Habibi

published	October 1st 1997 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0689801491 (isbn13: 9780689801495)
ebook
pages	272
description	Fourteen-year-old Liyana Abboud would rather not have to change her life...especially now that she has been kissed, for the very first time and qu...more [close] Fourteen-year-old Liyana Abboud would rather not have to change her life...especially now that she has been kissed, for the very first time and quite by surprise, by a boy named Jackson. But when her parents announce that Liyana's family is moving from St. Louis, Missouri, to Jerusalem -- to the land where her father was born -- Liyana's whole world shifts. What does Jerusalem hold for Liyana? A grandmother, a Sitti, she has never met, for one. A history much bigger than she is. Visits to the West Bank village where her aunts and uncles live. Mischief. Old stone streets that wind through time and trouble. Opening doors, dark jail cells, a new feeling for peace, and Omer...the intriguing stranger whose kisses replace the one she lost when she moved across the ocean. [close]
date added	04-14-08 edit book

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Anyone love this book as much as me?	1	3	07/04/2008 01:09AM

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Leila rated it:

(review of isbn 0689825234)

06/26/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: people who need help with their MFA thesis

I've been thinking about what to write in this review for days. Here's the thing: the book reads like an MFA thesis. I should know, I actually wrote one. I also think that Nye comes from the same poetic background that I do, or at least travels in some of the same circles I used to. The book itself is compelling, if anything because of the richly depicted setting. It was Liyana I found unrealistic, her thoughts too adult for her age, her poetic instincts are too refined and too schooled. Not to ...more I've been thinking about what to write in this review for days. Here's the thing: the book reads like an MFA thesis. I should know, I actually wrote one. I also think that Nye comes from the same poetic background that I do, or at least travels in some of the same circles I used to. The book itself is compelling, if anything because of the richly depicted setting. It was Liyana I found unrealistic, her thoughts too adult for her age, her poetic instincts are too refined and too schooled. Not to say that a fourteen-year-old doesn't have these thoughts--sure, of course--but I think that most, if not all, lack the language to actually articulate them fully. Also, Liyana seems to have no bad side--everything she does is perfect, and perfectly 'poetic' in a sense that's hard for me to describe. It's in the way she refuses to wear make-up, won't cut her hair, wears birkenstocks, doesn't care about clothes...she is this perfect vision of the female naturalist poet--who cares only about words and looking closely at everything she sees. She's an unrealistic ideal. She's never shy, always knows the right thing to say, does whatever she wants and never gets in trouble, sees the boy she likes and he's hers--what's the challenge in that? Is there anything she doesn't like about herself? There's no room here to get in, and by the end I started to hate Liyana as much as I liked her--because there wasn't anything real about her. She was the poet, separated from the whole person. Most great poets are deeply, deeply flawed, but the only flaw set up in the book is that she lacks humility. Well? So what. Is that really a flaw, when her pride seems to be growing out of the fact that she's basically perfect?

The other characters don't have much of a life of their own. Her mother is constantly cheerful; her father is suave and exotic. Her brother is a Star Trek loving nerd, but he doesn't have a voice that is much different than Liyana's. Sitti is the most interesting character, next to Omer. And Omer basically just acts as a vehicle for Liyana's poetic inspiration, he doesn't have much of an actual character to him. He's as perfect as she is. Everyone else just fades together.

I think the book has many interesting points, and I enjoyed the honest look at a conflict that most Americans probably don't know enough about. It wasn't sensationalist, but it was way over the top in many aspects, mostly dealing with Liyana herself. I want to give this a higher rating, but I can't. For people who aren't poets, the language probably seems beautiful. But from a poet's perspective, it just seems contrived....less

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Habibi

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