Once in a Promised Land: A Novel [Paperback]

Laila Halaby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2008

They say there was or there wasn't in olden times a story as old as life, as young as this moment, a story that is yours and is mine.

Once in a Promised Land is the story of Jassim and Salwa, who left the deserts of their native Jordan for those of Arizona, each chasing mirages of opportunity and freedom. Although the couple live far from Ground Zero, they cannot escape the dust cloud of paranoia settling over the nation.

A hydrologist, Jassim believes passionately in his mission to make water accessible to all people, but his work is threatened by an FBI witch hunt for domestic terrorists. A Palestinian now twice displaced, Salwa embraces the American dream. She grapples to put down roots in an unwelcoming climate, becoming pregnant against her husband's wishes.

When Jassim kills a teenage boy in a terrible accident and Salwa becomes hopelessly entangled with a shadowy young American, their tenuous lives in exile and their fragile marriage begin to unravel. Once in a Promised Land is a dramatic and achingly honest look at what it means to straddle cultures, to be viewed with suspicion, and to struggle to find safe haven.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this trial of post-9/11 America, a Jordanian couple enjoys the spoils of freedom until fate curdles their dreams. Living in Tucson, Ariz., husband Jassim is a hydrologist with an immigrant's-eye view of the States as a place of "stainless steel promises... and possibility." His wife, Salwa, also believes in a country where anything from "a house in the foothills to sex with a co-worker" could be yours. But after the "crazy suicide" that destroys the Twin Towers, their idyllic lives are torpedoed; paranoid bigotry, patriotism run amok and a baseless FBI investigation are only the beginning. Compounding the suspicion, Jassim is involved in a fatal car accident and Salwa—haunted by a miscarriage and confused by the affections of another man—sends large amounts of money back home. Halaby (West of the Jordan) uses this second novel to zero in on clashing cultures and lob rhetorical Molotov cocktails against the land of "antennas to God." Her prose crackles, but at the expense of her characters, whose inner lives are unconvincing even as their circumstances are awfully real. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Halaby's timely second novel details the painful crumbling of a marriage mired in prejudice, cultural displacement, and deceit in the days following 9/11. Jassim Haddad and his wife, Salwa, have come to Tucson from Jordan so Jassim can pursue his career as a hydrologist. Questions regarding their cultural and religious background are at first subtle, then gradually more blatant, culminating in a complaint from a colleague of Jassim's to the local office of the FBI. His "suspicious behavior," however, is a result of the overwhelming guilt he feels after his car accidentally hits and kills a skateboarder. Jassim is exonerated, but he doesn't tell Salwa about the boy's death, just plods on, "as if he had wandered into someone else's life." Salwa, too, has been drifting away from Jassim, first hiding from him her miscarriage, then engaging in an affair with a coworker. Halaby perceptively examines the everyday realities of the immigrant experience through convincingly drawn characters who reflect Salwa's deep-seated belief that in America, "wishes don't come true for Arabs." Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; Reprint edition (January 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807083917
• ISBN-13: 978-0807083918
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, August 17, 2007

By 

Caesar M. Warrington (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once in a Promised Land: A Novel (Hardcover)

Immediately after 9/11 a young Arab couple living in a comfortable but lackluster marriage in Tucson, Arizona, must confront personal tragedies in the midst of America's rising anger and bigotry for all things Middle Eastern.

Salwa Haddad resents her husband Jassim's stoic response to prejudice from Americans. For Jassim, a scientist who doesn't believe in religion, he's simply bewildered how anyone could associate him with Islamic fanaticism. On his part, he sees Salwa's excessive shopping habits as a shoddy form of coping mechanism. After Salwa has a miscarriage of the pregnancy she was keeping secret from her husband, and Jassim accidentally runs over and kills a teenaged skateboarder, things quickly fall apart because of their self-involvement and inability to communicate with each other. As each turn to others in their separate professional and social circles, the results are secrets, lies and further tragedy.

Salwa finds in her younger American coworker, the handsome but deceptive Jake, the attention and passion she is unable to get from Jassim. Jassim, trying to cope with the guilt and shame over taking someone's life, is at the same time dealing with sudden hostility and suspicions from his co-workers and the scrutiny of the FBI as well. Losing those few friends he had, Jassim realizes Salwa is emotionally unable to be there for him; so instead Jassim finds an outlet in Penny, a 30something waitress with her own emotional scars.

Laila Halaby is an extraordinary storyteller, who artfully builds the Haddads' world from inside-out, while several subplots flow easily into the over-arching setting. Like the people we know in real life, her characters can be endearing and irritating. Initially I was attracted to Salwa's character, finding Jassim cold. However, halfway into the story, I found Jassim becoming the more interesting of the two, with integrity and a conscience surpassing his wife's.

Halaby also seems to enjoy playing with readers' emotions. She dispenses with Middle Eastern stereotypes, while using the ones for Americans as a snare. Just as you think you've pigeonholed the author and her book, subtle plot twists lead to developments proving you wrong. ONCE IN A PROMISED LAND is a novel which goes far to capture the complexities and inconsistencies between individuals and their various identities and the roles and responsibilities they entail. I am looking forward to more from this woman in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Worthwhile Read, January 25, 2007

By 

Sarah Emily (somerville, ma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once in a Promised Land: A Novel (Hardcover)

This novel takes a look at the lives of a Jordanian couple living in the U.S. after September 2001. While this is far from the only book written on the subject, what sets it apart is that Halaby sets her story in Arizona. The physical and political distance from New York enables her to put aside the sheer horror of the fallen buildings and instead closely examine the consequences of 9/11 as they played out in U.S. ideas of race, immigration, and safety.

Dialogue is not Halaby's strongest suit, but she skillfully uses the novel to provide a critical look at how an international event can affect individuals in the midst of already complicated lives.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More depth and insight than your usual novel., March 12, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once in a Promised Land: A Novel (Hardcover)

Laila Halaby's second novel tells of a crumbling marriage affected by fallout from 9/11. Halaby is a Jordanian-American writer who directly confronts life for Arab-Americans in a post-911 world: ONCE IN A PROMISED LAND uses the novel form to bring to life the roots of prejudice and cultural differences, making it a top pick for readers seeking something with more depth and insight than your usual novel. Public libraries must have it.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch