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Arab American Writing
Loom: A Novel
As a blizzard blankets the northeast United States, burying residents and shutting down airports, the Zaydan family eagerly awaits the arrival of Eva, a cousin visiting from Lebanon after a long separation from the family. Over the course of one day, while Eva is stranded in New York City, Chehade's nuanced story unfolds in the reminiscences and anxieties of each family member.
Emilie, the matriarch of this Lebanese American family, lives in a world of voluntary silence. Barely able to read and write in English and refusing to speak for the last several years, she immerses herself in her garden and leaves elaborately cooked meals anonymously for her solitary neighbor. Emilie's oldest daughter Josephine, middle aged and still living with her mother and married brother, struggles to regain the independence and confidence she had as a young girl in Lebanon. Young Marie, stifled by her conservative family, is determined to study at Berkeley and to leave behind her immigrant identity. All three are drawn to their mysterious neighbor, nicknamed Loom, whose loneliness and isolation mirror their own and kindle within each woman a desire to make a connection. When Emilie takes off during the blizzard in the direction of Loom's house and the rest of the family follows in her pursuit, their act is both an escape and a reaching out. Beautifully written and teeming with vivid portraits, Chehade's novel is both heartfelt and wise.
Emilie, the matriarch of this Lebanese American family, lives in a world of voluntary silence. Barely able to read and write in English and refusing to speak for the last several years, she immerses herself in her garden and leaves elaborately cooked meals anonymously for her solitary neighbor. Emilie's oldest daughter Josephine, middle aged and still living with her mother and married brother, struggles to regain the independence and confidence she had as a young girl in Lebanon. Young Marie, stifled by her conservative family, is determined to study at Berkeley and to leave behind her immigrant identity. All three are drawn to their mysterious neighbor, nicknamed Loom, whose loneliness and isolation mirror their own and kindle within each woman a desire to make a connection. When Emilie takes off during the blizzard in the direction of Loom's house and the rest of the family follows in her pursuit, their act is both an escape and a reaching out. Beautifully written and teeming with vivid portraits, Chehade's novel is both heartfelt and wise.
- GenresFiction
182 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2010
4 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Thérèse Soukar Chehade
2 books8 followersBorn in Beirut, Lebanon, Thérèse Soukar Chehade made her way to Massachusetts in August of 1983, eight years after the start of the Lebanese civil war.
Writing had always been her dream. Fluent in Arabic and French, her English was serviceable, but it lacked the richness she sought. She dove into the literature of the English speaking world, finding inspiration in the works of Nabokov and Woolf.
Enrolling in the MFA program at UMass, Amherst, she began working on a novel. The war, the memories she thought she left behind, crept into her stories, and she let them stay.
Her first novel, Loom, set in rural Vermont, came out in 2010 from Syracuse University Press and won the Arab American Book Award for fiction the following year. Her latest work, We Walked On, published by Regal House Publishing in September 2024, is set against the backdrop of the Lebanese civil war. The novel was a 2022 Noemi Press Prose Award semifinalist and was longlisted for the 2022 Dzanc Prize for Fiction.
She still lives in Massachusetts.
Writing had always been her dream. Fluent in Arabic and French, her English was serviceable, but it lacked the richness she sought. She dove into the literature of the English speaking world, finding inspiration in the works of Nabokov and Woolf.
Enrolling in the MFA program at UMass, Amherst, she began working on a novel. The war, the memories she thought she left behind, crept into her stories, and she let them stay.
Her first novel, Loom, set in rural Vermont, came out in 2010 from Syracuse University Press and won the Arab American Book Award for fiction the following year. Her latest work, We Walked On, published by Regal House Publishing in September 2024, is set against the backdrop of the Lebanese civil war. The novel was a 2022 Noemi Press Prose Award semifinalist and was longlisted for the 2022 Dzanc Prize for Fiction.
She still lives in Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 14, 2017
This family drama is anchored in two times and two (very different) places: present in blizzard-blanketed Vermont, and past in Beirut, Lebanon. Through shifting perspectives in each chapter, each family member is illuminated with memories, hopes, and regrets.
The book is a quiet meditation on the small moments that make a dramatic difference in people's lives, and how we perceive reality, and how that perception can shift over time.
4.5/5
The book is a quiet meditation on the small moments that make a dramatic difference in people's lives, and how we perceive reality, and how that perception can shift over time.
4.5/5
May 31, 2016
Therese Chehade has written a powerful novel about personal hopes and disappointments, about isolation and the struggle to connect with family and with strangers. The basic story occurs over the course of just a day: The Zaydan family, who left war-torn Beirut for life in Vermont eighteen years earlier, await the arrival of Eva, a cousin they haven't seen in years. But Eva's delay due to a blizzard allows each family member to ruminate about his or her life in Lebanon and now in America, from matriarch Emilie and her middle-aged daughter and son, Josephine and George, to George's wife, Salma, and their teenage daughter Maria. And next door is David, whom the family refers to as "Loom" and whose quiet, solitary, and odd ways make him a figure of curiosity, speculation, and attraction for the family...a man dealing with his own losses. Throughout this brief novel is Chehade's beautiful and moving prose as she deftly juggles and balances the voices and narratives of each character in the book. A lovely debut work.
November 19, 2010
Disclosure: I love Therese's writing!
If you love Woolf's burrowing prose, if you love the way an author can extend a moment and its subtle dramas, if you love the way a writer can weave history into a character's consciousness, then you MUST READ this novel. This is the story of Lebanese immigrants, the civil war in Lebanon, a suburban family in Vermont, the curiosity of neighbors, the grief of loss--a lot, but all eloquently rendered. A stellar debut novel, if there ever was one.
If you love Woolf's burrowing prose, if you love the way an author can extend a moment and its subtle dramas, if you love the way a writer can weave history into a character's consciousness, then you MUST READ this novel. This is the story of Lebanese immigrants, the civil war in Lebanon, a suburban family in Vermont, the curiosity of neighbors, the grief of loss--a lot, but all eloquently rendered. A stellar debut novel, if there ever was one.
January 2, 2021
This book has been on my list for a long time and it was worth the wait. Atmospheric, unassuming, poignant. It deserves to be read by more people.
March 31, 2023
A dark, brooding day with a New England snow storm in full force sets the scene for Lebanese author Chehade's slender novel. The Zaydan family is waiting for the weather-delayed arrival of a visiting cousin from Lebanon. The day is narrated by the various family members and their solitary neighbor, David, whom they have nicknamed Loom.Told in flashbacks/reminiscing from the various POVs, are the secrets, conflicts, desires of the family and that of the lonely, aggrieved neighbor. Well done!
February 24, 2011
The pacing is a little slow by virtue of the snow-covered landscape and the primacy to people's thoughts. However, this book does regret in a way I've never seen before. I think its not only well done, but clearly delineated as a present emotion.
This is different from most immigrant stories which tend to lament the home country and praise the decision to come to the host country (eg "It'll all work out in the end. This is a better life" etc etc). Instead, Chehade offers a multidimensional look at loss and gain, and the cost-benefit analysis of living a life that traverses two countries.
This is different from most immigrant stories which tend to lament the home country and praise the decision to come to the host country (eg "It'll all work out in the end. This is a better life" etc etc). Instead, Chehade offers a multidimensional look at loss and gain, and the cost-benefit analysis of living a life that traverses two countries.
December 5, 2010
Loom follows a family of Lebanese immigrants for one day in small town Vermont during a snow storm. Each chapter shifts to another character's perspective. Time slows down in the novel, bringing you into the characters' worlds and the deep sense of loss the characters and their neighbor endure. The author makes you feel the fragility of family and human connections. Grief runs through this novel in a beautiful rather than tragic way.
February 9, 2012
An interesting short novel focused on the intersection of lives in Vermont - a Lebanese family and a single American man - neighbors who have co-existed without talking for some time. All characters have hidden past lives that are well detailed by the author. What happens when they eventually and dramatically are thrown together is interesting.
It took me a while to sort out the characters. The book is well written and gives insight into Lebanese culture (it looked familiar).
It took me a while to sort out the characters. The book is well written and gives insight into Lebanese culture (it looked familiar).
August 1, 2012
P 78 I slept at first with seeds under my pillow, waiting for the day when I would have the skill to sow wonders and create what nature herself was loathe to give of her own free will.
P 79 I am appalled that weeds must be punsished for their vigor. I wonder how I will tackle them as a master gardener. I let them mix with the grass but pull them out from among the flowers and the vegetables., where they can take over. I see the problem of weeds as a great moral dilemma.
P 79 I am appalled that weeds must be punsished for their vigor. I wonder how I will tackle them as a master gardener. I let them mix with the grass but pull them out from among the flowers and the vegetables., where they can take over. I see the problem of weeds as a great moral dilemma.
June 17, 2022
Life moves along and then suddenly it breaks. You have to slowly start all over again, due to the death of a life companion, a divorce, a war, or after migrating to a faraway place. Taking place on a single winter day in Vermont, we learn how different characters cope with such change, with love, sadness, compassion, beauty and quite determination. A deeply touching story that many of us can relate to.
March 14, 2011
I just personally wasn't taken with this book. I couldn't find myself really liking any of the characters and it didn't do much by way of plot for me either. I almost felt this work tried too hard and not hard enough at the same time and that the boredom of the characters somehow managed to bleed out of the pages onto me. It wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it wasn't the best either.
February 21, 2014
Beautiful exploration of the relationships within a family, as well as of that Lebanese family's experience starting new lives and finding new relationships as Americans. Subtle and beautifully-observed writing.
November 19, 2010
Really worth it. This story wouldn't let go of me. I think it could also be made into a film with great success.
March 28, 2014
Interesting. Different. Like living inside other peoples thoughts for a while.
June 3, 2012
A pleasant debut novel. Told through the eyes of 4 or 5 family members and their reclusive neighbor, the novel unfolds in "real time" or over a period of 24 hours in rural Vermont. Skillfully told.
March 31, 2013
What a thoughtful, wise novel! Chehade is a careful observer of inner and outer landscapes. I didn't want to leave these characters.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews