book data
58 ratings, 4.52 average rating, 11 reviews
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published
March 20th 1995
by University of California Press
binding
Paperback, 182 pages
isbn
0520087682
(isbn13: 9780520087682)
description
One of the Arab world's greatest living poets uses the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut as the setting for this sequence of...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 90)
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in December, 2007
This book was unforgettable (an intentional play on the title). I learned of the author through a shoddy VHS documentary about his life and was compelled to buy a copy of this. I actually wanted to get any book by him and this was the only thing I could find in my local used store.
His style is amazing though. He is loved throughout the middle east for his poems, prose, readings and art. Check out his site: http://www.mahmouddarwish.com/
Thi...more
His style is amazing though. He is loved throughout the middle east for his poems, prose, readings and art. Check out his site: http://www.mahmouddarwish.com/
Thi...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Middle East specialists, people who like books about war and poets writing prose
I just finished this one and I was actually surprised that I liked it. I love Darwish, but a friend told me that in this case, he should have stuck to poetry. It is rambling, but I imagine that the sense of chaos I often felt while reading it mirrors Beirut in 1982, and it is telling that the book is subtitled "August, Beirut, 1982," because he seamlessly mixes time and space throughout. Not a bad read, if you're used to depressing Palestinian literature.
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Read in December, 2004
recommends it for:
everyone
I reread this book like I reread Camus' The Stranger and Sartre's Nausea and Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet. Has the same existentialist feel, but unlike these European authors (and one European/Algerian Colonist), there is a stronger political force pushing that feeling of "diquiet" within the poet in the midst of Beirut as it is being bombed.
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Wow. I learned so much from this book. It was amazing to see exile without relocation from the eyes of an exile, especial a poet. The stream of consciousness is at times rather difficult to follow, but just keep reading and eventually all the lines meet again.
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Read in April, 2008
This book throws time out the window and leaves the reader bare to experience the moment to moment existence of life in a war zone... The text moves, unfolds, ripples and denies any form of scientific reality.... FANTASTIC
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Read in January, 2006
Challenges expectations. Muddles the boundary between poetry and prose, and forces you to question your beliefs about the Middle East. Beautifully written.
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Read in January, 2004
Beautifully written poetry and prose reflecting the Civil war in Beirut, Lebanon
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
everyone
Never has a cup of coffee seemed so significant. Beautiful.
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recommends it for:
Everyone.
"Any madness, for I have turned into words."
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Joe by:
Janerecommends it for: form & content
So good, so good.
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