Radwa Ashour: Siraj (رضوى عاشور: سراج)

This is a beautifully written novel by Radwa Ashour in 1992, before her fame kicked in with her Granada Trilogy in 1994. I picked it up and finished it in one day mostly because of how easily its narration flows. But it is also a very short novel of a 116 pages that reads fast and is highly recommended.

The story is framed by a narration from Amna’s point of view. And between the first and last chapters where we read Amna’s thoughts and worries, we are taken to other character’s lives beginning with the Sultan and his struggles with the English presence in the area, Amna’s son Saeed and his travels into Alexandria then towards Yemen and southeast Africa, old and kind-hearted Ammar whose old love for Amna’s mother stays with him till the end, mischievous Tawaddud and her early ambition to become a sailor, all of whom become active members in a revolt against the Sultan led by the Sultan’s slaves, and thwarted by the British troops.

The events take place at the end of the 19^th century around the time of the Ahmed Orabi revolution in Egypt. Its main characters belong to a small island in the Arabian Sea that escaped complete British occupation by becoming a protectorate as its Sultan allowed the British to establish their military base on parts of the island. While the novel tells of the Sultan’s struggle to ward off the British influence in the area, it also presents the Sultan as a dictator who shows no reluctance to punish anyone suspected of treason or revolt. And in a land that holds more slaves than natives, revolt was bound to happen. Yet the novel itself is more about Saeed and his growth from a young adventurous boy to a man risking his life for his land. It is mostly also a story of Amna, the mother, who begins by telling us she fears the sea and doesn’t understand men’s attraction to it:

الرجال يخرجون للبحر، يذهبون ويعودون، يذهبون ثم لا يعودون، فتخرج النسوة للانتظار وقد يبّس الخوف أكتافهن وحفر أخاديده في وجوههن. شاهدت آمنة كل شيء: لطم الخدود، ساعة يتأكد الخبر، وشق الثياب والعويل الذي يقطع الفضاء ويشطره كما يشطر سكين السياف رأس الحي عن الجسد.

And later when her son shows the desire to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and take to the sea, she wonders again at men’s attraction to treacherous sea over abundant land:

في الغد يخرج للصيد فهل يضمر له البحر ما أضمره لأبيه وجده؟ الرجال يحبون البحر، يذهبون إليه بشوق كالعشاق فما الذي يحبونه في البحر والأرض بين أيديهم ماؤها عذب زلال؟ الأرض أكرم تودعها بذرتك فتمنحك نبتتها وثمرتها وتوفي، فلماذا يحب الرجال البحر؟

And when she finally loses her son, it is indeed the sea that takes him from her, not his life in the sea, but the English troops who come by means of sea. So her motherly intuition proves right.

The novel appears to be that of the struggles of simple people helpless against the stronger powers of the Sultan and the British armies. But to me it read more as a novel investigating our relation to sea and land. Saeed, the son of divers, tries his luck at farming but finds it hardly as appealing as life at sea. His mother, fearing he sea, presents us with a sea that is cruel and damaging unlike the land, which she equates with the womb of a woman that nourishes and cares for its seed.

I might be reading too much into this. But I’m used to literature by women that presents water and its fluidity as feminine, or at least feminist, an idea that is further developed by many theoretical feminist arguments that sees in this fluidity a closer link to woman's identity and her actual womb. Ashour seems to subvert this, whether intentionally or not, by showing the stability of land and its productivity as more of a feminine/feminist trait than the illusive, and here treacherous, sea. The sea/water is Amna’s enemy here, and by extension, the reader’s enemy.

And then again, appreciation of what the land provides is another dominant feminist motif when it is mingled with studies of ecofeminism. Yet Ashour’s separation between land and sea is one that clearly finds a difference between a nature that provides us with sustenance because we care for it as farmers, and one that survives without our interference. Saeed loses his father and grandfather to sea after all, and it is his mother, Amna, who allows his seed to grow. Amna is the land/woman that has finally been defeated by the sea. Nature is not one for Aisha. It can harm you just as easily as it can provide you with sustenance. And it seems that a nature that you care for, is, in the end, better for you than one that does not need your care.

Sarah Waters: Fingersmith

An Oliver Twist-like story of deceit, secrets, crooks and an English scenery, Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith is a wonderful novel that kept me hooked as it unfolds its mysteries page after page. Waters clearly shows her debt to Dickens in the first page when her protagonist talks of going with her friend to beg at a play: the play being Oliver Twist of course.

The story is about a girl called, in those days, Susan Trinder. Susan grows up with other crooks in the house of Mrs Sucksby who makes a living ‘farming’ infants. When Susan turns 17, she helps Gentleman, later known as Richard Rivers, in convincing Maud Lilly, a young heiress, to marry him so that he can have her money by putting her in a madhouse and later splitting that money with Susan. The story is intriguing for its many twists of plot, the most important of which happens midway through the 548 page novel. It is a very elaborate scheme that includes crooks, demented gentry, mad women (always a favorite theme of mine), in a web that connects London to the country side, presenting London as the locus of thieves and crooks out to ruin a young women in the Briar. But twist after twist in the plot makes this more than just a simple story of Susan deceiving Maud.

Waters's style of writing makes this a smooth and quick read. Her rich narrative makes it a book hard to put down. This is a good novel to read. Very entertaining.

Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse

Fog, thunder, lightening, then it rains on the stage and the stage tilts, and the sailors fall off one by one. Suddenly, lo and behold, Jude Law’s miraculous arms start pulling at the rope (what a hunk), defeating wind and rain (and tilt) and he is submerged from the roaring sea onto the stage. This is Anna Christie performed at the Donmar Warehouse. A wonderful performance. But it’s not just Jude Law’s thunderous performance that makes this a spectacular show. Yes. He yells. He throws furniture around. He breaks a chair. Simply, he acts the role of an Irish sailor to perfection. But he’s supported by a wonderful cast as well. I was impressed by Ruth Wilson playing Anna Christie. This woman captured all her audience, perfecting the accent and the behavior of a true Anna Christie. Strong. Willful. And not too shy to be as loud as Mat the Irish sailor.

For those unfamiliar with O’Neill, this is a play about Anna leaving the land and coming into sea as the land seems to betray her. As a child, her father left her in a farm in the care of relatives as he saw the sea to be too treacherous a place to raise a little girl. What he doesn’t know, or doesn’t wish to know, is that her life in the farm was anything but safe. After being harassed by her cousin for a couple of years, she finally leaves the farm and finds her only chance of a life is one in which she is a prostitute in a brothel. When that life wears her out, she decides to seek her father who she hasn’t seen for 15 years. On the night of that gripping storm, she meets Mat and gradually the relationship develops with Mat proposing, and Anna refusing on grounds of her past. Reluctant to tell Mat about her past, but driven in a moment of anger insinuated by her father, she confesses and loses Mat, if temporarily.

But the play isn’t about a girl repenting after a life of prostitution. This is not a moral play after all. At least that’s not how it is on this stage. Chris boldly displays her anger at the two men in her life, making her more than a typical image of a repentant woman. When father and lover claim her as theirs, she frantically pushes both of them aside and declares she is no man’s woman. Mat refers to her Viking blood in the play and this is the best time it shows itself. This is definitely not a woman repenting for her sins. Though aware and regretful of her past life, she is not to be put down. This is a great play. And watching it on the intimate Donmar Warehouse (in spite of only managing to get a standing ticket) was an experience well worth this recommendation.

It isn’t often that I get to see actors well known for their studio performances act on stage. These are the moments that prove a good actor. And in this, I would grade Jude Law a great actor in a performance that, in its vitality, reminds me of watching Meryl Streep perform Mother Courage in Central Park. But this is also a play that introduced me to the wonderful Ruth Wilson.

Arrietty

Last night, I watched Arrietty, having been looking forward to another one of Hayao Miyazaki‘s works after watching Ponyo. Arrietty isn’t directed by Miyazaki, but he’s the screenplay writer and you can definitely see the connection with his earlier production. Arrietty is the tale of small people meeting regular (us) people. Arrietty is a 14 year old girl who is just old enough to go out in the world of humans for her first borrowing expedition. She is accidentally seen by Shu, the human boy with the heart trouble. Having been spotted by a human, Arrietty and her family have to leave their home and find another place where their anonymity is not yet lost. But between Shu spotting her, and Arrietty moving out with her family, an unusual friendship develops when Shu tries to help her keep her secret while offering some acts of kindness. In return, it seems that Arrietty gives Shu hope in a life he was beginning to lose.

The plot, however, is not what drew me to recommend this movie. Like Ponyo, this is a colorful and meaningful presentation of human emotions. The characters are delightful and you cant help feeling in love with them. The interaction between Arrietty and her parents, and that between her and Shu is beautifully drawn. But what’s most important, as is the case with more animations, is the image. The colors on the screen left both adult and children in the movie theatre spellbound. There were the usual moments of laughter, but also those moments of anticipation.

This is an animation that brings to mind both FernGully and Peter Pan. I highly recommend it, as I also recommend Miyazaki’s Ponyo.

Muhammad Al-Mansi Qandil: A Cloudy Day in the Western Land (محمد المنسي قنديل: يوم غائم في البر الغربي)

As a young girl, Aisha’a mother takes her to get a tattoo of a cross so she can hide her in a convent, as protection against her abusive stepfather. But Aisha’s days in the convent are numbered because of a scandal that involves a nun and leaves Aisha homeless again. With the help of a friend from the convent, Aisha manages to find a job in an English Lord’s house but leaves that position and becomes a translator in a revolutionary newspaper when she begins to notice the clash between the Egyptians and the British. Eventually her stepfather manages to lure her back to their village and she falls victim to him until her wolves save her and she escapes. Impregnated by her stepfather and disgraced, she finds no other place of refuge but a brothel where she stays until an English painter, Carter, proposes that she joins him in his new expedition. While she is reluctant to follow a man she only coincidentally met 3 times, the story almost ends with Aisha and Carter together. Almost. Until the wolves appear again.

الذئاب تتحرك في اتجاهها، لا تخاف من شيء، ولا يوقفها شيء، تحيط بالبيت من كل ناحية، تتذكر النظرة القاسية التي رأتها على وجه أمها، تدرك أنه لا جدوى من الصراخ، ولا يوجد طريق للهرب.....

.....تقدم "توت" وسط عواء الذئاب، كانت تنتشر في كل مكان، تتقافز فوق التلال، أصبحت شديدة القرب منه، يراها بوضوح وتشم هي رائحته، وكان الحراس الاربعة يقفون بعيدا عنه، بالقرب من الشاطئ وهم يرتجفون، كان "توت" القديم يستيقظ من جديد، لا يحب ان يكون في هذه المدينة، ولا أن يعبد هذا الإله، يجب أن يقاوم "حورمحب"، يزيل النقوش التي أصبحت تحتل جدران مقبرته على رغمه، ويمحو صور هذه الآلهة التي يكرهها ولا يدعها تستولي على مصير حياته الثانية، تبعث أصوات الذئاب بنبضات حية، تمد جسده بطاقة إضافية، عليه أن يسترد مكانته، ويثبت للجميع أنه ليس خائنا، وليس محبا لآمون، ولا يدين بالفضل لـ "حورمحب"، سيعلن تمرده على كل شيء، لعله يسترجع رجولته الضائعة.

لمح ظل شبح يتحرك بالقرب من باب المقبرة، يختفي خلف إحدى الصخور، هل هو أحد الحراس أم لص مقابر، لم يعد خائفا، كان في هذه اللحظة يستطيع مواجهة الجميع، لن يجرؤ أحد على أن يمس فرعون مصر، ولكنه أحس بضربة هائلة ترتطم بمؤخرة رأسه، سمع صوت تهشم شيء ما، دارت الصخور، وابتعدت النجوم، وكان هناك ألم لا يمكن احتماله، ثم ساد الظلام فجأة...

It is through Carter that we hear the story of Akhnaton and Nefertiti and their adopted son Tut Ankh Amon whose tomb Carter is searching for, making this more than just a story of Aisha and Carter and their unrequited love to Mukhtar and Rosa. At times the story reads like a classic Egyptian black and white with the girl abused by her father, struggling for a living, finding herself impregnated and shamed into hiding from the man she loves. At others, it is an almost fantastic one of a young girl who is guarded by wolves, meeting a young British artist who has a similar connection to wolves, and who is fascinated by the story of Tut Ankh Amon, even more than his fascination with Aisha’s face.

The intertwining of all this makes this very long novel fun to read, though I’m not sure if it kept me at a single thread. I usually enjoy multiple narratives and open-ended stories but I feel that in this story it was a bit too disconnected even when the writer tried to connect the three stories (of Aisha, Carter, and Tut) through the sudden appearances of wolves in their lives, through their estrangement from their home, through their betrayals by the ones they love, and through their inability to find peace. This doesn’t make it any less inviting to read the novel, it’s just that, if you’re like me, and want novels to take you into their world and allow you to lose yourself in them, this one can’t do that because it’s a bit disjointed. 

The intertwining of all this makes this very long novel fun to read, though I’m not sure if it kept me at a single thread. I usually enjoy multiple narratives and open-ended stories but I feel that in this story it was a bit too disconnected even when the writer tried to connect the three stories (of Aisha, Carter, and Tut) through the sudden appearances of wolves in their lives, through their estrangement from their home, through their betrayals by the ones they love, and through their inability to find peace. This doesn’t make it any less inviting to read the novel, it’s just that, if you’re like me, and want novels to take you into their world and allow you to lose yourself in them, this one can’t do that because it’s a bit disjointed.