Of Cities & Women

by Etel Adnan

Nonfiction. "Written against the background of war at the turn of this century, this millennium—the Gulf War, the Lebanese civil war and the military occupations of that country, the author's country of origin—these letters, OF CITIES AND WOMEN, are in their turn now letters to cities and women—that we, that is, women and men alike, might eventually, before it is too late, 'find the right geography for our revelations.'"—Barbara Harlow

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Poetry, Feminism, Lebanon, Memoir

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

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

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

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

Reviews

[Ralph Römer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful essays. Adnan's empathy is boundless. She is a true artist with a deep love for humanity. Through her beautiful descriptions of the cities she visits she writes about the situation of women in these places. The threat of what eventually becomes the '91 gulf war is omnipresent, her fear of it follows her to every destination, whether it is Barcelona, Skopelos or Rome.

I especially love the first of the two essays she wrote about her hometown of Beirut, her love and fears for that place can be felt.

I would highly recommend you to take a look at her paintings. Looking at them helped me understand the calmness and depth of her artistic sensibility. It has become a true joy to spend some time with two of her paintings that hang in the Stedelijk in Amsterdam.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

ugggghhhhhh so good

I am so content not understanding it all because I had such a dreamy yet melancholic time reading this.

[Ida]

“By their very dimensions great events seem to obliterate themselves. Soon the war will have disappeared from the conversations, it will assume the fleeting consistency of a nightmare. It will be stored in people’s memories and will emerge again only as a myth, sacralized in its turn. It will die and be redeemed in the land of the dead.”

[Tabassum · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…to look at the sea is to become what one is.”

[Ygraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

not v compelling on women, but occasionally Sublime on cities and strangers and friends.

[Cicely · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect book to read while alone in a new city

[Meenal Manolika]

would be best enjoyed in bits and pieces on the streets, parks, ruins, and hotel rooms of foreign (yet somewhat familiar) cities

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

not my favorite etel but the most mid work by etel adnan better than most people's work. So

[Maria Hiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this from start to finish at firestone lmao

[Jebediah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleventy billion stars? Why aren't there more stars than five?

[sarah joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

« To live with defeats, to share one's room with them, to chase away gas fumes with one's hands, to eat things that are swimming in oil, to remain. standing for hours before news racks, these are the elements with which we counter the things which devour us. How can we attain whomever or whatever with such tools? We need to drink and vomit, to vomit an overused soul to make room for the possibility of a new one, something which we are far from being sure to get. »

[Able Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I read this for a class. And no, thats not the reason i didnt like it. Adnan is an accomplished writer but her work is strongest when she sticks to her direct observations. The opinions so often skirt the same kind of “fake deep” radfem nonsense seen all too often on twitter these days, saying very little in unnecessarily lofty prose. It left me at best bored and at worst in a gender rage. With that said, I have to give credit to Adnan’s descriptive prose, despite the fact that she frequently resorts to the objectification of foreign women, something I would not have expected coming from a Lebanese born world traveling feminist. This book is an interesting time capsule of a moment in recent middle eastern and european history but beyond that nothing special.

[Oumaima Hassoun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meuuh!

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a stunning collection of letters.

[Josephine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful , I will definitely read this again

It reminded me of beautiful days

[Katrinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Aditi Somani · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much of what Etel writes about Beirut makes me think of Mumbai

[Swarm Feral · Rating 4 out of 5]

Letters. Berlin, Germany, closer to Hölderlin than ones peers, The Invasion of Iraq. Beirut, Lebanon. I can't do this book justice in that it's an easy read with a criticality and flow. Good stuff.

[- Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A number of letters, Etel wrote it to one of her journalists friends, journaling to her journey to Spain, with her lifetime partner, as a methodological, more practical approach to witness how women are treated, represented, and were visibly contributing on the cultural and the art scene.

the way Etel writes, so full of feminiaity, and such mystical, and child like, inocnent artistic spirit, of looking at the woeld, as her approachs towards such topics like freedom and the marriage institutions, and the very fact of how women are considered to be the metaphorical representation of nature, and she qoutes the Quran, with such miraculous and astonishing Interpretation

[Nia Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

etel etel i love u so much