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Classroom Fiction Library Featuring Marginalized Subject
Matter: Middle eastern
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1. Alaa Al Aswani. The Yacoubian Building. New York: Harper
Collins, 2006.
The book evokes very important problems that are typical for
the modern Arab world. The book reveals the political corruption,
religious extremism and modern hopes of Egyptian people. Basically
the plot of the story is focused on the Yacoubian building
where al the humanity reside. This was an elegant temple of
Art Deco splendour that at the present moment is slowly decaying
in the smog and bustle of downtown Cairo. The author manages
to depict various layers of the modern Cairo society from
a fading aristocrat and self proclaimed scientist of women,
to a devout young student feeling the irresistible pull toward
fundamentalism. The author also successfully depicts a corrupt
and corpulent politician that twists Koran to justify his
desires. Being full of controversies the book still is an
important window on to the experience of loss and love in
the Arab world. At the same time the book will be obviously
interesting of r older students who are interested in the
real human feelings and emotions such as love and loss but,
at the same time, are able to understand the depth of the
book and fully catch the general picture of the modern society
the author skilfully depicts in his book. It is important
to underline that the author depicts the modern society on
the background of the historical heritage of Egyptian people.
2. O.Z. Livaneli. Bliss. New York: St Martin Press, 2006.
The author focuses his attention on the life of a young Turkish
girl whose problems, in actuality, may be similar to those
that modern American students have but set in a different
socio-cultural context. Left in the barn to hang herself for
her uncle raped her, 15 year-old Meryem defies local tradition
and refuses to do it. Her cousin Cemal, recently a soldier
in army, who grew up with her in a tiny village in eastern
Turkey, is sent to take her in Istanbul and is told to kill
her on the way. On the train, Meryem eyes are open to city
women who wear modern dress and speak and eat in front of
men. Cemal cannot kill her, and after a short stay with his
brother in Istanbul, he goes to a war buddy who gives them
a place of temporary refuge, a fish farm on a cove in western
Turkey. Here they meet a professor who has run away from his
privileged life in Istanbul and is living on a large sailboat.
He invites the two cousins to join him that gives the new
direction to their life. Teens will be drawn to the plight
of a girl who has been raped and is then treated as a perpetrator
of the crime. The author village life and modern city life
as two separate realities that coexist in Turkey today. This
book will be particularly interesting for students interested
in human rights and global studies.
3. Yasmina Khadra. The Attack. New York: Doubleday Publishing,
2006
In this book the author deals with an extremely important
problem that is particularly serious nowadays, the problem
of terrorism and its possible causes. The author has an ability
to convey that sense of unrelenting anxiety that may indeed
be the object of terrorism. The novel concerns the Dr Amin
Jaafari, an esteemed surgeon of Arab-Bedouin descend who has
worked against odds to become a relatively well-appointed
citizen of Tel-Aviv. In an instant, the doctor’s life
is turned inside out by a suicide bomb attack near the hospital
where he practices. The very worst of it comes when he learns
that his beloved wife, who perished in the attack, is believed
to be one who is actually carried out the bombing. Incensed
by this accusation, Amin rejects the idea that their idyllic
marriage may not have been all that it seemed. His relentless
search for the truth leads him back to the place from his
past, and the story comes full circle. This could prove to
be a book of some importance owing to its fine technique and
relevance to the current world affairs. In fact, the book
is really noteworthy as the work that may be viewed as a warning
against terrorism that may be nearby and terrorists may be
people who are nearby.
4. Hisham Matar. In the Country of Men. New York: Random House,
2006.
This novel is set in 1979. The book tells the story of Suleiman,
a Lybian boy whose family and friends are targeted as anti-revolutionaries
by the repressive government of Muammar Qaddafi, known to
his people as the Guardian. In this waking nightmare of how
the government saws fear, turning its subjects against one
another, men are arrested and disappear. Some are eliminated
in a horrifying public execution before a gleeful stadium
crowd – an event broadcast live on television. Only
nine years old, Suleiman grapples with understanding who the
real traitors are, and he finds himself guilty of betraying
his friends in an environment of suspicion in which the government
monitors every movement and conversation. The most memorable
thing in this book is the relationship between Suleiman and
his young mother. Suleiman wants to save her from depression
that plague her in a country hostile not only to her husband’s
political beliefs but also to her gender. She still suffers
the lost of her dreams after entering an arranged marriage
at 15. The author portrays their relationship in intimate,
realistic and heartbreaking scenes. This book will be particularly
interesting for students interested in human rights. Also
this book provides a perfect overview of the position of women
in Middle Eastern world as well as local traditions that differ
substantially from Western norms. This is why this will help
better understand the norms and standards of behaviour of
Middle Eastern students.
5. Orhan Pamuk. Snow. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2006.
The book focuses on the story of an artist who finds himself
in Turkey facing a variety of challenges of the severe reality.
This is the story of a Turkish poet who spent 12 years as
a political exile in Germany who witnesses firsthand the clash
between radical Islam and Western ideas. Ka’s reasons
for visiting a small Turkish town of Kars are twofold: curiosity
about the rash of suicides by young girls in the town and
a hope to reconnect with the beautiful Ipek, whom he knew
as a youth. But Kars is a tangle of poverty-stricken families,
Kurdish separatists, political Islamists, including Ipek’s
spirited sister Kadife, and Ka finds himself making compromises
with all in a desperate play for his own happiness. Ka encounters
government officials, idealistic students, leftist theater
groups and the charismatic and perhaps terrorist blue while
trying to convince Ipek to return to Germany with him. Each
conversation pits warring ideologies against each other and
against Ka’s own melancholy. While in Kars, the normally
reticent Ka dares to approach happiness, when once he suffered
a terrible writer’s block, his poems now flow effortlessly,
and his new-found love seems to love him back, but the figure
of Blue and the deep waters in which Ka has emerged himself
threaten his promising future. The book is full of details
concerning the country’s background, it takes some time
to introduce all the characters. Once everyone is in place,
however, the novel picks up and ultimately is a worthwhile
read for those interested in religion and religious extremism
studies.
6. Orhan Pamuk. My Name is Red. New York: Knopf Publishing,
2002.
This book is actually a historical novel. The author set the
story in the 16th century Turkey, at the tipping point when
the Ottoman Empire was being transformed from the world’s
most feared superpower into an imperial backwater. The novel
works on three levels. As a murder mystery, it asks who killed
a gilder named Elegant, employed by atelier of miniaturists,
and then Enishte, the man who was funding the atelier. On
another level this is the story of ideas. In coffeehouses
frequented by poets and artists, the backwash from the European
Renaissance is starting to call into question fundamental
principle of Islamic culture. Enishte, in particular, has
become enamored of the perspectival method favored by Venetian
painters, and wants his artists to achieve a comparable representation
of reality, rather than abiding by traditional rules of representation.
The author not only immerses readers in this debate but he
makes the pictures of dogs, Satan, gold coins, etc. imitating
the shadow-play method of traveling storytellers. His own
ability to draw stunning pictures makes Istanbul as grimly
vivid as Raskolnikov’s St Petersburg. On the third level,
this is a love story. Black, a clerk and Enishte’s nephew,
must win Enishte’s beautiful daughter, the widowed Shekure.
In fact, the author creates the novel with colorful characters
and provides a palpable sense of the atmosphere of the Ottoman
Empire that history and literary fans will appreciate this
book.
7. Orhan Pamuk. The Black Book. New York: Knopf Publishing
Group, 2006.
The book actually represents a modern mystery setting in 1990.
When Galip Cey’s wife disappears, Galip suspects she
may be with her ex-husband – voluntarily or not –
so he assumes a man’s identity and to investigate. This
book is steeped in sense and sites of Istanbul and is in fact
very specific. But imagery and detail will suffice most readers
to keep reading. However, it should be said that the story
of attorney Galip and his missing wife, Ruya, is allowed to
drag despite an interesting intrigue that has Galip is suspicious
that Ruya is hiding with her half-brother, a popular journalist.
Galip assumes the identity of the half brother with unfortunate
consequences. Only the stalwart will make it to the end. Obviously
the book is quite complicated but at the same time it provides
readers with a profound view on the complex relationship within
Turkish family and the existing system of interpersonal relationships.
This will naturally help students better understand the socio-cultural
reality of the modern Turkey.
8. Marjane Satrapi. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2004.
The book is an autobiographical novel which is a timely and
timeless story of a young girl’s life under the Islamic
revolution. Descended from the last Emperor of Iran, Satrapi
is nine when fundamentalist rebels overthrow the Shah. While
Satrapi’s radical parents and their community initially
welcome the ouster, they soon learn a new brand of totalitarianism
is taking over. Satrapi’s art is minimal and stark yet
often charming and humorous as it depicts the madness around
her. She idolizes those who were imprisoned by the Shah, fascinated
by their takes of torture, and bonds with her uncle Anoosh,
only to see the new regime imprison and eventually kill him.
Thank to Iran-Iraq war, neighbors homes are bombed, playmates
are killed and parties are forbidden. Satrapi’s parents,
who once lived in luxury despite their politics, struggle
to educate their daughter. Her father briefly considers fleeing
to America, only to realize the price would be too great.
“I can’t become a taxi driver and you a cleaning
lady?” he asks his wife. Iron Maiden, Nike, and Michael
Jackson become precious symbols of freedom, and eventually
Satrapi’s rebellious streak puts her in danger, as even
educated women are threatened with beatings for improper attire.
Despite the grimness, Satrapi never lapses into sensationalism
or sentimentality. Skillfully presenting a child’s view
of war and her own shifting ideals, she also shows everyday
life in Tehran and her family’s pride and love for their
country despite the tumultuous times. Powerfully understated,
this book will be quite useful for students’ understanding
of the reality of Iranian life and the consequences of religious
fundamentalism leading to intolerance, violation of human
rights and permanent oppression of dissidents. The book is
particularly noteworthy in regard to the position of women
in Iran and their rights which are obvious oppressed. It is
also extremely important that the author has managed to convey
the entire story from the point of view of a child facing
the problems of the adult world.
9. Elif Shafak. The Bastard of Istanbul. New York: Penguin
Group, 2006.
In this book the author confronts her country’s violent
past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the
United States. At its center is the bastard of the title,
Asya, a nineteen year old woman who loves Johnny Cash and
the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci
family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul:
Zehilla, the zestful, headstrong youngest sister who runs
a tattoo parlor and is Asya’s mother; Banu, who has
newly discovered herself as a clairvoyant; Cevriye, a widowed
high school teacher; and Feride, a hypochondriac obsessed
with impending disaster. Their one estranged brother lives
in Arizona with his wife and her Armenian daughter, Armanoush.
When Armanoush secretly flies to Istanbul in search of her
identity, she finds the Kazanci sisters and becomes fast friends
with Asya. A secret is discovered that links the two families
and ties them to the 1915 Armenian deportations and massacres.
Full of vigorous, unforgettable female characters the book
perfectly illustrates the complexity of life in both Turkey
and the US of people originating from Turkey. The author raises
the problem of ethnic intolerance and discrimination reminding
about the tragedy of Armenian people and the necessity of
finding national identity in the modern globalized world.
10. Ahdaf Soueif. Map of Love. New York: First Anchor Books,
2000.
This book reveals the authors ability to combine the romantic
skills of the 19th century novelist with a very modern sense
of culture and politics. The main characters set in either
ends of the twenty century. The main characters are two women
that fall in love with men outside their familiar worlds.
In 1901, Anna Winterbourne, recently widowed, leaves England
for Egypt, an outpost of the British Empire roiling with nationalist
sentiments. Far from the comfort of the British colony, she
finds herself enraptured by the real Egypt and is in love
with Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi. Nearly a hundred years later,
Isabel Parkman, a divorced American journalist and descendant
of Anna and Sharif, has fallen in love with a gifted and difficult
Egyptian-American conductor with his own passionate politics.
In an attempt to understand her conflicting emotions and to
discover the truth behind her heritage, Isabel, too, travels
to Egypt, where she gradually unravels the story of Anna and
Sharif’s love. Obviously this book is quite a romantic
story which though refers to very important problems of the
search of the national and cultural identity and, what is
more it raises the question of co-existence of different nations
to the extent that the author attempts to show how it is actually
possible to develop the positive relationship between representative
of different ethnic groups, which have different political
and philosophical views. It is quite noteworthy that throughout
this story love is dominating over the existing political
contradictions in views of the main characters of the novel.
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