AmosL
05-11-2008, 06:21 PM
Alameddine, Rahib. “The Hakawati”, Knopf, 2008.
A Brilliant Saga of Four Generations
Amos Lassen
Four generations of Arab life is the theme of Rahib Alameddine”s “The Hakawati”. It is a mixture of folklore and historical drama that is a novel unlike any other I have read. Interwoven are five different narratives to give the story of a family in Beirut that has roots from the Druze, from the English and from Armenia. Stories beget stories just as families beget families and the union of Arabian folk stories and snippets from contemporary Lebanon is magic.
Osama al-Kharrat, a Los Angeles software engineer, returns home to Lebanon in 2003 for the feast of Eid al-Hada. He begins to relate the family history and reaches back to his great-grandparents and his grandfather who was a Hakawati, a storyteller (who happened also to be gay). Cutting into the family’s stories are stories from the Koran and the Bible, “The Arabian Nights”, Shakespeare, Ovid and all those people who had ever spoken to the man who wrote this wonderful book.
Osama has lived most of his adult life in California but when he returns to Lebanon to be with his dying father, he very quickly falls back into his extended family. It seems that the history of his family is very close to the folklore of its people and like Arabian folk tales it is replete with “jinnis” and “imps” some of which Alameddine summons up.
Not only is the book enchanted but enchanting, it is important when we look at the crisis in the Middle East today. A better understanding of the people brings about a better understanding of what is transpiring in the hot bed of the modern world. “The Hakawati” is almost like letting a genie out of a bottle so we can hear the wonderful stories. There are stories for everyone and about everything—love and hate, adventure, families and generations, escape and information. The book is, quite simply, a heroic story and it is quite funny too. It is if the author has taken a brush in hand and painted the souls of his people for us.
As I said before, I have never read anything quite like this before and the exuberance and the inventiveness make this book a sure to become classic. It is very easy to become enamored of what is written here as everything is so timeless and relevant. The language of the prose captures the eye and the mind and when you consider that the author has written this book in a language he has learned, it becomes all the more beautiful.
As I reread what I have written here I must admit that I have heaped a great deal of praise on this book and I find myself thinking about my own biases toward the people of Lebanon. Having served in the Israeli army and having been stationed not far from the Lebanese border, I had quite a different idea of the Lebanese. I see now how narrow I was, and if for nothing else, Alameddine opened my eyes about Arab culture. But this is not what makes the book great. It is great because of what it has to say and because it was written by a man who knows how to say it.
A Brilliant Saga of Four Generations
Amos Lassen
Four generations of Arab life is the theme of Rahib Alameddine”s “The Hakawati”. It is a mixture of folklore and historical drama that is a novel unlike any other I have read. Interwoven are five different narratives to give the story of a family in Beirut that has roots from the Druze, from the English and from Armenia. Stories beget stories just as families beget families and the union of Arabian folk stories and snippets from contemporary Lebanon is magic.
Osama al-Kharrat, a Los Angeles software engineer, returns home to Lebanon in 2003 for the feast of Eid al-Hada. He begins to relate the family history and reaches back to his great-grandparents and his grandfather who was a Hakawati, a storyteller (who happened also to be gay). Cutting into the family’s stories are stories from the Koran and the Bible, “The Arabian Nights”, Shakespeare, Ovid and all those people who had ever spoken to the man who wrote this wonderful book.
Osama has lived most of his adult life in California but when he returns to Lebanon to be with his dying father, he very quickly falls back into his extended family. It seems that the history of his family is very close to the folklore of its people and like Arabian folk tales it is replete with “jinnis” and “imps” some of which Alameddine summons up.
Not only is the book enchanted but enchanting, it is important when we look at the crisis in the Middle East today. A better understanding of the people brings about a better understanding of what is transpiring in the hot bed of the modern world. “The Hakawati” is almost like letting a genie out of a bottle so we can hear the wonderful stories. There are stories for everyone and about everything—love and hate, adventure, families and generations, escape and information. The book is, quite simply, a heroic story and it is quite funny too. It is if the author has taken a brush in hand and painted the souls of his people for us.
As I said before, I have never read anything quite like this before and the exuberance and the inventiveness make this book a sure to become classic. It is very easy to become enamored of what is written here as everything is so timeless and relevant. The language of the prose captures the eye and the mind and when you consider that the author has written this book in a language he has learned, it becomes all the more beautiful.
As I reread what I have written here I must admit that I have heaped a great deal of praise on this book and I find myself thinking about my own biases toward the people of Lebanon. Having served in the Israeli army and having been stationed not far from the Lebanese border, I had quite a different idea of the Lebanese. I see now how narrow I was, and if for nothing else, Alameddine opened my eyes about Arab culture. But this is not what makes the book great. It is great because of what it has to say and because it was written by a man who knows how to say it.