Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Celestial BodiesWho's reading it? Who has read it? I'm mid-way and I want to discuss it with somebody...

It's a Manbooker International Prize winner for 2019...

I have.

Here's my review if you're interested

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Ru wrote: "Celestial BodiesWho's reading it? Who has read it? I'm mid-way and I want to discuss it with somebody...

It's a Manbooker International Prize winner for 2019..."

I read it . . . although it was a while ago now.

I read the novel at the beginning of 2019 and was infatuated by it, thus giving it 5 stars. When I re-read it in 2020 I still thought it was a great book but for reasons I cannot remember it ended up on my shelves as a 4 star read - but what are star ratings anyway :)))
I very much think it is a pity that the other 2 novels by this author have not yet been translated into English, as I do not know any Arabic... Has anyone here in this group read her other novels?

I also read it in 2019 and loved it. I gave it 4 stars. From my review:

Highly recommended for its immersive nature and breadth of scope in depicting gendered lives and different socio-economic classes as Oman transitions into a modern society.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I would love to read more of her work. Unfortunately, I don't read Arabic.

I read it a few years ago. I remember liking it, but it did not really leave a long lasting impression like so books do. Regarding I still think it was good and would read more works from this author

Hi all, super interesting, thanks for sharing your experiences. I really want to love this book because... I'm really in love with characters, the prose... but there's just something that's not quite right. I'm not sure if the non-linear movement between different time periods works effectively or if it even serves a purpose... does anybody remember have any thoughts on this?

@Jibran I'm looking forward to reading your review once I'm finished. As it's such a long one I'd rather form my own opinions before reading it (I'm easily swayed haha)

Ru wrote: "Hi all, super interesting, thanks for sharing your experiences. I really want to love this book because... I'm really in love with characters, the prose... but there's just something that's not qui..."

I thought it might be a feature of non-Western, in this case Arabian story telling :))

Ru wrote: "I'm not sure if the non-linear movement between different time periods works effectively or if it even serves a purpose... does anybody remember have any thoughts on this?"

This is a multigenerational story with a big cast of characters and has a vast topical scope with many things going on simultaneously. A linear and more conventional narrative would have made this novel a thousand-page doorstopper and might not have worked so well. In my review I've argued that the fluid and non-linear narrative style is deployed successfully and has enabled the author to condense the story's vast frame of reference into a much smaller space.

The narrative mimics the established stream-of-consciousness style of storytelling, that is, a naturally-occurring unordered stream of remembered thoughts that flit back and forth in time and space so that you connect the dots as the story proceeds to complete the picture. Sometimes it was not very easy to read and keep track of events and characters, but I like books that depart from the convention and challenge me as a reader.

Happy to discuss. Inbox :)