Middle East/North African Lit discussion

Hello MENA cruisers,
Has anyone else started the book? I have read the first few pages and am already thinking about the author's writing style and use of language but being so close to the beginning, I think I'll wait to say more about that.

It seems that the English translation originally had the title Mothballs and was first translated into English in the 1990s.

The author won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 2004 for another novel, The Loved Ones.

I found an online review written in 2004. I like to read reviews before, during, and after I read a book so I'll give you the link and let you decide whether to read it now or later. Review:

https://www.forewordreviews.com/revie...

The Loved Ones: A Modern Arabic Novel

Hello Kate :)

Interesting review link ..

Out of curiosity I tried to check the difference between (Naphthalene / Naphtalene ) and Mothballs ! BTW , in Arabic the title of the novel is حبات النفتالين , I guess that would be why Mothballs was used in translation at the beginning .

Naphthalene (or however it's spelled) is the smelly and toxic active ingredient in mothballs. I just checked online (this is the university that I attended long ago so I'm sure it is reputable information):

http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/ptype/mot...

I wonder why it was changed to Naphtalene? Maybe it will make sense when I read more.

I just read the review (I'd only skimmed it previously) and went to check my copy of the book for a foreword. Too bad, not in my copy! I'm reading the 2005 AUC publication.

I will start reading it once i finish the book i have. I will be reading it in Arabic as I enjoy reading books with there original language as much as I can. It is good to read ur opinion before i start

Even though Naphtalene is nasty smelling, the word itself is very lyrical, unlike "mothballs." :)

I'll be getting this book next week from the library at work in English. I'm not sure if I'll have multiple editions to choose from.

On my summer list, it's about a coming-of-age girl.

I read about 50 pages of it, but was too irritated with the stream of consciousness format to continue. I have read several SOC novels, but never appreciate them to their fullest as I consider the authors too lazy (or mentally ill in the case of Virginia Woolf) to give any continuity to the plot.

I read the Foreword by Hélène Cixous and Chapter 1. Cixous indicates the "fiery" title comes from Huda's and her father's personalities. Quite vague from this vantage point. The characters are a family--the nine- and eight-year-old children Huda and Adil, the father, the tubercular mother, the grandmother, Aunt Najia, Aunt Farida. There might be more of them into the story.

Some questions occurred to me during the reading of that part.

What vision of the world does the narrator Huda present?
Is Huda and her father the naphtalene in their society?
How does the father treat Huda?
What are Huda's feelings about Adil? How does she treat Adil?

Just thought to share them with you.

Kate's 'Foreword' review in message 1 mentions Mamdouh's alternating first and second person, something unnoticed by me. Now it's mentioned, I will look for it. Something else from that review. Constance's message 8 targeted it--the novel's "stream-of-consciousness" style.

The author avoids flowery language and languorous prose, giving her novel a strong atmosphere of nonfiction. The chapters read like a series of scenes from Huda’s life, rather than building on each other until the book reaches a natural peak.

Two stylistic threads--the non-"languorous" and the fragmentation--might be reader-painful were it not for her vignettes. In Chapter 2, some of those are Huda's grandmother's religious bent toward the soul unlike Huda's peeping on her aunts' intimacies and her montage of the merchants and community in and around her Baghdadi neighborhood. They were satirical, documentary-like gems, which portrayed 1950s Baghdad. The short chapters also go a ways to balance out her writing style.

Constance wrote: I read about 50 pages of it, but was too irritated with the stream of consciousness format to continue

Constance, that's one of the things I love about it. I think some people like books that are narrative and plot-oriented, and others read for other reasons. I am very much appreciating this book. In fact, I'm not allowing myself to read it too fast because I like the language and the way the book is almost exploding with different thoughts and observations, to me it seems very natural, and I don't want to miss anything by reading it too fast.

At the same time, Huda views the world in a very magically real way. One of the passages that really struck me was when they are in Baghdad, shopping for her aunt's wedding and she describes how her mother would stay home from the shopping trips but still have this beautiful Baghdad experience. Last sentence of this piece: "Baghdad, my mother is the most beautiful thing you have."

To me, this book is a prose poem. I realize that I forgive writers for some errors if they give me something I can appreciate in other ways. To me, the images here are fantastic. Her descriptions are like paintings. Thinking back on the trip to the public baths and the women's bodies, and the sweat and the smells.

I think this is a book that would be good to discuss in person because there's a lot to talk about. Beyond language and style, there's the relationship between Huda and the other characters. And there's the 1950s culture, I don't know whether life is still that way in Iraq. Living in the UAE, I realize how modern this culture is, yet how absolutely traditional it is, too. (I don't know any Emiratis personally but based on what I see and read in the newspaper it seems that way.)

I AM curious about the way that it's written in first, second, and third person. I'm not curious enough, though, to want to track when it switches in order to better understand why she has written it that way. If anyone has insight into it, please post!

AsmahH, I saw your questions but don't want to write too much all at once. I will wait to read more of the book and see where it's going.

Chapter Three depicted a commotion-filled day at the noisy, steamy, crowded public bath house and also enlarged the characters of Huda, her aunts, her friend Mahsoud, and her policeman father. The children's street games and pranks interested me. The book differs from my initial impression.

Kate, my questions were from pre-reading in the first chapter.

Like Constance, I'm having some trouble with the style, but I'm reading just a little bit at a time. Perhaps it's also that magical realism is not my favorite.

Kate, what you say about it being a prose poem makes sense to me - I felt that way about I saw Ramallah last year, and a book I finished recently, The map of love by Ahdaf Soueif (just realized she translated the English version of I saw Ramallah, I guess I really like her writing.)

Don't know if I'll eventually like this or not, but I plan to keep reading a bit every night.

Hi Ardene, Map of Love is on my to-buy list. I was unable to finish I saw Ramallah but may try it again.

I've hit a place in Naphtalene that I'm having problems with, the part immediately after her aunt's wedding, maybe even the end of the wedding. I will try to plow through it or skip it. I don't know why it's especially hard for me, I don't know that it's any different than the rest but maybe it becomes more disoriented, more disjointed, and maybe it's written that way because of what happens. Or it could be that I'm not concentrating enough on the book while reading that part. I don't want to say what is going on because I don't want to spoil it for those not yet there.

Chapters four and five switch the story's description from women's and children's pursuits to introduce male family. There occurs a fuller exposé about Huda's father's biography and temperament and about Huda's mother and grandmother. These chapters broaden the nuclear family's behavior.

I am noticing the switches in first person "I" and second person "you" that were mentioned above. Not sure what I think about them yet . . .

I am getting more into the flow of the book.

Chapter six has an example of the first and second person.

When it rained, the rainwater seeped into the cracks, holes, and hollows in the roof of your room. You put out the buckets and heard the water plopping down.

I wonder if the 'you' is the author's own memories relived through Huda in the novel; whereas, the 'I' is the fictional character of Huda.

i haven't started this yet, but i'm a little nervous about it. i'm glad we have this discussion.

generally, i really can't stand when writers use second person. however, i really loved Agaat, which used it a lot. so i'm curious to see how i'll respond to this novel. i've read some interesting reviews and i get the sense that many people had trouble with it, but by the time they were finished, they were glad they had read it. also: it's short. :D

I agree about the initial enigma of the title and setting. The actual story so far explores the Iraqi culture. In chapter eight, the highlight is the day of Farida and Munir's wedding, which the author vividly describes.

I'm one of those people who is loving this book. These are some thoughts on what you've said and what I'm feeling/thinking about it.

First, I'm in the U.S. for a few weeks and my copy was a library book in the UAE so I left it there. I got through Ch. 15 before I flew west, so that's as much as I've read. It's quite close to the end.

I'm thinking about what AsmahH said about the switching from first to second person. I will look back on it with that idea in mind. I think it makes the book more interesting.

The whole atmosphere of the book (my opinion) up to Ch. 14, is that of a detached, somewhat distant feeling. There are a lot of tears and weeping but I never feel drawn in to the emotions, that is, until I hit Ch. 14 which I felt very intensely. I was afraid for Huda.

Ch. 15, the one I just finished, feels like an afterword (?), it is about the political situation at the time. I found it interesting, partly because they, in Iraq, were engaged and demonstrating against the British but with connection to Nasser who was in Egypt, not Iraq, and yet they were excited about this that was happening elsewhere. It made me wonder about the unity of the region. I hope you understood what I just said. I'm still sorting out what I'm learning about this region that I now live in.

I really love the way that the author writes. Beyond the you/I discussion, I love her descriptions. They are like dynamic paintings.

I finished the book this weekend, and when I could turn my analytical brain off, I really enjoyed the imagery. I think the novel gives a good "flavor" of Huda's life, and the things that would be important to a child. I'll have more comments & questions later when we've all more or less finished reading.

Kate wrote: "...I really love the way that the author writes. Beyond the you/I discussion, I love her descriptions. They are like dynamic paintings..."

I also think that Alia Mamdouh's novel is wonderful. The stream-of-consciousness predominates in the last chapter or two. Mamdouh is looking back to a specific time and place. Her childhood and its daily life would otherwise be completely lost to the passage of time; even her neighborhood district is redeveloped in the end and all its neighbors disperse elsewhere. Besides the daily, documentary-like life of the early 1950s Baghdad, there's the sensuous, emotional, gritty, sad, tender, nostalgic novel, its individual characters an amalgam of contradictions: aggression-tenderness; submissiveness-controlling; freedom-restriction; supplication-independence.

F. A. Haidar's "Afterword" adds content about Alia Mamdouh, about female writers, about literacy and female educational and professional opportunity, about Naphtalene's significant events, about Iraq's twentieth-century history, and about Mamdouh's much-talked-about writing style.

Ardene wrote: "...I really enjoyed the imagery. I think the novel gives a good "flavor" of Huda's life, and the things that would be important to a child..."

The children's playtime depicted their simply-made toys, their female and male friendships, their pastimes, and their neighborhood's sights and sounds.

I found the book at my local bookstore and can finish it now!

This is so crazy! I ordered the book on interlibrary loan and could have sworn I picked it up before I went on vacation. When I got home, I turned the house upside down looking for it, under the seats in the car,every bag and backpack, etc.

Yesterday, I went to the library to return a book and the minute I walked in, the librarian dove under the counter where they keep the interlibrary loan books and handed me Naphlethene!

Long story short, I will be reading it this wekk.

I was lying in bed in the middle of the night (sick and jetlagged) when I decided not to waste the time so I picked up the book. I'm on the last chapter now. And I was thinking of the whole book and what I thought about it, realized that I love this book but am still mystified by the I/you persons.

Someone above (I can't find it as I scroll upwards) said that maybe the I/you was Huda and the narrator. So I looked more closely at an instance where it switches and it really didn't seem to be that. So now I'm really wondering about it. Has anyone read this in Arabic? If so, is it very apparent that it switches persons? That made me wonder if it was the author, the author's culture, or the translator. I know that some of you speak Arabic and that it might be your first language. Can you shed any light on this? Am I trying to look at this as an English speaking westerner? This really interests me.

Kate, Message 18 noted that the "I" is the fictional Huda's experience and thoughts, while the "you" is the autobiographical Huda (Mamdouh's memory). That's just a hypothesis.

There might be specific circumstances from which Huda distances herself by using "you". Another hypothesis.

Ah, thanks AsmhH. I will look back on it. I hadn't thought of any of it as being a 'fictional' fiction (meta-fiction?). I will look at it in that way and see if I see the pattern!

The way verbs look in Arabic it should be obvious when the first and second person changes. So I don't think it's a translation issue. I should be starting this book this weekend. I'm very curious now to see how I react.

I am about 60 pages in. I too can't decide whether to read it slowly like ti was poetry or quickly because it's so filled with sensory details.

I don't see a pattern in the first/second person. I wonder if what she is saying is that we are never really just one person - we are daughter-sister-friend-niece-granddaughter. We are observed and observing. For women, it is is that much more.

I loved the chapter about the baths. It's almost like reading about preverbal memories - all sound and touch and sound.

It reminds me in some ways of The Tent which some of us read earlier this year. The unhappy marriage of the parents, strict and religious grandmother, and a child trying to find her place in the middle of it.

Lauren wrote: "...I loved the chapter about the baths. It's almost like reading about preverbal memories - all sound and touch and sound. ..."

That bathhouse chapter early showed the author's talent for scene-building and Huda's rambunctiousness and her aunt's whiny impatience. I love your phrase, Lauren, "preverbal memories". Made me think--the primordial soup of chaotic life within the confines of the bathhouse.

Lauren, I also loved that chapter on the baths. I read it outloud to my Oly Reads (a Goodreads group, too) book group last week. For this book group we introduce books (in person, not online) that we've read and I also told them about the Tent. Both coming-of-age stories, both with a very poetic style. I loved the Tent but I loved this book more.

I am on my way to Portland, Oregon next week and will be going to Powells Bookstore to stock up on Arabic literature in translation including more books by both of these authors.

I finished it this morning, It really is quite amazing. It made me think if I could explain the early years of my own life using only sensory impressions - the smells, tastes, feelings.

I agree, Asmah, the scenes really build. the author piles on detail over detail until you feel ike you are right there.

I wondered very much about what happened to the family after they moved. What the next steps would be in Huda's life.

I am also curious about the title - the original English title Mothballs sounds old and stuffy, like something you'd pull from a closet, wheras Naphtelene sounbds fiery, exciting, a little dangerous.

Lauren wrote: "...I am also curious about the title - the original English title Mothballs sounds old and stuffy, like something you'd pull from a closet, wheras Naphtelene sounds fiery, exciting, a little dangerous..."

Multiple layers of meaning, I should think--the unconscious memories of Mamdouh's childhood once more come alive as she's writing. On the page, the words are dormant until the readers's instilling life into them.

One interpretation.