each other in English for convenience because their Arabic is so far apart.)
No, not everybody wants to maintain that much 7th century Bedouin substrate in their everyday life in Western country, especially when there are 3.2 mln mi² of options of the United States in which to live a life away from nosy neighbors and relatives.
2. Andrzej Kulczycki has studied Arabs and interracial marriage over many decades, and the pattern is the same. About 4/5 of the men marry non-arabs and about 3/5 of the women--and that's *just* in the first generation.
So, for those of us that live in the Real World there's nowhere near as much anguish about what is ones racial identity. (p. 79: "Abu Ali and Abu Ahmed's wives were white 'Americans.'' Abu Jawad's wife was Filipino. Abu Hadi's wife was Costa Rican.")
The Arab men have been loving the white trim (like everybody else) for a long time. (In places like UAE, notice what race most of the prostitutes are.)
3. The book is very Islamocentric. Most Arabs in the United States are Christian, and a good fraction of Lebanon. If you did not know that, you would not find it from this book.
4. Academics find a bunch of problems where none exist, and I'm taking this book with a bushel of salt.
We have had many different groups of white people come here since the 1600s that may have had a lifelong hatred of each other wherever they were from, but they just moved here and became White. (English and Irish, for the classic example.)
Without much commentary--leastways, not as much as in this book.
5. Somebody was trying to publish something for purposes of an application for tenure. I think two out of the three of the authors already have tenure, and the other one was hired in 2023 at Oberlin College.
So, if he gets enough paper in between two covers then that goes on his CV.
Of the book:
1. There are 21 chapters over 230 pages, which is exactly 11 pages per chapter.
2. The three authors of the book have a total of 75 pages (34%).
Chapters that are a waste of time:
1. A series of lame poems (including one channeling of EE Cummings by Yasmine Rukia, the "Shia queer experimental poet"): Alifabet Soup... Thinking Detroit, Personal Political Poem, The Day Phil Levine Died, That Summer That Year During The Heat Wave, 1979, Apokaluptein, Baghdad in Detroit (8 chapters).
If I'm reading a book about characteristics of real people, I don't want to wade through a poem to speculate about what it could mean.
Prose will do just fine for these purposes.
2. A lame attempt at stream of consciousness writing--American Road Trip. (Don't know who this author is trying to mimic.) 1 chapter.
3. A Conversation with Rania Matar=a series of photographs of 3 hot Arab women, one fatty (Fatima), and one with no face, all about 21 years old. Some low value added commentary. Only one picture of each. Basically a space filler, since good pictures don't need words. 1 chapter.
4. On the Margins: Queer, Arab, American. A non-binary half Arab / half-white baby elephant (Instagram, "Mai Jakubowski") makes an issue that exists nowhere except in her mind/Gender Studies class about these things. (Who knows? Maybe there is some good cooter there for somebody who wants to dig up under all those layers of fat to find it.) 1 chapter.
Chapters that were good:
1. Not Arab Enough. He seems just like a normal guy who is describing the process of assimilation as it actually exists. He is a convert to Christianity, though the grandchild of an Arab sheikh.
2. Watan. A fairly neutral refugee describes her experience starting in Iraq and coming to the United states.
3. Notes on a Dearborn. The process of ethnogenesis as it existed about 30 years ago.
4. My Dearborn. Sally Howell gives us a relatively short biography (11 pages) and explains to us how she came to be a director of the center for Arab American studies in spite of speaking Arab as a second language and having no Arab ancestry. (She is silent on whether she is a muslim, but honest that she is an Arab groupie.)
5. An Atlas of Homes. A series of migrations that culminated in living in the United States. (Two generations in one story that had no problem leaving their children behind with relatives as a condition of accepting a second marriage.)
6. Urban Nomad. A woman describes horrific abuse at the hands of her Arab (step?) father. From the pictures, it appears that her mother was a troubled white woman that found an abusive Arab husband. (He did question her paternity, and I kind of see why.)
7. In Retrospect. A Yemeni woman gets married and divorced and deals with the conflicts when her family/husband begins to realize that we are not in a village in Yemen in the 11th century. (I would have thought that the snow and indoor plumbing would have been definite clues, but what do I know?)
7 chapters.
The remaining 4 chapters were okay, but nothing in particular to write home about.
One chapter of those 5 (Word Man: A Quest....) is a bit uncomfortable, because it says a lot without even saying it: a teenager decides to be stupid and perform poorly, so it only makes logical sense that he would identify with black people.
(Thanks a lot!)
Verdict: Not recommended. Save your money.
October 26, 2023
Some amazing, powerful stories here
March 25, 2024
I feel like every American should read this book. It's amazing how personal it was.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews