The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (Interlink World Fiction Series) [Paperback]

Emile Habiby (Author), Trevor Le Gassick (Author), Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2001

This contemporary classic, the story of a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, combines fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian-no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.

The author's own anger and sorrow at Palestine's tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israel's parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With everyone paying more attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of recent events, Habiby's novel about a Palestinian man, Saeed, who remains in Israel after its creation and becomes an informer for the state, is sure to attract attention. Written in 1974 but appearing for the first time in the U.S., the tale is told in the form of letters written to an unnamed correspondent after Saeed has escaped to outer space with the help of an extraterrestrial friend. Saeed's experiences are both comic and tragic, triumphant and defeated. He tries to gain favor by being the best informant, but his bad luck and dim wit guarantee his failure; his life is lived in constant fear, yet he is never without hope. Habiby's blending of fantasy and reality intentionally obscures our sense of what is real and what is not, but it heightens our awareness of the complexity of the political conflict in the Middle East. As an Arab in Israel (and one-time member of the Israeli Parliament), Habiby has strong views on the conflict, but even readers who disagree with him will find this strange novel to be thought-provoking on a number of levels. Helpful translators' notes serve as a primer on Middle Eastern history and culture. Beth Warrell
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group (September 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566564158
• ISBN-13: 978-1566564151
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Victor and the Vanquished March 13, 2002

By lvkleydorff

Format:Paperback

Saeed, the narrator of the story, belongs to the large family of Pessoptimists. He can feel like a pessimist, or like an optimist, but can never tell the two apart. Saeed is an Arab. When Israel conquered part of Palestine, he did not flee but stayed behind to become an Israeli citizen. That did not help him much - Arab remains Arab.

The book is a humorous allegory, wrapped around everyday Arab life, with a bitter nucleus of Israeli oppression. Like Voltaire?s Candide, Saeed believes that this is the best of all worlds. To him it seems quite natural that the occupying forces arrest people in the middle of the night for no reason, that they deport them, that they blow up houses, and that they devastate whole villages. After all, they won the war, and everything - and everybody - now belongs to them. There are those Arabs who want to retaliate immediately. But they are told that the tree is not loved for its flowers, but for its fruit. After all, it took them close to two hundred years to throw out the crusaders. Saeed is the simple soul who sees what goes on around him, but cannot understand why it is so. The bitterness comes with the explanation.

Mr. Habiby wrote a devastating satire. His own life paralleled that of Saeed: he was an Arab in Israel, even a member of the Israeli parliament. He wrote this book almost 30 years ago. It is still valid.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A world unchanged since Voltaire's day June 22, 2008

By D. Cloyce Smith TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

As its subtitle implies, "The Secret Life of Saeed" blends optimism and pessimism, tragedy and comedy, horror and farce, cynicism and gullibility. A Palestinian in occupied territory, Saeed has lived through both wars (1948 and 1967); although he is an informer on the payroll of the Israeli government, he's too stupid to be of any real threat to his own people, but he is equally unable to protect his own family. As Salma Khadra Jayyusi notes in the introduction, Saeed is caught between "the extreme poles of Zionist colonialism and Palestinian resistance."

Saeed is able to relate his tale only when he is rescued by an extraterrestrial being (perhaps the Reaper himself) who removes him physically from the absurdities in which he is trapped. In each part of the subsequent autobiographical account, he relates a different loss--of his first love, of his wife and son, of the daughter of his first love--each under different circumstances that are identical in their irrationality. A coward himself, comically useless to his superiors, he is surrounded by rebels. But, once freed from earthly shackles, he can unsparingly ridicule his oppressors, and his tale mocks both Arab oligarchies and Israeli officials.

Habiby's novel owes much to Voltaire, as he makes clear in both the book's title and in a chapter called "The Amazing Similarity between Candide and Saeed." When his extraterrestrial savior points out the resemblance, Saeed responds, "Don't blame me for that. Blame our way of life that hasn't changed since Voltaire's day," and he draws parallels between Pangloss and Israeli dignitaries and between Candide's experiences and recent Palestinian history. The difference, of course, is that Candide always concluded that "All is well in the world," while Saeed the pessoptimist is not so sure.

Habiby's wit is most palatable when it is barbed, and his story is most powerful when it is tragic. The farce tends to silliness, however, occasionally threatening to undercut the satire. (To be frank, I have never been able to appreciate the slapstick follies in Voltaire's novel, either.) There's no doubt that much of the book's wit and wordplay is lost in the translation between languages and cultures; without the translators' pages of notes, I would have been lost. Nevertheless, the novel will surprise you with its most powerful scenes, especially when Saeed meets his battered namesake in prison and the ambiguous, tragic, climactic episode depicting the fate of his son and wife, an event that manages to be both melancholy and glorious. Such passages remind the reader that Saeed (as well as his fellow Palestinians) can hardly hope to be in control of the world in which he lives; although unchained, he remains "a prisoner unable to escape."

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Unique & Engrossing Story July 10, 2006

By Hanan

Format:Paperback

I absolutely loved this book. It's not your run of the mill Palestinian literature - Emile Habiby is a very unique writer who is quirky & quick-witted. Anyone can enjoy this story - it has a universal human truth and is extremely touching. The character of Saeed is so different and out there, you can't help but have a soft spot for the poor guy. It is one of my favorite books of all time.