"Only in London"

I recently finished “Only in London” by Hanan al-Shaykh and I was really interested in the way their stories played out.

Lamis, who was a recently divorced Iraqi who had moved to Najaf when she was very young, was the main character it seemed with most of the novel revolving around her and her situations. She initially went to London to get away from her parents and Dubai and she wanted to be closer to her son. She began a romantic relationship with one of the other main characters, Nicholas, and this was very detrimental to her and her situation. She felt that she shouldn’t proceed with her relationship with him, but she hadn’t been loved like this ever so she couldn’t just let go. She struggled with her identity, wanting to be more English than fearing she wouldn’t remember whom she really was. Her identity crisis takes her through many different paths and keeps the reader quite interested. I can’t say much more for fear of giving away a very good subplot!!!

Nicholas is a young Englishman who collects Arabic novelties for Sotheby’s, which is an auction house. He begins a relationship with Lamis and tries to figure out who she is, though she really doesn’t let him in. The majority of Nicholas’ story is intertwined with Lamis’ and together they form the bulk of the novel.

Amira probably has the most interesting story of all the characters. She is a prostitute who comes from a very poor family and never wishes to return to that kind of life. She visits her family several times through flashbacks in the story and her mother at one point says that she, Amira, can’t sleep with her younger sisters because they are still pure and she will taint them with her impurities. She impersonates a princess and gets away with many schemes so that she can become rich and powerful. Near the end of the story you begin to think that she may have changed her ways, but she doesn’t and she continues to lead a very promiscuous lifestyle.

Samir is a married man who begins in the story by smuggling a monkey to London for a friend’s brother. It is then made aware to the reader that Samir is homosexual, even though he is married. His story is centered on his obsession with blond boys and avoiding his wife and family who follow him to London. I found this story interesting in the fact that he showed no remorse for marrying the woman and having children with her. It was forced upon him and he wants nothing to do with them. He sends them money simply to keep them off his back and to be able to live without them. He views them as his curse and wishes to be rid of them indefinitely.

All of their stories show a different view of Arabic life in an English-dominated world, how they all try to fit in and their different endings. It was a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to read it, though it is rather sexually graphic at points, so a mature audience is necessary.

Origins

My group is the Arabic Literature group and I decided that it would be interesting to know some of the facts of Arabic literature and cinema.
Firstly Arabic literature originated in the medieval age of golden lyric poetry, from the 4th to 7th centuries. The poems were mainly personal odes with themes of love, fighting, courage and the chase. The most well-known of these poets are Amru al-Kais, Antara, and Zuhair. Arabic literature is mainly comprised of works by Arabic speaking Turks, Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Jews, and other Africans and Asians, as well as the Arabs themselves. At the end of the 8th century a new group of poets emerged and created a new genre of poetry, the court poems. India and Persia were a great influence to the romantic styles of Arabic poetry. Printing began in the 19th century in earnest, centered in Cairo, Beirut, and Damascus. In this time period Arab writers tired to express themselves and their place in the modern world. One of the most notable 20th-century-early writers in Arabic is the novelists Naguib Mahfouz who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.


Within the Arab world Egyptian cinema has always dominated the scene. By 1917 there were 80 cinemas in Egypt alone, but what historians consider the first film did not debut until 1925. With the introduction of sound in 1930 the cinema really began to take off and appeal to the masses. During the 1930s, the Misr Bank financed production by sending technicians abroad for training and setting up the Misr Studio in 1935. Arab cinema continued to expand and grow throughout the century. Cinema was a way for people to express themselves and have it appeal to the masses. More often than not a film would be played that would have some great effect of people throughout the surrounding nations and a ripple would fan out calling all attention to the times and crises. I imagine this to be the same as what happens in American cinema, though possibly more governmentally controlled.
Everything has an origin and just like American literature and cinema, Arabic literature and cinema can give us a perfect view into a world we never really knew existed.

Why so traditional?

In finishing “Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery” I was deeply moved by what the characters had to go through. Firstly the outlaws come into the picture and terrorize the town of Luxor and surrounding villages, though they come to the monastery to visit Harbi. The village begins to accept them after a time and does not fear them as they used to. However, the outlaws are soon asked to leave by a government official and they are more or less tricked into fighting against the Jews to drive them from Egypt. This trickery in part comes from the main characters father who views himself as a great diplomat. There is some internal strife within the band of outlaws that cause their leader Faris to shoot one of his men, Hinein, and send him away after Hinein uses the monastery as the butt of one of his jokes. This showed me that even though they were considered outlaws, they still had respect for religion and for those people who were protecting Harbi, though they were not in concurrence with religious beliefs. That has indeed been an overarching theme throughout this book: personal respect and religious tolerance. I was taken aback by the amount of respect shown to different people throughout this short novel and wonder if today that same respect is shown and if it is, is it to the same degree? I would hope so.
After the outlaws leave the village a band of masked figures begins to terrorize anyone who ventures toward the monastery unarmed and alone. It is soon revealed that this band of figures is led by none other than Hinein, the banned outlaw from Faris’s group. This is found out when he attacks the monastery in hopes of murdering Harbi. It is unknown whether he was hired by Safiyya or sought her out, however there is a definite connection between the two people. Harbi, however is not killed though he does die soon after, this causes Safiyya to go into a crazed like state. She tries to kill Hassan, and she runs throughout the village and is heard pleading with the bey. She soon falls into a coma and in one of her lapses she becomes conscious while her father is present and tells him that she will marry Harbi if he wants her. This scene led me to believe that she always loved Harbi. The way she acted towards him she did because it was the custom of the day and she was supposed to follow those customs. Though I believe she was always in love with Harbi and she always had the deep desire to be his wife, but she could not because tradition stood in her way. How often do we let our feelings be swept under the rug simply because of tradition? Should we not be ourselves while trying to uphold our traditions, I understand that this is a different culture and time than what I am now experiencing but still it makes me curious to know who else has hidden what they really want and who they really are to please the traditions of their culture?
In closing the story ends with the death of the narrator’s father and his reminiscing about his village and his sisters’ marriages and the state of his mother’s unhappiness. This was a very interesting read and I encourage anyone to read this book if they want to have a brief glimpse into the world of the Middle East.

My Readings: Safiyya and London

Firstly I have been submersing myself into the entire experience that is this class and I am enjoying myself immensely. The book that we are reading for class, “Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery” by Bahaa’ Taher has captured me completely, with its vivid details and explosive characters that make me both want to laugh and cry. I am only into the third chapter and already so much has happened, we were introduced to characters and settings and culture differences and, for me, a heart-wrenching scene of death and the destruction of one man’s psyche. The first chapter, The Miqaddis Bishai, introduces us to the narrator and main character, a boy of varying age throughout the tale. We also meet his immediate family and realize that everyone in the small village is quite close in relation. A bit about the culture and current celebration is learned as well as the setting being described. In the second chapter, Aunt Safiyya, you are thrown into the situation that brought us to the present day. The complete story of Safiyya’s youth and marriage and subsequent withdrawal from her beauty and youth is completely laid out for the reader. I do not want to go into more detail because it really needs to be read to be fully experienced.
Secondly, I have been reading another book for class entitled “Only in London” by Hanan Al-Shaykh. This is the intertwining story of four very different individuals who all met on a plane ride to London and who subsequently have been running into each other throughout the beginning of the story. The main setting for the story thus far has been Edgware Road, which has a distinct Arab taste and is referred to by Londoners as “Little Cairo” and “Little Beirut”. Lamis, Amira, Samir and Nicholas are the main character and in each part of the chapter they all become the main focus and the reader witnesses their interactions with the other principle characters from their point of view. This book is intrinsically a very beautiful and moving story so far and I am definitely excited to continue reading.

Introduction and Reaction

I recently read Dr. Webb’s article titled “Literature form the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection”, and I was quite surprised by what I found. I really thought that this class was going to be just like any other English class, wherein we would read novels, short stories, novellas perhaps, and even watch a film. What I did not expect was to find that so many of his previous students really had life-altering experiences during the course. This only made me more excited for what lays ahead. My enthusiasm for this class is already rocketing off the shelves, after the first day of lecture and getting into groups I was prepared to get into gear and get things started. I agree with a lot of things that were said in Dr. Webb’s article; most people do not know what is truly happening in the Middle East, nor are they very concerned with it, even though they should be. We have spent the better half of a decade heavily involved in Iraq with no real sign of ever slowing down, yet do we, as average Americans, really know anything about what it is for the Iraqis? Sure we can guess that times are hard and that this occupation really is not enjoyable for them, but do we truly grasp and understand what they are going through every day of their lives. No, at least I do not understand. I look forward to being able to identify with the Middle East as a culture through their literary works. I am a great fan of literature and if you throw me a good book I am going to read it, so I am ready to be given a book and to read it, not only to understand the characters on the page but to understand the author and the environment that helped shape the book.