Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad

by Alia Mamdouh, Peter Theroux (Translation), Hélène Cixous (Foreword)

Seen through the eyes of a strong-willed and perceptive young girl, Naphtalene beautifully captures the atmosphere of Baghdad in the 1940s and 1950s. Through her rich and lyrical descriptions, Alia Mamdouh vividly recreates a city of public steam baths, roadside butchers, and childhood games played in the same streets where political demonstrations against British colonialism are beginning to take place.

At the heart of the novel is nine-year-old Huda, a girl whose fiery, defiant nature contrasts sharply with her own inherent powerlessness. Through Mamdouh's strikingly inventive use of language, Huda's stream-of-consciousness narrative expands to take in the life not only of a young girl and her family, but of her street, her neighborhood, and her country. Alia Mamdouh, winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Award in Arabic Literature, is a journalist, essayist and novelist living in exile in Paris. Long banned from publishing in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, she is the author of essays, short stories, and four novels, of which Naphtalene is the most widely acclaimed and translated.

Genres: Fiction, Middle East, Historical Fiction, Novels, 20th Century, Contemporary, Literature

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Alia Mamdouh also spelled Aliyah Mamduh (born 1944) to an Iraqi father and Syrian mother who both came from Tikrit and Alia grew up in the capital Baghdad. She is an Iraqi novelist, author and journalist living in exile in Paris, France. She holds an Naguib Mahfouz Award in Arabic Literature. She is most notably known for her book Naphtalene, as it was widely acclaimed and translated.

In 1982, after completing her degree in psychology from the University of Mustansiriya, which at the time she was working as editor-in-chief of Al Rasid magazine and editor of al-Fikr al-mua’sir magazine, she decided to move and live in Beirut, then Palestine and London and finally settling in Paris where she currently resides.

Reviews

[Tawfek · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
الرواية خدت أكثر من وقتها متخاذل جدًا في القراءة اليومين دول و الأسلوب قوي جدًا و ثقيل جدًا
و حاليًا عالية ممدوح تحتل بالنسبة ليا أقوي قلم نسوي أنا قرأتله
الرواية مش بس بتمثل المجتمع العراقي زمان و لكن كمان فيها اجزاء كثير ما زالت بتمثل المجتمعات العربية كلها حاليًا
شخصيات الرواية كلها تقريبًا فريدة من نوعها
بطلة الرواية من أقوي بطلات الروايات في إحساسها بكل شئ حواليها وصفها للروائح للأشياء للأحاسيس للأماكن شئ بديع جدًا
بما ان الرواية بدايتها تقريبًا كانت كلام عن نشاطات بعض الشخصيات الجنسية فهبدأ الريفيو بيها
الخالتان الشاذتان و العمة اللي بتشتهي روائح الآخرين و الجدة اللي عارفه نشاطات نساء البيت وبتتركهم لوحدهم و بتطلع تصلي علي السطح و تدعي ربنا يهدي الجميع و يسترهم
الحقيقة دي طبيعة المجتمع العربي كله دايمًا بيبقي عندنا معرفة بجزء من نشاطات القريبين مننا الجنسية او علي الأقل إحساس حتي لكن دايمًا بنفضل اننا منواجهش و نكون مواربين في الموضوع ده غير الجحافل اللي بتدعي ان ملهاش اي نشاط جنسي اصلًا ان كانوا ستات ولا رجالة
استغربت جدًا موضوع الخالتين الشواذ ده اول مرة تقابلني حاجة زي كده في رواية
العمة مستغربتش للدرجة بس الغريب في الموضوع كله ان الشخصيات دي في رواية عربية بقلم نسوي قوي جدًا حاجة عظيمة جدًا
خلينا نتكلم عن الأب و قسوته علي أهل بيته جميعًا لدرجة انك تحس انه سادي او مجنون و علي أولاده و بعده عن الجميع لينتهي به الأمر ان يترك زوجته المريضة و يرسلها لأهلها و يتزوج من أخري و يترك البيت نهائيًا بطفليه و يدبأ في رحلته للهاوية ما فعله كان يعتقد انه الصحيح بالنسبة له و لكن ما حدث أننا رأينا تشقق روحه مع كل حدث عظيم حتي لم يستطع ان يتمالك أعصابه في النهاية و تعري أمام كل السجن و هو يحرق ملابسه و يصرخ بكلام غير مفهوم
و هذا من أقوي مشاهد الرواية و جدير جدًا بكونه مشهد النهاية
و خلينا نتكلم عن الزوجة المريضة و ازاي في وقت من الأوقات كان عادي جدًا ان جوزها يسيبها و يبعتها لاهلها و محدش يقدر يقوله ان اللي بيعمله غلط !!!
و بقايا هذا النشاط ما زالت موجوده في المجتمعات الحالية و لكن بصورة نادرة
سمعت كثيرًا عن الأزواج الذين يتركون زوجاتهم لأنهم لاينجبون و الزوجات التي تشجع أزواجها علي الزواج بأخريات عندما يعلمون أنهم لا ينجبون و أن المشكلة منهن و لكن لم أسمع بحياتي عن زوجة تترك زوجها لأنه لا ينجب و لكني سمعت بالطبع العديد من حكايات الزوجات الاتي يخونون أزواجهم بسبب الضعف الجنسي
نظرتي للمجتمعات العربية للأسف نظرة تري كل ما هو سئ و أنا غير سعيد بما أري و لكن أيًا كان فلنكمل
فلنتكلم إذن عن العمة هذه الامرأة التي رفضت العديد من العرسان حتي كبر سنها كثيرًا لانها كانت تريد ابن عمها منير الغني و لكن منير شخصية تافهه غير مسؤولة انتهي به الأمر أن تركها قبل حتي أن يدخل بها و تركها بدون أن تعرف عنه أي شئ لمدة عام كامل و لكن العلقة التي أكلها علي يديها عندما عاد أخيرًا كانت تستحق كل هذا الإنتظار و شعور بالرضا من القارئ لما حدث لهذا الشخص المستهتر و لكن في نفس الوقت لا تستطيع ان تتعاطف مع العمة فريدة كثيرًا لانها بتعتنتها و رفضها للجميع و أنفها التي كانت في السماء دائمًا هي ما تسببت في كل هذا
هيا نتحدث عن الجدة هذه السيدة التي لم نر أي خطأ منها حتي نصل إلي آخر عشر صفحات فنجدها تخبر ابنها ان زوجته الجديدة نوريه ما زالت محرمه علي دخول البيت و انهما سيجدون له زوجة أخري أولًا قبل ان يتحدثوا في تفاصيل طلاقها
تناقد الجدة في هذا الموقف هي تعاقب ابنها و زوجته الجديدة علي ما فعلاه بحق أم هدي (إقبال) بانه تركها بانها تشجعه علي الزواج مرة أخري و ترك ثلاثة ابناء و زوجة جديدة ليتزوج للمرة الثالثة و هذا للأسف منطق غريب جدًا للأباء و الأمهات عندنا في المجتمع العربي و ما زال الكثير من التناقض فيما يتعلق بارتباط ابناءهم و زواجهم و هم حتي لا يفكرون ببنات الناس وقتها
عادل أخو هدي و حبه للبنت الثرية يذكرني كثيرًا بحبنا أيام الطفولة نحن نحب كثيرًا نهيم غرامًا في عقولنا الصغيرة و لكن عندما تسنح الفرصة للكلام مع من نحب كل ما نفعله هو ان نهرب
و الآن نتكلم عن بطلة الرواية هدي
في مشهد الحمام العراقي الجماعي للنساء أبهرتنا هدي و غمرتنا بمشاعرها و الروائح التي تشمها و الألوان التي تراها و الأجسام المختلفة و الانحناءات المختلفة التي ترسم كل جسد كانت تجربة أقل ما يقال عنها انه غامرة
لو لم تخبرنا هدي العديد من المرات بحبها لمحمود كنا سنظن من قوة الأحاسيس التي وجهتها للقراء في الحمام انها تحب النساء كخالاتها
هدي تذكرني كثيرًا بنفسي عندما غادرت منذ أعوام أبوسمبل بغير إرادتي
كيف كنت ما زلت متعلق بالجميع و لكن الجميع تخطاني بكل سهولة و أصبحت ذكري عابرة منسية في العقول
و هم ما زالوا ذكري حية في الكثير من أحلامي
تشعر ان جميع أفراد الحي ما صدقوا انهم سيغادرون فتنكروا جميعًا لبعضهم البعض و أن الحلقة الوحيدة التي كانت تربط الجميع ببعض هي هدي بحبها لهم بلا أي إستثناء
ستضطر هدي فجأة ان تعيش في عالم لا تنتمي له عالم جديد بلا اي صداقات ولا احباب ولا معارف
تشعر بالحنين و الحب الغامر لأشخاص نسوها منذ زمان و ليس عندهم اي استعداد ان يتصلوا بها مرة اخري
لنترك هدي بسلام مع معاناتها التي لن نعرفها بعد انتهاء احداث الرواية و نتجه إلي عبد الناصر
اجل هذا الزعيم العربي الخطيب الباهر الذي حرك مشاعر الجميع و أشعل الثورات في كل مكان
تأثير جمال عبد الناصر كان قوي جدًا علي العديد من الشعوب و لكنه كان مميت في نفس الوقت لقد عاش الجميع في وهم انهم جميعًا سيصبحون دول مستقلة و سيطردون العدو الصهيوني المحتل من فلسطين و انهم سوف يتحدون و جميع الأحلام ستتحقق
ليستيقظ الجميع علي الهزائم و خيبات الأمل العديدة و المتتالية
أرشح الرواية لجميع محبين الروايات الأدبي ذات الأساليب القوية و الأقلام الخالدة
يوجد العديد من الأقلام النسوية العملاقة في العالم العربي و لكن للأسف لا نعرف الكثير عنهم لأنه نادر ما يسلط الضوء علي الأدب الحقيقي فالضوء دائمًا مسلط علي البيست سيلرز للأسف

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in another edition as "Naphthalene," this is a coming of age story set in Baghdad during the 1950s. The author reveals the experience of growing up female in impressionistic vignettes, sometimes soaring into sequences of magical realism. She opens a window for western readers into a Muslim world where women band together in their often sequestered lives, surviving in an alien patriarchy that both limits and emboldens them.

Huda, the young girl at the center of this story, is not easily intimidated by the circumstances of her world, growing up female, her mother dying of tuberculosis and her father a police officer whose moods swing wildly between sentimentality and violence, taking a second wife and deserting his family, sending his first wife away and leaving sister, son and daughter in the care of his mother. Huda's younger brother Adil, a sensitive soul, is lovingly drawn, and her young aunt waits for a proposal of marriage that comes from a man who also, it turns out, is given to desertion. There are portraits of Huda's friends, including a lame girl and a boy who wins her heart, only to be drawn into perilous political unrest.

The most memorable scene for me is her reunion with her father, an officer at the prison in Karbala, and then his coming undone as others are promoted before him. You get a sense of the mystery of men, who are driven in this culture by social forces that both elevate them above women and destroy them. Vivid in its descriptions of scenes and people, the book represents an attempt to capture memories, fixing them in the naphtalene (mothballs) of the title, as time and circumstances move on, changing everything forever.

[Jannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

رواية فيها رائحة زمن قديم
عن بغداد القديمة عن الاعظمية عن كربلاء تذكرك بيوسف عمر وهو يقول:

في كل يوم جيئةٌ وذهابُ وللاعظميةِ والهوى جذابُ

الاسلوب جاف وممل لكن متعة التجول في بغداد القديمة تجبرك على القراءة


~ الاعظمية في الخمسينيات

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traditional urban life in Baghdad during early to middle nineteen fifties. Huda, who is straddling puberty, narrates the family-neighborhood novel. The poetic style and the realistic content create an acceptable balance of romance and raw truth. Not autobiographical, the book has some correspondence to real people. The novel impressed me by its cohesion from first to last. Everything introduced in the beginning was resolved by the end even to the neighborhood's dismantling. I also liked the boisterousness crowds at the public bath, the market, the playground, the train, and other gatherings and on the holy day. The story depicted change, sought after or adapted to. The colorfully described characters and the traditional urban setting paradoxically picture a stable and secure way of life now gone except in this story's glimpse.

[ناديا · Rating 1 out of 5]

أردت تصنيفها من الكتب السيئة :(
ولكنها رواية افضل مايقال عنها أنها تحكي عن زمن قديم في العراق ..

مليئة بالوصف والتفاصيل المملة ! حتى خلتها منقولة عن فيلم وثائقي ، وهي تصلح لذلك إن لم تكن ..

اردت الاطلاع على ادب عالية ممدوح قبل التانكي .. قد أؤجل نيتي رغم إقتنائها من معرض الشارقة .

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Above my weight class, will read again in a decade or so.

[Cora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naphtalene is the story of a young girl (at the beginning she is 9 years old, at the end she is about 12) growing up in Baghdad in the 1950s. It is very descriptive and atmospheric. The author does a good job bringing to life the everyday life of women in Iraq during this time period. Unfortunately for me, it was very hard to read. It is written in a stream of consciousness style. The author switches from first person to second person and back to first often, even in the middle of paragraphs. There are flashbacks that you don't realize are flashbacks until it mentions a character who has already gone. The writing style really made it hard for me to follow what was going on in the story. The parts I was able to look past the style and absorb the story were wonderfully evocative of the place and time.

[Kasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Innovative writing not always easiest to read but at the same time firing imagination.Iraq and Baghdad from this novel no longer exist.Beautiful and complex.Alia Mamdouh is one of the best Iraqi woman writers and recognised worldwide.

[Nihel Nihel N · Rating 4 out of 5]

حبيت العراق اللي شفتها بالرواية ❤️❤️

[Ranya · Rating 3 out of 5]

تحكي المؤلفة عن المجتمع النسوي البغدادي في العهد الملكي -في خمسينيات القرن العشرين على الأغلب- و كيف عاشوا حيواتهم البسيطة التي وصفت تفاصيلها بلغة تجمع بين الفصيح والدارج من الكلمات فيشعر القارئ وكأنه يعيش أحداث الرواية مع شخصياتها. تدور أحداث الرواية في مدينة بغداد حيث تروي الشخصية الرئيسية ،هدى، وهي طفلة لأب عراقي يعمل في سجن في مدينة كربلاء وأم من حلب، تفاصيل حياتها ومن حولها من الأهل و الجيران.

استمتعت بقراءة هذه الرواية بدءًا من عنوانها الملفت وكونها أول رواية عراقية أقرؤها حسب ما أتذكر.

[Najwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

هي خواطر وذكريات لطفلة مشوشة تذبذبت في سردها الكاتبة بين صيغة المتكلم والمخاطب فتاهت وتوهتنا معها لم تعجبني ولم تزدني معرفة ولم أفهم سرالتسمية وما علاقة حبات النفتالين بالموضوع كما أنها استخدمت الكثيرمن الكلمات باللهجة العراقية التي قديصعب فهمها
على القارئ الغير عراقي

[غيدا اليمن · Rating 2 out of 5]

منهك للغاية . تراجيديا الحياة العراقية في الخمسينيات بأسلوب غريب في قسوته . لا أعرف ما الذي دفعني إلى متابعة قراءته حتى النهاية

[Llanos Montero · Rating 3 out of 5]

La novelista y periodista iraquí Alia Mamdouh, nacida en Bagdad en 1944, pertenece a una generación de mujeres que viven los grandes cambios que tienen lugar en el mundo árabe en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Publicó su primera colección de relatos breves, Obertura para la risa, en Beirut en 1973; a la que siguió cinco años más tarde, en 1978, Notas al margen para la señora B. Su primera novela, Leyla y el lobo, nació en Bagdad en 1980. Durante este periodo, Alia compaginó su labor literaria con sus trabajos como redactora jefa del hebdomadario ar-Rasid y ayudante de redactor en la revista cultural libanesa al-Fikr al-muasir.
Su vida da un giro en 1982, cuando abandona Iraq y, tras pasar por Marruecos y Gran Bretaña, se instala en París, donde todavía vive. Su exilio no es una huida del régimen político, sino del régimen patriarcal que la oprime y la denigra. Precisamente en Naftalina, su segunda novela, escrita en 1986, describe el mundo femenino en el que viven confinadas las mujeres árabes desde la perspectiva de una niña de nueve años. Se trata, sin duda, de la novela más conocida y difundida de Alia Mamduh, traducida al español por Iñaqui Gutiérrez de Terán y publicada por Ediciones del Mediterráneo en el año 2000. Forma parte, junto con La pasión (1995) y La moza (1999), de una autobiografía literaria en la que la autora desgrana su infancia en Bagdad y sus primeras inquietudes culturales y políticas. La vida en el barrio y en Badgad se atiene a dos principios: “si robas, nadie te abrirá en canal para ver lo que llevas dentro; y si mientes, Dios es indulgente y compasivo”.
Huda, la joven protagonista de Naftalina, es una niña rebelde que vierte sus sentimientos sobre todos aquellos que la rodean, especialmente las mujeres de su familia. Esta novela nos descubre la vida en un barrio pobre de Bagdad a finales de la década de 1940, especialmente la vida de las mujeres, que parecen vivir recluidas en otro mundo. La pequeña Huda vive en la casa familiar con su hermano, Adel; su madre, Iqbal; su abuela paterna y su tía Farida. En torno a ellas, se presenta un amplio abanico de mujeres unidas por la camaradería y su lucha común contra la opresión patriarcal. Esta opresión queda perfectamente reflejada en las primeras páginas del libro: “llamaban Jan a las mujeres decentes de los períodos bagdadí y otomano, y a las que el padre, el abuelo o el hermano condenaron a la soledad y la humillación, y también a cargar para siempre con ese mote”.
La infancia de nuestra protagonista está marcada por las manifestaciones contra la ocupación británica y por la enfermedad de su madre, que terminará siendo repudiada por el padre de Huda, Yamil, y enviada a Siria. Yamil se casa por segunda vez y engendra otros hijos con su nueva esposa, pero tanto la abuela como Farida los rechazarán, puesto que es a Iqbal a quien realmente consideran su familia. Así, harán todo lo posible para mantener alejados a Huda y a Adel de Nuriya, a la que no llegarán a conocer.
Quienes parecen dominar todos los acontecimientos que se suceden en la vida de Huda y su familia son dos hombres: su padre y su tío Munir. Ambos personajes imponen su voluntad, impidiendo que las mujeres sean libres y que accedan a la vida pública. Yamil se nos presenta como una especie de ogro a los ojos de Huda, a quien maltrata: cuando él está delante, ni siquiera se atreven a jugar. Munir, por su parte, corta las alas de Farida, cuya vida y felicidad dependen únicamente de la voluntad de este.
Justamente es el personaje de Farida el que se lleva la peor parte. La hermosa joven espera paciente a que Munir, un hombre que le dobla la edad la pida en matrimonio; y cuando este por fin lo hace, el día de su boda se transforma inesperadamente en un funeral. Su esposo desaparece durante un año, condenándola a un matrimonio infeliz y lleno de su ausencia. A su regreso, lo recibe una Farida furiosa y cambiada que le propina una brutal paliza como castigo por haberla abandonado, al grito de “¡ni aun matándote con estas manos me daría por satisfecha!”.
Las mujeres están cubiertas a lo largo de toda la obra por el velo del sufrimiento. Alia Mamduh denuncia en este relato despiadado la dura situación la mujer árabe y, más concretamente, de la mujer iraquí. Sin embargo, la autora también nos regala momentos de transgresión, sobre todo en sus prolijas descripciones de mujeres proporcionándose placer a sí mismas, como en el caso de Farida; o entre ellas, como Nayia y Bahiya. La prosa de Mamduh destaca no solo por su cuidado cultivo de recursos novedosos en su ámbito narrativo, sino también por su denuncia del estado de postración que, históricamente, ha sufrido la mujer árabe. Aunque Naftalina no es una obra escrita para el lector occidental medio, para quien resulta casi imposible comprender las referencias culturales al mundo árabe, su lectura resulta enriquecedora y casi obligada para ver la cultura árabe desde el punto de vista femenino

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

We meet 9 year old Huda in the mid-1950s, living in Baghdad and beginning to realise that the life she wants to live is not really open to girls. Her grandmother insists on housework; her mainly absent father explores in fury that she plays in the street; her ailing mother looks on. Yet Huda seems fearless – more so than her younger brother Adil. She befriends the outsiders; disabled Firdous; the withdrawn and intellectual Mahmoud – and crafts a place for herself in their close community of neighbours.

Mamdouh’s novel is a delight, drawing us into a place and time little known to the wider world; this is not just the Iraq of the colonial era (when a British quest for oil dominated, replaced decades later by a US quest for the same product), but an Iraq of women, community and home. Huda’s father, a police officer in Karbala, is absent even before he leaves – visiting intermittently and asserting his patriarchal dominance. He remains so absent that the only piece of good advice he gives is ignored, much to the disadvantage of the household’s women. But this is not his story, or the story of any men, but of Huda and the women in her family who negotiate their place in the world balancing the patriarchal expectations with the reality of the absence of men. Older, adult, brothers and men barely step beyond the margins of the narrative and when they do, they disrupt, disturb and unsettle a world of which they know little, except in their belief it exists only to serve them. At the same time, many girls and women exist only as mythical figures behind household walls, often as a product of class as of gender.

The literary style is unsettling, the narrative breaks away from a linear form to allow readers into the past in the present, characters’ memories and community stories. To this Mamdouh adds a shifting perspective as Huda’s story shifts between a first and second person perspective, with no clarity on who the second person narrator might be – perhaps an adult Huda, perhaps Mamdouh is letting the author’s voice break into the text, perhaps and God-like eye is telling Huda things she has forgotten or were not known to her (it could be both). Whatever the source of the external voice, it helps intensify the tension and link the episodes that provide intensity to a growing narrative of distress, pending adolescence and social and political disruption. Huda is moving into uncertain times, but she is doing so with the women she loves, even if they’re having trouble coping with the changes.

Mamdouh fell afoul of the Baathist political order in the 1980s for her explicit engagement with politics, power and issues of sexuality. She is also, it is claimed, the first Iraqi woman novelist translated into English. Huda’s story, the fabulous Naphtalene, makes me want to find more. Highly recommended.

[MyIntrovertedSoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetic novel that describes the mid 19th century Iraq and the trials and tribulations of the Iraqi women then.
The women in the novel have a mind of their own and happen to give it back to the men who try to dominate them.
Nice narrative from 12 year old girl's perspective.

[Clivemichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. A translation even....

[Erez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really vivid.

[DubaiReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

A difficult read.

This is a difficult book to review because, although it provides quite a fascinating insight into life, particularly the lives of women, in 1950s Baghdad, unfortunately the content is obscured by overly wordy, often vague language, that makes the book very difficult to understand.
Personally, I found the 'Napthalene' section of the Afterward, to be hugely instructive about what I'd actually read. A lot was clarified by this section, including the relationships between all the characters and the significance of many of the events.

The story is narrated by Huda who is ten-years old at the start of the book. However, the majority of her narration is in the second person, which I found very alienating.
This was an era of relative pace, during the reign of King Faisal II, and Huda is able to play in the streets with the boys and generally enjoy her childhood. Her father is a policemen, a threatening character, who spends much of this time living at the Prison, but whose menacing presence is felt by everyone when he is home. Her mother has tuberculosis and Huda and her younger brother are largely raised by their grandmother in a house with their teenage aunt, of marriageable age.

We follow Huda into the years of her puberty, where she struggles with having to wear the cloak, which keeps falling off and which she finds very hot, making her head itch.

There was an excessive amount of reference to coughing, snot and the stink of sweat, which didn't make for pleasant reading.

Like The Loved Ones, also by Alia Mamdouh, it's hard to know if the obscure language is a factor of the book or of the translation, but as both books had different translators, this seems less likely. Certainly, within our book group, those who had read The Loved Ones in Arabic, had similar problems with the text.

[Gloria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to rate this low only because for me it was hard to read. I try translations every once in a while and so far this is my first Arabic one, I think. The language painted a somewhat chaotic story for me of the young Huda and her family living together in a small house in Baghdad. She is a bully and not very likeable, and seems to rush around a lot acting more like a boy than a girl. Her mother is suffering from tuberculosis; her aunt is yearning to marry and her grandmother is saintly. Her father seems the stereotypical self-absorbed head of the house living his life as he pleases, getting all the attention, choice foods, best clothes. You get the flavour of a society not at all like our Canadian one, but to make sense of it you must persevere and pay attention to the writing. I understand the Arabic language is quite poetical, and this narrative might not translate into English very well.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young ten year old Huda is growing up in Baghdad. Her mother has tuberculosis & her father, a police officer, instills fear in the whole family. Even before her mother dies, her father abandons them to marry another women who is due to have his child. Then Huda & her brother are left to be raised by her grandmother & an aunt.

Huda is somewhat of a wild child, she hates school, always misses her classes. She would rather play with the boys at their street games. She does not want to wear the dreaded "cloak". She loves her grandmother deeply, her grandmother is well respected by everybody.

The author gives vivid descriptions of life of women in Baghdad. Very descriptive of the sights & the smells of Baghdad. This book was initially written in Arabic in the 80's. Alia Mamdouh is an Iraqi award winning author. This is the first novel by an Iraqi author to be published in America.

[Anjoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to tell if the translation of this is a bit off, or if the writer just liked to change perspective every few lines, or even within the same sentence, but there is something 3-D about this book (sorry, no better way to put it) that transforms the perspective of the reader. When I sell this book at conferences, I tell prospective buyers that it reads like poetry--if you move through it too quickly, you miss all the beautiful details. This is a novel about 1950s Iraq, and the story follows the disruptive girl child, Huda. Love it. Mamdouh is a beautiful writer. Oh, and riddle me this--this is the first novel written by an Iraqi woman to be published in the United States! How the hell didn't another publishing house get to tout that title first? Ah, suspicious mainstream publishers, you were sleeping!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She called out, she praised God, she aged, and when we came back, we saw Baghdad in her eyelids. She surrounded us with her wrists and forearm. We fled from her and she was silent. Baghdad, my mother is the most beautiful thing you have." --Aliah Mamdouh, Naphtalene

I had to read about 10 books written by Muslim women for a class last year, but this one really stayed in my head. The young girl in the story poetically describes her memories of a childhood in Baghdad, and how the men and women around her taught her the values of a Muslim society and how she struggled to fit in to that mold. Includes a wonderful afterword about the author and gender roles in Muslim society.

[Miranda Henley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a bit difficult for me to follow at first because of the changing points of view and the jumping around in time, and I had a hard time keeping some of the names straight. But this was an amazing novel. It's more poetry than anything, and it's the sort of writing that you just have to let wash over you. When I was finally able let go of trying to decipher everything immediately and instead focus on the beauty of the language and descriptions, I found the book captivating. And in the end, I did know what had happened throughout the novel. The story comes to you in bits and pieces, which you can start to fit together once you have enough of them gathered. Absolutely gorgeous.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. I would have liked to give it another half star. Her style drove me a little crazy but at some point I just gave myself over to it. It almost totally consists of sensory impressions of growing up in Bagdhad in the 1950s. The narrative voice constantly changes from first to second to third. What story there is is about a young girl, Huda. After her father leaves to start another family, her mother dies of tuberculosis, and the children are raised by their pious grandmother. The city of Bagdhad, the baths, the market, a trip for a religious holiday - each description written in intense, almost fiery prose.

[Maria GR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela de corte autobiográfico que narra las experiencias de una niña en el Bagdad de finales de los años cuarenta. A través de la protagonista, Huda, conocemos la vida diaria de una familia en un barrio humilde en el que todos se conocen y donde cada uno hace frente a sus propias miserias.

El personaje de Huda te atrapa, pero sobre todo el de la abuela que "nos acompañaba hasta el fin del mundo cuando nos apartábamos del camino y montaba guardia ante nuestras almas si nos equivocábamos".

[Anisah · Rating 2 out of 5]

would not reccomend this book, unless your up for a challange its very hard to follow at some scenes i was very confused with what was going at the moment, but i slowly caught on. It really describes and breaks the idea of women being opressed and under control, it shows that woman are tougher than they seem. The whole book really paints a picture of the life of a woman living in Iraq, its difference from how people see it

[Karen]

* Understanding Oppression: Women's Rights (Then and Now)

Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad by Alia Mamdouh | This first novel by an Iraqi woman to be published in English in the United States is a hallucinatory incantation/an ode to a city/(with) its private courtyards and public baths where the women in Huda’s life rage and pray and love and scream. #fiction #novel (Women Writing the Middle East)

[Raye G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far it is good; kind of hard to get into but very interesting. This novel is one of the first by an Iraqi woman to be published in English in the U.S. (author: Alia Mamdouh). I find it interesting b/c I work with someone who was born and raised in Iraq.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful book that deserves a better translation. Arabic idioms when rendered literally make no sense and pronouns need antecedents. Still a powerful poetic evocation of Bagdad in the 1950s.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book while in Egypt and it gave me a nice inside look at life in Baghdad 20 (?) years ago. Very potent imagery.