Customer Reviews

All That's Left to You (Interlink World Fiction)

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All That's Left to You is a sad reminder of all that was lost by the Palestinian people in 1948. Families were separated, yet a nation was born from their sorrow. This novella is the second in what became a trilogy of the evolution of Palestinian consciousness. It is here that their anger erupts. It is here that a nation begins to hear the plea of the author himself - salvation comes through actions, not through memories. A most interesting and important aspect of the novella is Kanafani's accurate portrayal of a woman's heart. This story must be recognized as a contribution to feminist literature. The main female character struggles within the parameters of a deeply paternalistic society under military occupation to come to terms with her sexuality and her shattered dreams. It is through her that the nation will be reborn. Kanafani utilizes excellent literary devices and the translation by Kirkpatrick is superb. The reader is advised to read Men in the Sun first if possible.

Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "All that's left to you" contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories. All the stories in this anthology share the feature for which Kanafani has no contestant: the seamless changes of voice within a story, often from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. Thus we explore the trials and tribulations of the five main characters in "All that's left to you", not as outsiders or even as one of the characters, but as each one of the characters in turn. The reader is made to travel invisibly from the mind of one of the characters to that of another, miles away, to learn what they are both thinking at the same instant. This is as close to a drama or a movie as one can get in a short story, or perhaps even better. It is also interesting to see how certain threads unify the narrative. Time, for instance, whom Kanafani even declared at the start to be actually a character, is one such thread. The layers of symbolism in the story destine it to be very deep reading for decades to come. Yet the novella is so fascinating, it is very difficult to put the book down. The short stories in the anthology are equally fascinating, each in its own right. They don't lack from the changes in voice that is present in "All that's left to you", and they also have their share of critical plot twists right at the end of the story. Thus be prepared to completely change your perspective after reading the last sentence of each story.

Like all other Kanafani works, this book was a tremendous pleasure to read and at the same time intensely thought-provoking. "All that's left to you" contains, in addition to the title novella, a selection of Kanafani's short stories. All the stories in this anthology share the feature for which Kanafani has no contestant: the seamless changes of voice within a story, often from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes from sentence to sentence. Thus we explore the trials and tribulations of the five main characters in "All that's left to you", not as outsiders or even as one of the characters, but as each one of the characters in turn. The reader is made to travel invisibly from the mind of one of the characters to that of another, miles away, to learn what they are both thinking at the same instant. This is as close to a drama or a movie as one can get in a short story, or perhaps even better. It is also interesting to see how certain threads unify the narrative. Time, for instance, whom Kanafani even declared at the start to be actually a character, is one such thread. The layers of symbolism in the story destine it to be very deep reading for decades to come. Yet the novella is so fascinating, it is very difficult to put the book down. The short stories in the anthology are equally fascinating, each in its own right. They don't lack from the changes in voice that is present in "All that's left to you", and they also have their share of critical plot twists right at the end of the story. Thus be prepared to completely change your perspective after reading the last sentence of each story.

Recommend: "Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories" and "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", both by Kanafani