6th out of 53 books
—
51 voters
One Hundred and One Nights
by
Benjamin Buchholz (Goodreads Author)
After 13 years in America, Abu Saheeh has returned to his native Iraq, a nation transformed by the American military presence. Alone in a new city, he has exactly what he wants: freedom from his past. Then he meets Layla, a whimsical fourteen-year-old girl who enchants him with her love of American pop culture. Enchanted by Layla's stories and her company, Abu Saheeh settl...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
December 1st 2011
by Back Bay Books
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This book confirms what we think of war. Ask the people whose countries and families are affected by it. The politics of war which is decided by a few in power and we read about the morality and fight for peace has far reaching effects on a common man who wants a peaceful daily life for himself. The common man is the collateral damage of war and it is in their sacrifice and pain that change happens.
This book was written hauntingly and brings out the effect of war on families. Abu Saheeh and his...more
This book was written hauntingly and brings out the effect of war on families. Abu Saheeh and his...more
My Thoughts -
Abu Saheeh, so he is known, appears in the small border town of Safwan. Under the patronage of a local Sheikh, Abu Saheeh sets up shop as a merchant, and so begin the nightly visitations of a young girl, Layla. Poor and dirty, lively Layla reminds the troubled Saheeh of happier times, of unfullfilled dreams, of unmeted justice. Quickly, the ominous shadow of tragedy taints Abu Saheed's every endeavor.
Navigating the intricate relationships of Southern Iraq, old time tradition blen...more
This book haunts me.
It really haunted my dreams. I don't suggest reading it before sleeping if you take your characters and their actions with you as you snooze. That being said I need to read it again as this is one of those books that will improve upon a second or perhaps third reading. War, no matter its root cause, does so much damage to individuals and that damage is the soul of this book. Good people can be driven to horrific acts by the repeated acts upon them. Unyielding cultural and re...more
It really haunted my dreams. I don't suggest reading it before sleeping if you take your characters and their actions with you as you snooze. That being said I need to read it again as this is one of those books that will improve upon a second or perhaps third reading. War, no matter its root cause, does so much damage to individuals and that damage is the soul of this book. Good people can be driven to horrific acts by the repeated acts upon them. Unyielding cultural and re...more
As literary terrain, Iraq has been well-ploughed in recent years - Jarhead, Life in the Emerald City, but the debut author, Benjamin Buchholz, cleverly chooses to show the Iraqi perspective to shine a fresh light. Our protagonist, Abu Saheeh moves back and forth in his memories, contrasting the past of his childhood upbringing and eventual move to Chicago, with his present attempt to forge a career in a war-torn country. On meeting a beggar girl, Layla, who is fascinated with US culture, Abu is...more
Author Benjamin Buchholz weaves touching story with twists and turns. You can feel the anguish coming through Abu Saheeh, the books main character. His return to his homeland Iraq is cause for time to review his life past and future. Abu's story tells heart-wrenching stories of the different people in his new place of residence in Iraq bordering on Kuwait.
Abu feels like a foreigner among his own people. It doesn't help that he is new to the a city that is stuck in limbo. With the Americans still...more
Abu feels like a foreigner among his own people. It doesn't help that he is new to the a city that is stuck in limbo. With the Americans still...more
After 13 years in America, Abu Saheeh has returned to his native Iraq, a nation transformed by the American military presence. Alone in a new city, he has exactly what he wants: freedom from his past. Then he meets Layla, a whimsical fourteen-year-old girl who enchants him with her love of American pop culture. Enchanted by Layla’s stories and her company, Abu Saheeh settles into the city’s rhythm and begins rebuilding his life. But two sudden developments–his alliance with a powerful merchant a...more
What lies between reality and fiction? Buchholz takes you there where Layla entertains.
One Hundred and One Nights is one of those books that just stays with the reader long after the book has been read. Abu Saheeh has been to America on a visa to study as a pre-med student but only for a short time and now he is living in the small town of Safwan. War looms in the background with the American convoys passing back and forth on the outskirts of the town near where Abu Saheeh sells his mobile phone...more
One Hundred and One Nights is one of those books that just stays with the reader long after the book has been read. Abu Saheeh has been to America on a visa to study as a pre-med student but only for a short time and now he is living in the small town of Safwan. War looms in the background with the American convoys passing back and forth on the outskirts of the town near where Abu Saheeh sells his mobile phone...more
Review from my blog (http://inkspotsandroses.blogspot.com/...):
I want to first start off by saying a few things about this book. First of all, it is not what I expected- at all. Second, there are so many little parts that give away secrets to the main plot that I don't want to go into a ton of detail. The story itself seemed like it was going to be one of those long, drawn out, never-gets-to-the-point kind of stories. I was happily mistaken by this idea!
One Hundred and One Nights starts off slow...more
I want to first start off by saying a few things about this book. First of all, it is not what I expected- at all. Second, there are so many little parts that give away secrets to the main plot that I don't want to go into a ton of detail. The story itself seemed like it was going to be one of those long, drawn out, never-gets-to-the-point kind of stories. I was happily mistaken by this idea!
One Hundred and One Nights starts off slow...more
Per my review at http://baltimorereads.wordpress.com/2...
Benjamin Buchholz’s One Hundred and One Nights (published this December) is the story of Abu Saheeh, an Iraqi mobile phone merchant (or so it seems) living in Safwan whose life is changed by the presence of a teenage girl named Layla. She first appears as a poor street rat – a nuisance to merchants – but Abu Saheeh ends up forming a relationship with her that effects him mentally and emotionally in more ways than one.
One Hundred and One Ni...more
Benjamin Buchholz’s One Hundred and One Nights (published this December) is the story of Abu Saheeh, an Iraqi mobile phone merchant (or so it seems) living in Safwan whose life is changed by the presence of a teenage girl named Layla. She first appears as a poor street rat – a nuisance to merchants – but Abu Saheeh ends up forming a relationship with her that effects him mentally and emotionally in more ways than one.
One Hundred and One Ni...more
Jun 17, 2012
Terri Pickett
added it
I liked some things about this book, especially the context (geographical and cultural) and the protagonist, whom I found interesting and compelling. He's an Iraqi doctor turned cell phone salesman who has recently returned to an Iraqi village from several years of education, training and life in the US. He's a man with secrets. I liked the thoughtful, perceptive and open-minded author explanation for writing this novel from the perspective of an Iraqi man (in an Q/A at the end). I did not care...more
Ben Buchholz is one of the most interesting new writers I've read in the past few years. He has a quality that I am hard put to define...it has to do with a poetic flair, and a just-out-of-my-grasp dreamy reality that reminds me of the various merits of writers like Joyce, Brautigan and Pynchon. It is writing multi-layered with meaning, metaphor,and imagery. For me, it is always a challenge. I chew on it, wresting all the goodness from it, always wary that I don't miss an important detail. All o...more
This book might not be interesting to just anyone. It's a compelling story of a man who came from the Middle East to get an education and who lived in Chicago for years, who then returned home to Iraq. I was very surprised that an American man could write the story of an Iraqi man with such attention to emotional detail. Excellent picture of the Arab thought processes and the emotional turmoil as well as the political turmoil that we, as a free people have no way to comprehend. I have worked for...more
A Hundred and One Nights is a fearless and seductive piece of ventriloquism by a storyteller in full command of his craft. With spare, lyrical prose, Benjamin Buchholz draws us into the mind of an Iraqi doctor haunted by the violence he has witnessed. In search of healing, Abu Saheeh moves from Baghdad to a small town in southern Iraq. But even as he begins to forge a new life and a friendship with an enchanting young girl named Layla, the horrors of his past rear up, threatening to destroy all...more
One Hundred and One Nights is the second debut novel I've read this month with voracity and delight. What a GREAT read! Written from the viewpoint of an Iraqui doctor, schooled in Chicago, the story unfolds in ways both mysterious and heart-wrenching. I was completely taken in from the very first chapter. I'm perhaps gullible, but I didn't atually understand what was really happening until about half way through the book. At that AHA moment, I was in awe of Buchholz and his ability to both touch...more
I really enjoyed this book, though through most of it I felt confused. Definitely a book I will have to read a second time in hopes of catching something I might have missed in the story and to understand what exactly happens. The characters are all unique and appealing in their own ways. Very interesting insights into the culture and what can happen to a human being when suffering trauma emotionally and mentally, this book was a surprising read for me to enjoy as it was far off my normal genre,...more
I came across this novel on the Popular page on Goodreads and fell in love with it then and there. Thus in the same fashion Abu-Saheeh passionately seeks Layla so did I with this book. It was impossible to find here in Amman, don't know why, but as soon as I boarded a plane to America the first thing I did was order it from Amazon. Yet now that I've read it, all the excitement I had towards this book has been drowned out.
For starters, I have to praise Buchholz for doing his homework. For a man w...more
For starters, I have to praise Buchholz for doing his homework. For a man w...more
Benjamin Bucholtz perfectly captures the monotony of Abu Saheeh’s days watching convoys travel past his mobile phone business carrying supplies, troops and prisoners between Kuwait and war-torn Iraq. Just as the reader is lulled into complacency by the military routine, the unrelenting sand and the oppressive heat of the locale, we discover that Abu Sayeeh (whose name translates as Father Truth) is not what he seems, and begin to wonder how this Iraqi doctor educated in the United States finds h...more
To start with, this book was not at all what I expected. The author is an American solider, who spent time serving in the Middle East. I never thought he'd be able to write in the voice of an Iraqi man (and as a white American woman, I am not perhaps the best judge of how successful he is at this endeavor), but I actually think he did a good job. At the end of the book there is an interview with the author and he does a great job of explaining why he writes as an Iraqi and not an American. The m...more
Constructed around a mysterious narrator's appearance in Southern Iraqi town during the Iraq War, the novel uses an almost military pattern of repetition to peel back the layers on the narrator's role in the town's politics. We learn he is an aristocratic-born, Western-educated doctor in hiding, and only a few of the townspeople share his secret--but the faerie-like Leila, a young female visitor, threatens to upset his plan.
I wanted to love this book, and may return to it later this year. I set...more
I wanted to love this book, and may return to it later this year. I set...more
I enjoyed the characters in this book and particularly the way that you gained more and more of an understanding of them as the book progressed and the layers of mystery and suspense were peeled away.
Ultimately the story is sad, and somewhat futile, but probably quite realistic and truthful in its portrayal of the complex and jumbled emotions and loyalties that war, tragedy and cross-cultural identity can combine to produce.
3 stars. Would recommend to any book reading friend.
Ultimately the story is sad, and somewhat futile, but probably quite realistic and truthful in its portrayal of the complex and jumbled emotions and loyalties that war, tragedy and cross-cultural identity can combine to produce.
3 stars. Would recommend to any book reading friend.
Loving books set in exotic locales, I thought a current day book set it Iraq would be perfect for me. But it wasn't. I was half-way into the book and didn't really know where we were going. Is it the story of the main character's relationship with the young girl? his old friend? his brother? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Why is he in Iraq? I wanted to make him a hero but couldn't.
This started out like a slower-paced love story but by the end it totally blew my mind and opened my eyes to what it must be like actually living in a place like Iraq. Some of the dream stuff is crazy but fun and the mystery at the end is totally up for grabs, could be one way, could be another way, depending on how you look at it. I might read it again.
At the very beginning, I found the book boring and was thinking of abandoning it. However, once the "back story" began, I was hooked. An Iraqi who has spent many years in the United States returns to Iraq and is torn between his love of country and his love of America. Involves family relationships (not always positive), love, loyalty, revenge.
This story started and ended at two very different places for me. When I started the book, I had no clue that it would end the way it did. I didn't hate this book- but I didn't love it either. It was interesting. The main character lived such an unfortunate life; from childhood all the way to adulthood. As the story progressed, I could see why he was doing what he was doing- and what made him tick. There were a couple of parts I didn't understand, but I chock that up to me wanting to find out mo...more
May 19, 2012
Katrina
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
There are better books out there that cover this topic.
This book is just too slow. I couldn't even finish it because it just kept dragging on and on. I didn't even feel like I was learning anything new about Iraq.
At the beginning, I was very excited about this book. Buchholz's experiences make his narrative so well-informed and life-like. I like that he wove parts of Abu Shaheeh's past into the narrative in a way that seemed fresh rather than formulaic, and the allusions to a deeper past are well-placed. In the last third of the book, the narrator's dreams get in the way of advancing the narrative and confused me about the progression of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel for the perspective it pro...more
Overall, I enjoyed this novel for the perspective it pro...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative Reviews: Win A Copy of One Hundred And One Nights! | 2 | 6 | Jan 06, 2012 08:02am | |
| Book Buying Addic...: Win A Copy of One Hundred And One Nights! | 1 | 15 | Jan 06, 2012 06:34am | |
| Book Haven: Win A Copy of One Hundred And One Nights! | 1 | 5 | Jan 06, 2012 06:32am | |
| Tweet Chat on Dec. 9 | 1 | 5 | Dec 06, 2011 07:19am |

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