I finished reading
Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent, which was something I picked up at a library book sale. I guess I would classify this as a literary romance, maybe? The story centers on 39 year old half-Iraqi-American Sirine, who lives with her immigrant uncle and her dog King Babar, and run a Lebanese restaurant in Westwood and how she falls in love with a mysterious Iraqi exiled professor, and the tragedies that lie underneath the surface. Interspersed with the romance is the meandering tale that her uncle tells about Abdelrahman, a possible distant cousin of hers and the adventures that he pursues that are quite magical and have a dreamlike quality.
The food descriptions are very lovely, and Abu-Jaber really loves her food. Like, it'll make you want to run out to a Middle Eastern bakery or something.
The book also has some searing commentary on racism against Arabs and the unknown consequences of the bloodshed that we enacted on the Iraqis, along with some sharp media criticism on the portrayal of Arabs in mainstream media. And also the indifference of Arabs who have the privilege of ignorance.
A few passages that really struck me - that are not super important to the plot, but they just sort of indicate the atmosphere at the time this was published in 2003, and it's striking how little has changed since then:
Suha sniffs. "I don't even know why you expect us to know about all these political things," she says. "We just want to be Americans like everyone else."
Rana points at Suha. "Do you see? This is exactly the attitude that's the problem! You want to know where terrorists come from? They come from passivity--from well-meaning people! Americans want big cars, big houses--they don't care what their government does to put cheap gasoline in their cars, to make all these big, expensive things happen. Fine, but don't be surprised when the terrorism ends up right back here.
"How can you say such a thing about your own country?" Suha asks, her face darkening with indignation; a number of the other women nod. "You were even born here."
"How can you be so indifferent to human lives? These are your brothers and sisters we're talking about!"
Suha holds up one hand and says, "My brothers and sisters are in Orange County where they belong."--
"
Let me just tell you this. America simply cannot continue to pillage the natural resources and economies of other countries, to heap its desires and values, its contempt and greed on the backs of others, and not expect there to be consequences. Let me tell you this: there are always going to be consequences. I don't know when or how. But if things continue as they are, there will certainly be consequences. We do not live in a vacuum. We are not the only nation in the world. We have been doing terrible things to countries like Iraq for a very long time. Things that Americans believe they don't have to learn about. You may want to live a life of benign indifference to the rest of the world, but understand that as long as you live here, murderous things are being done in your name. We have a moral obligation--a pact--to live as fellow citizens of the world. We have broken that pact through our indifference to others. And someday, something terrible is going to happen to us."
One thing that I really loved about the book was that they quote a lot of Middle Eastern poetry and literature, and discuss it in a way that makes it seem so casual, like of course you would know who they're talking about. I like it when diaspora writers write like they're writing for themselves and other people like them, without feeling like they have to explain the customs/language to an outsider. It makes the world feel more casual and more real.
I also like the way that the romance is not drawn out. They are together at the beginning of the book, and much of the conflict is internal, not external, as Sirine tries to figure out Han and whatever is keeping him from withholding something from her.
In some ways, the writing and concerns make me think of Viet Thanh Nguyen's work, although they have completely different writing styles, and these are completely different genres.
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