Customer Reviews

De Niro's Game

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A stream of consciousness account of a shell-shocked young man struggling to retain his sanity in the middle of a war. The narrator's voice is disengaged and repetitive as he describes events that overcome his family, childhood friendships, and city. Hage presents a stark contrast between the poetic beauty of his language and the tragedies of the war.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Great cinematographic style, vivid, risky, and imaginative. A close look at the personal and daily living of two young people in the midst of a civil war. More informative and captivating than general media coverage. One of the best literay novels on the middle east I have read in years. Simply brilliant.

Rawi Hage's first novel is arguably one of the best pieces of English literature on Lebanon's devastating 15-year civil war. Daniel Scott's simplistic analysis of "De Niro's Game" does not do the book or its author justice. Hage's writing style, which is often poetic in nature, paints a vivid picture of Lebanon's internal tragedy between Christian militias, socialist forces, and Palestinian guerrillas. This book is an absolute must-read.

You read this novel and the writing is as clean, sparse and arid as the desert. Then suddenly, in a single passage, you are inundated, swimming, drowning in words and images that come at you so fast that it is difficult to breathe. Rawi Hage is a master in the making. Do not miss this tremendous book.

I have to say, I loved this book. Firstly, his writing is raw and difficult at times, but worth the effort. It's like you follow his stream of conscience, and it's refreshing. The story was raw and you really felt for the protagonist. He was human, full of good and bad flaws, making good and bad decisions. I didn't learn a whole lot about the Lebanese war, but that wasn't the point of the book. It was an interesting story, very unique, and engaging. I'm still thinking of the story days later, wondering about the character's life now, and those he met in the story. I've gotten so bored with books over the past few years, and this one got me excited about reading again. Definitely a good read.

Lebanese-Canadian author Hage mines the rich and tragic history of the Lebanese Civil War for this debut novel, featuring two Christian childhood friends who gradually grow apart. The story is set in 1982, some seven years into the war. Bassam and George grew up in the midst of the violence, and now they are adults with few prospects and no hope. Bassam clings to the notion of fleeing to Rome with a girl-next-door type from his neighborhood, while George is the more wild of the two (he is the "DeNiro" of the title, referencing the actor's role in The Deer Hunter).

The first part of the book gives the backstory of their friendship and shows them prowling the streets of divided Beirut, as they struggle to define their identity. Eventually, they concoct a scheme to skim money from the video poker arcade George manages, hoping to fund their escape. But when this scheme goes awry, George is drafted into a Phalangist militia, and becomes increasingly sucked into the war. The second part of the book revolves around their changed relationship and Bassam's further schemes to escape the country. Here the tension builds nicely, culminating in the assassination of George's leader (who can only be the real-life President-elect Bashir Gemayel), the ensuing Sabra-Shatilla Massacres, and a stark confrontation between the two friends.

The third part of the book finds Bassam wandering Paris as an illegal alien. At this point, the story starts to lose its grip a bit. Bassam is so adrift that he might well be suffering from post-traumatic stress, and Hage overeggs the custard by introducing a sily device of having him reading Camus' The Stranger while holed up in a cheap hotel. Meanwhile, a woman enters his life, and the plot drifts into bad espionage thriller territory, detracting from the overall effect of Bassam's struggle.

The writing is an interesting mix of straightforward narrative and stream-of-consciousness flights of fancy. The story will be moving along and suddenly Bassam's inner voice will unleash a torrent of loosely connected imagery. Personally, I don't care for that style of writing, but I'm sure others will find it magical. On the whole a solid glimpse into the devastation wreaked by civil war, slightly marred by the weaker third section. It should be interesting to see what Hage follows up with.

Initially drawn to this book by the Literary Review's statement that "writing can't get much better..." I'd no idea what to expect. But Hage's written style is as close to modern day epic poetry as you'll probably ever find. The setting of Beirut would hardly seem to lend itself to poetry, but in the sprawling descriptions of the living conditions--both physical and emotional--of this war-ravaged state he seems to channel the style of Homer. For real!

In painting the picture of life for young men living for today amidst a conflict that is as much tradition as the tenets of the religions they follow, Hage brings a world to life that CNN can't tap with its two minute evening news insight.

The final part of the story loses steam as the location changes to somewhere (not to give anything away) it seems Hage is less familiar. Suddenly the same voracity of streaming description that brings Beirut to life is somewhat stifled. Even the actions of the protagonist appear to lose relevance, and certainly consistency.

Yet the writing style still clips along at a thoroughly entertaining pace, and ultimately delivers a story that I figure most readers would never believe that they would enjoy.

Highly recommended.

Bassam, the narrator, is a 19 year old Christian living in Beirut with his widowed mother during the Conflict between Muslims and Christians in 1982. Bassam dreams of a new life in another country and with his best friend, George, a casino manager, starts to skim money out of the casino. George befriends some powerful men in the militia and gets involved in drug dealing, crime and killing. The book is divided into 3 parts and the pace and writing changes as the plot unfolds: the first part Roma is fairly quiet and descriptive; Beirut, the second part is cutting, brutal and tough while the 3rd part Paris is like a hallucinogenic dream. The powerful friendship between George and Bassam is beuatifully told set in a catastrophic period of Beirut's history. A Novel I definitely recommend.

De Niro's Game is the story of two best friends struggling to navigate through the chaos and tragedy of Lebanon's civil war. They experience love, loss, betrayal and hopelessness as they recklessly strive for something... anything... better.

It's a dark story that's beautifully written and will have you at the edge of your seat the whole read through. What makes it even more fascinating is that its main characters are Lebanese Christians - offering a rare glimpse into what it was like living in East Beirut at the height of the city's strife.

Those knowledgeable about Lebanon's social and political history will find De Niro's game especially interesting.

Lebanon is a country with bad luck. Which comes, of course, from bad location. A beautiful, hilly and forested piece of land, home to ancient civilizations like the Phoenicians, it has been trapped between militant Israelis and fanatical Muslims for many years, suffering interminable wars. Lebanon's population is divided between Muslims and Christians, among other denominations, and its capital, Beirut, has evolved from a sort of Montecarlo to a hellhole for decades. This novel is better as a testimony than as literature, although it is worth reading. Narrated in the first preson, it is the story of a young man -nominally Christian- who lives with his mother in a middle-clas neighborhhod of Beirut, during the 1980's civil war. He tells us about the total disruption of life and the social fabric, from a cynical and nihilistic perspective (which is the only one you can adopt if you want to survive). The main thread is his relationship with his friend George, to whom he is partner in petty crimes, and who is recruited by the local "Christian" militias. Naturally, all characters have sordid and unhopeful lives, in the middle of constant bombardments. In the middle of the chaos there is the love affair of the main character with a girl he has known all his life, but love affairs are risky and hardly happy in war. In the meantime, George progressively sinks in the sprial of violence and general degradation, making life harder fo everyone.

The book is worth a try, but it works better as a piece of journalism, since its aesthetic qualities are only average. However, it does manage to depict coldly and humanely at the same time, the horrible situations which the Lebanese people have had to suffer.