Customer Reviews

The Unfurling

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To discover Ni'mah's work in The Unfurling is to discover the unfurling of a warmhearted person, talking on issues important to Arab women and all women. Each poem, including tributes to her grandmother, the birth of her daughter, and one on the old woman walking along a busy freeway,symbolizing the old and new Saudi Arabia, touches the soul of everywoman. Through a poem you could hear the screams of an attack in a Suadi city, in 2003. You could see a woman straining under the veil, and the welter of Muslim rules about coverings. Through the veil of a woman, we can see the respect for tradition and a sense of welcoming change that captures the dilemma of many Saudis, both men and women.

Ni'mah writes soulfully, with grace and fluency. Each poem is a gem to be treasured.

Linda Edwards
www.lindaslovebook.com
Author
The Sun, The Snow, The Sea (2004)
Coin of Gold (2001)

If you have ever wondered what occupies the mind and sensibility of a 21st century Saudi Arab woman, The Unfurling is a must-read.

Nimah Ismail Nawwab brings to the page spare language, keen intelligence, an open and honest heart, and a spirit that soars. Her poems-about family, culture, faith, tradition, and change-take us into an world unfamiliar to most Americans. It is no accident that Nimah Nawwab's first book of poetry, has been written in English, rather than her native Arabic: The Unfurling is a gift, a generosity, an invitation. It is also clear evidence that Nawwab is, at heart, a healer, a woman who understands what's at stake and what lies at the center of a peaceful world.

Pit Menousek Pinegar
www.pitpinegar.com
author
Nine Years Between Two Poems (1996)
The Possibilities of Empty Space (1997)
The Physics of Transmigration (spring, 2005)

Nimah Ismail Nawwab, a Saudi poet descended from a long line of Makkan scholars, is an English writer, poet and photographer. This remarkable volume of poetry is a must-read for its artistic merits as well as its relevance and timeliness, as many ask, "Where are the moderate Muslim voices?" A daughter of Arabia, she writes with a knowledge and passion that is as deep and telling of her attachment to family and ancestral origins as of her understanding of the world. This is a very special collection.

Teachers/Librarians: 6th grade to adult - social studies/language arts.

In this collection of poems, Nimah Ismail Nawwab, opens her lovely heart and spirit to us and shares intimate details of her family life. She is candid and direct about her yearning for a better world. She gives us unique insight into Middle Eastern culture and a strong spirited woman's view of an ancient civilization largely unfamiliar to western societies. Nawwab, a citizen of the globe, documents what her native country Saudi Arabia is like today: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

"The Unfurling" is artfully written in fluent English. The title is multilayered in meaning as are many of her poems. It is a metaphor for unfurling a sail that has been wound up tightly around a mast to which it is attached. When unfurled, a sail is free to take to the wind and fly smartly in the bracing air. She asks poetically if her spirit will ever be free to soar in the breeze. The title also is a flower metaphor: when it blossoms, it shares its inner glory with the world.

Nawwab's literary goal is to take us on a journey into a dazzling realm of imagery, rhythm, music, style, and words, providing a chance to pause during everyday lives and to deliberate on the broader issues of humanity.

In her way, Nawwab gives her sisters a literary voice for the first time ever. Yes, she writes about repression and fear, but also about female Arab dress and female pride. She favorably compares Arab female dress to that of Catholic nuns. Both serve to assert religious identity, while minimizing female sexuality. Both groups wear their habits proudly; nevertheless, some numbers of each of the two groups have and would reject the dress if they could. Nawwab makes it clear that Muslim women are not ignorant and do in fact wear the habit out of respect for their age-old religious and cultural traditions.

In the second section of the book, she writes about family, home, and reminiscences. Her lyric poetry addresses her religion and her beloved desert landscape. One humorous poem, "Call to Prayer," depicts the universal problem that parents have in coaxing teenagers to get ready to go to church, temple, or mosque.

The third and final section is, to an extent, a searing recitation of war and terrorism that threaten both the Arab and western worlds. Her poems give a Mideastern view of the wars going on in her region. We learn that just like victims of brutality worldwide, Arab women suffer every day due to loss of children and family to violence and warfare.

It is easy to picture Nawwab as she sits at her keyboard in the after-midnight hours, putting more thoughts and more inspirations into computer folders perhaps someday to share with the world.

With this extraordinary book of poems, Nima Ismail Nawwab unfurls for us a world of beauty, pathos, tragedy, longing, restoration, and hope. She also offers us rare glimpses into the world of Saudi women that are at once unique and rooted in the passions, pathologies and poignant simple pleasure of Saudi society, yet also strikingly universal. This is the voice of a Muslim woman devoted to her faith - and also devoted to principles of human dignity that are often flouted by extremists of the faith. Her imagery is vivid, her language elegant, and her subject matter diverse.

As a journalist, I've reported from Saudi Arabia several times and have often been struck by how the post 1973 oil boom generation - who make up nearly two-thirds of the population-- are shaping the future of Saudi Arabia. Nimah Nawwab is clearly one of them. But she is not alone. While hers is a distinctive voice, it is one with many echoes throughout society. We're just fortunate that she put pen to paper and delivered us this truly remarkable collection of poems. It's a must-read for anyone interested in Saudi Arabia, Muslim women, or just good poetry.