Books

Haidar Haidar’s ‘Banquet for Seaweed’ Attempts a Balancing Act

Mahmoud Saeed

An Iraqi proverb says, “Two pomegranates do not fit in one hand”; they cannot be carried simultaneously. This proverb applies to various issues, including the art of novel writing, especially when attempting to combine politics and art. Few novels integrate these two elements, and Haidar Haidar’s “Walima Li Aashaab Al Bahr” (Banquet for Seaweed) makes another attempt. Does it succeed?

‘Dunya', New Novel by Alawiyah Sobh: A Look into Pandora’s Mid-Eastern Box

Rafif Rida Sidawi

In her new novel, “Dunya” (Life), recently published in Beirut by Dar Al Adab, author Alawiyah Sobh offers a radical critique of contemporary society. In her previous novel, “Maryam Al Hakaya” (The Stories of Maryam), Sobh offered a similar critique of the past, of her grandparents’ generation, and exposed a history of social hypocrisy and covert violence that has dictated relationships between individuals and groups in the Arab patriarchal structure.

From Kansas to Beirut: A Tale of Two Women

Lynne Rogers

Sarah Houssayni’s debut novel, “Fireworks,” begins at the onset of the Israeli 2006 bombing of Lebanon in retaliation for the Hezbollah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. This promising novel interweaves the story of two single women, one a 30-year old American nurse from Kansas and one young, 16-year old Lebanese teenager, both trying to negotiate family pressures while searching for love.

Narrating and Re-Narrating the Arab American Story

By

Angele Ellis

Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood & Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation

By Waleed F. Mahdi

Syracuse University Press, 2020

“Is it possible to re-narrate the Arab American story beyond the imperatives of suspicion and patriotism?” University of Oklahoma assistant professor and cultural critic Waleed F.

Inheritors of Sound and Song: Arab Music and the Legacy of Al-Andalus

By Sami Asmar

In our childhood, they taught many of us that Al-Andalus was the center of a grand golden era of Arab civilization. As we lament the current state of Arab civilization, we were also taught that European civilization benefited immensely during this period. These notions are self-evident in the realm of music since, to this day, there is a highly popular genre of Arab music attributed to Andalusian heritage. Do these notions have the historical support needed for academic research, or do they remain mythological?

Books

Muslim Americans Negotiate the Public Sphere: 'Civic Purdah' and Civic Engagement in Metro Detroit

By Pamela Nice

This academic book is an ethnographic study of Muslim communities within Hamtramck, a small incorporated city within the boundaries of greater Detroit. As such, the subtitle is somewhat misleading, as Detroit has differing demographics and ethnic and religious dynamics from Hamtramck, and the two are, in fact, compared periodically by the author. Alisa Perkins lived and worked among Hamtramck’s Muslims — primarily women — during 2005-2007, with follow-up research through 2017.

Books

The Catcher in the Bulgur?

Coming of Age Story Witnesses Tribulations of Growing up Arab American in Brooklyn

By

D.W. Aossey

Coming of age stories can be tricky. In no other genre do authors willingly stick out their necks, relying on a single, flawed adolescent to heroically carry the day. No clever plot twist can save our young protagonists if they’re not up to the task; no quirky sidekicks or kinky lovers can plaster over the holes. The vulnerability of a Holden Caulfield, the dimwitted charm of a Forrest Gump, or even the precocious morality of a Kevin Arnold was always destined to shine. And then we have Michael Haddad, the teenager at the center of “Arab Boy Delivered” by author Michael Aziz Zarou.

It’s the early 1960s. A Palestinian family takes over a neighborhood grocery store in an Italian part of Brooklyn, where working-class residents pop in and out for bread, milk, beer, and cigarettes. They’re mild to outright discriminatory against Arabs. “Camel jockey assholes, go back to the desert!” comes up more than once; vandalism and other mischief loom. The police have little help. Michael, the young son of old country proprietors Aziz and Jamila Haddad, searches his parent’s worried expressions and philosophizes. He listens to 60s music and goes through his coming-of-age routine, seeming more grown-up than he should be. He looks at himself in the mirror and thinks.

Book Offers Overview of Women’s Growing Influence on Wide Range of Arab Affairs, From Combating Pedophilia to Advocating for LGBTQ Rights

Lynne Rogers

In ‘Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring,” editors Rita Stephan and Mounira M. Charrad compile 40 informative essays that contextualize female activism throughout the Arab world. They characterize women’s participation in the Arab Spring not as a spontaneous moment of resistance but as an extension of previous activism that has continued beyond the Arab Spring. The editors assert that regardless of the shortcomings of the Arab Spring, throughout the Arab world, “citizens now realize the power of collective action: protest and campaigning.” In her foreword, Suad Joseph classifies “Women Rising” as a “volume of hope grounded in history and the lived present.” This collection verifies this hope by breaking the silence and celebrating the reform around gender issues.

Historical Overview of Arab American Women from 19th Century to Present Honors the Works of Michael Suleiman

By Lynne Rogers

“Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal,” a collection of 19 essays edited by Michael W. Suleiman, Suad Joseph and Louise Cainkar, provides a moving and appropriate tribute to the seminal work of the late Michael Suleiman. A public intellectual whose important contributions like his book, “Arabs in America” and founding of the Association of Arab American University Graduates (AAUG), Suleiman vastly broadened Arab American studies. The collection offers essays for both the interested lay reader and the serious scholar and Suleiman’s immense founding contribution to the field of Arab American Studies can easily be seen in the frequency he is cited in the articles’ references.

Books

The Wonders of a Village Childhood

By

Lynne Rogers

Stories My Father Told Me: Memories of a Childhood in Syria and Lebanon

By Elia Zughaib and Helen Zughaib

Cune Press, 2020

“Stories My Father Told Me: Memories of a Childhood in Syria and Lebanon” is a delightful collection of short one-page stories told to Elia Zughaib by his father, accompanied by paintings by his daughter, Helen Zughaib.

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