25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Do You Fit Poignant, Insightful, Hilarious, Crass, and Reverent Into One Novel?, September 2, 2008
There is so much about this book I related to--from the sexy shyness and confusion of the teenage Nidali (though I didn't have to worry about getting beaten for kissing a boy) to the loyalty to her family, to the feelings of otherness, I felt like I knew this girl. The prose is gorgeous and sparkling, and very, very funny. Insights into Palestinian culture and history, the first Gulf war, and growing up in a Muslim family were new to me, though questions of identity, love of one's culture, and the confusion of growing up were very familiar.
I read this book in just a few short days, commuting to work and at home in the evening. It is a fast, engaging read, with lots to ponder. I am so glad that I was able to read a book about Muslim culture that gave me a new understanding of the Middle East and of Muslims. I think this book is definitely what America needs to read right now. I read Towelhead when it came out, which has some similarities (the time, the Gulf War, and the setting, Texas), but this book is just so much more mesmerizing and genuine.
Parts of the narrative also reminded me of Satrapi's Persepolis, and the way that she relates the duality of loving one's culture and history while simultaneously being frustrated by its government and dictates.
A book full of love, humor, and insight. I loved it.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a smart and sassy bildungsroman, September 7, 2008
I love this book. It is a great example, along with Junot Diaz's writing, of how the voice of a narrator can make you fall in love with a character and what she might have to say before the story really even begins. It is a bildungsroman, starring Nidali, a spunky charismatic firecracker of a girl, who is born in America, grows up in Kuwait and then after war displaces her, moves to Egypt, and then after more difficulties moves to Texas.
I can't tell you how many times this book had me laughing my ass off. The humor is informed by sadness and struggle (in Korean we call that feeling "han"-and not incidentally, Nidali's very name means "struggle") and I found myself identifying SO much with Nidali. The humor is effective because it has layers of meaning, because we know what it is trying to deflect, and because it drives us forward in a narrative that is, in the end, unflinching in its honesty.
And despite all the laughing throughout my reading (there are sooo many killer lines in this book that sometimes I wondered if Randa was guided by Margaret Cho's spirit), in the end, I burst into tears. "Stop crying, stop crying!" my husband playfully admonished me, as I closed the book.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A charming, funny coming of age novel, September 27, 2008
The other reviews on Amazon and elsewhere have done an excellent job of describing Randa Jarrar's wonderful first novel. The review from "The Christian Science Monitor", extracted in the first Comment is particularly good; it concludes with a useful warning for parents: "It's a shame that Jarrar didn't tone down the profanity and the sensuality, because
A Map of Home could have made a wonderful coming-of-age story for teens. As it stands, it's decidedly R-rated, and with enough multilingual swearing to impress a rap artist."
At this writing, Amazon doesn't offer the Search function for this book, but Random House does offer a few pages at from its catalog; the link is in the first Comment.
Here's a small sample of the treasures here. In 1990, the morning of her 13th birthday, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and her family drove in a convoy to Egypt. Enroute she wrote this letter, never mailed, but brilliant nonetheless.
"Dear Mr. Saddam Hussein,
I am in my parents' falling-apart car, and we are crossing your beautiful country, fleeing from your ugly army. My father has thus far distributed four bottles of Johnny Walker and three silk ties to checkpoint personnel. ...[W]hen you decided to invade the country where I grew up ... did you stop and consider the teenage population? How many were dying, just dying, for classes to resume and crushes to pick up where they left off in June?"
She is just as insightful and funny describing her parents' difficulty in understanding Spanish or English when they move to Texas: "There is nothing sadder than a fourteen-year-old explaining a movie to her middle-aged parents ... not understanding a movie is the same as being illiterate."
Jarrar is far from being illiterate; she recently translated Hassan Daoud's
The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine, and her personal blog is a joy to read:
"Um, let me ask this guy." Yells to guy in the kitchen: "Where's the sauce from?"
"The Middle East."
"Where in the Middle East?" I said.
"The whole Middle East."
"No, I've never heard of it before."
Blank stare.
"I grew up there."
"Where?"
"Kuwait and Egypt, and a little in Palestine."
"Egypt is not in the Middle East."
"Of course it is."
"No. The Middle East is Lebanon and Syria."
"And a few other places."
"I can't hear you." (He gets out of the kitchen and comes to the counter.)
"Where did the sauce originate?"
"With me, honey. I make the sauce. I'm the one who makes it."
"What's in it?"
"Garlic, lemon, salt."
"And oil."
"Yeah."
"What kind of oil?"
"Olive."
"What else? It tastes heavy."
"Corn oil. It makes it taste better."
"Right. Thanks!"
"Egypt isn't the Middle East."
"Okay. Bye."
I went home and enjoyed the sauce with Mr. Rockslinga and Mini Rockslinga. We are still licking our chops. Also: we know where the Middle East starts and ends.
***
A Map of Home is filled with similar fresh, insightful, honest prose; I felt deep empathy for her.
Robert C. Ross 2008
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