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23rd out of 96 books
—
47 voters
Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries
by
Suad Amiry
Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that architect Suad Amiry kept from 1981 to 2004, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law evokes the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Amiry writes elegance and humor about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone fro...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
September 19th 2006
by Anchor
(first published October 1st 2003)
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I could really relate to what she said about living illegally in Palestine. the term was always ridiculous to me but unfortunately this is how things work in Palestine. For me, I lived illegally but for different reasons. I got my ID just after Oslo during my first visit to Palestine but my journey started when I decided to live in Ramallah to study at Beir Zait university for my masters. And yes in Palestine u can have an ID and still be considered as illegal resident. I have a Gazan ID which m...more
Oct 25, 2009
sinta nisfuanna
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sejarah-budaya-sosial,
pindah-tangan
“Senjata Suad Amiry adalah ironi dan ia mengemasnya dengan sangat cerdas dan handal…” Figaro
Sebelumnya saya sempat bertanya-tanya siapa atau apa Figaro yang memberikan endors dengan begitu pasnya terhadap autobiografi ini. Setelah melakukan googling, dan bertemu dengan tante Wiki [liat di http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figaro], saya menemukan beberapa “pengguna” nama ini, mulai dari judul lagu yang dipopulerkan Brotherhood of Man—sapa neh??--nama kerajaan dalam video game Final Fantasy VI sampai n...more
Sebelumnya saya sempat bertanya-tanya siapa atau apa Figaro yang memberikan endors dengan begitu pasnya terhadap autobiografi ini. Setelah melakukan googling, dan bertemu dengan tante Wiki [liat di http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figaro], saya menemukan beberapa “pengguna” nama ini, mulai dari judul lagu yang dipopulerkan Brotherhood of Man—sapa neh??--nama kerajaan dalam video game Final Fantasy VI sampai n...more
Close-up view of what it's like to live in a state of constant harassment punctuated with periods of anxious boredom and bouts of violence (not to mention curfews). (Makes the DMV, my usual candidate for purgatory-on-earth, seem like a very genteel garden party.) The subtitle says a lot - it's basically a diary, so daily details abound and predominate. And since Ramallah is a difficult place to live, they're more interesting than they might be, altho also much more appalling. I can barely imagin...more
From Amazon: Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that architect Suad Amiry kept from 1981 to 2004, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law evokes the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Amiry writes elegance and humor about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone from another town, the absurdity of her dog receiving a Jerusalem identity card when thousands of Palestinians coul...more
Humor is a great power in attracting attention to the point you want to make. I bought this book at Ben Gurion Airport after going through the "usual suspect" treatment of the Israeli airport security. The fact that the book starts with an episode at the same airport was enough to catch me right away!
The people of certain level of intellect have no boundaries of gender, language, religion and citizenship. Throughout the book, the restrictions of Suad Amiry were my restrictions and her needs and...more
The people of certain level of intellect have no boundaries of gender, language, religion and citizenship. Throughout the book, the restrictions of Suad Amiry were my restrictions and her needs and...more
الترجمة ليست سيئة والكتاب مسلي ذكريات متنكرة تحت إسم رواية، تحكي يوميات الأحداث اليومية تحت الإحتلال في زمنين مختلفين (الانتفاضة الأولى والثانية) محزنة حتى الضحك وكضحكة حتى البكاء، بسيطة اللغة، عبثية النظرة وأنا أعجبتني وسلتني. المشكلة اننا محتاجين مليون كتاب كهذا ليحكي مأساتنا للغرب عسى ان يأتي جيل بعد خمسين سنة يدرك حقيقة ما تعرضنا له من تشويه ودمار من الإسرائيليين (تعرفوا صارت موضة نفرق بين اليهود وإسرائيل وكأن 90% من الشعب اليهودي لا يؤيد موضوع إسرائيل تأييد مطلق!) فحتى العرب أصبحوا ينظروا ل...more
Great humorous (though I did cry multiple times) book on living in Occupied Palestine. Lots of the same heart breaking stories you have always heard-olive groves demolished, people forced to leave their homes in 1948 (the other day at my international ladies' program we had cultural day and a little old lady got up and told in broken English how she fled her home in 1948 and has never been back to Palestine since yet she proudly writes it each week on her name tag as her country), security at ai...more
Living in all this tension, suppressing all the anger, frustration, helplessness, fear and humiliation, Suad Amiry’s only way out was to write, and so we have this funny yet very sad day-to-day journal, showing how impossible it can be just to have a normal life under occupation.
However, although this was a diary illustrating daily events, it somehow lacked so much: feelings, thoughts and emotions, and especially her mother-in-law who was more of a title that a vital character in the story.
However, although this was a diary illustrating daily events, it somehow lacked so much: feelings, thoughts and emotions, and especially her mother-in-law who was more of a title that a vital character in the story.
Suad tells the story of every Palestinian's struggle to live and find joy against the odds of the Israeli occupation. She manages to do so in a very hilarious way (i'd literally start laughing out loud while reading this!). This book is a great read, even for all you who prefer fiction and non-politics, this nonfiction does not come short of being interesting and full of funny pulling events which anyone would be interested in reading. A must read!
Not quite finished, but loving this. It is a good story of one woman's life in the Occupied Territories. She goes through all of the frustrations and facts about Occupation that other books I've read do, but she does it with a humor that none of the others really taps into. Maybe she and I just have more similar senses of humor- cynical, dry. I also admire how gutsy she is. She expresses her frustration with the Occupation in rather unique ways (as far as I know). I wish I could do what she does...more
This book has many feelings it is written in a sarcastic way so expect a lot of laugh! It also tells many many stories of the author's life and struggle to get an identity card "Hawiyyeh". The book describes the life of Palestinian intellects (yes they do exist!) and their going struggle and peaceful resistance with the Israeli soldiers. If I can rate this book 10/5 I would have! Needless to say its a MUST read. You will learn some history and get a feel of the current situation in Palestine. Al...more
Please read this book! It is what I have been trying to tell everyone about the Palestinian occupation. It is not about the religion it is about the people. The people that want to write, attend concerts, feed their kids, go to work! The Israeli's are wrong in their treatment of the Palestinians. This was a quick read about a women who lives in the West Bank and her experiences.
They say the one with the best sense of humour is he or she who can laugh at him/herself. In this case, there's no-one better than Suad Amiry, as she makes fun of tragic circumstances that she has to go through day in day out. She keeps her sanity while going through everyday injustices by laughing at them. Suad can make you laugh and cry at the same time.
I found it difficult to read this book before bed, as the conditions described are so upsetting. I can't imagine the depth of the frustration Palestinians must feel at the endless and incessant indignities, large and small, visited upon them by the occupiers. This memoir unfolds in Ramallah, in the West Bank, which is, I presume, not as bad as Gaza.
لا أعلم لم طول الوقت كنت أحس أنها تكتب عن شخص آخر لا عن ذاتها. حتى حين تحدثت عن لحظات الخوف لم احس بأنها كانت تتحدث بخجل عن تراجعها. هل تستطيع الحرب أن تعزلنا حتى عن مشاعرنا. حين قرأت البرغوثي وجدته ينظر ويستشف ويكتب أما هي فكانت فقط تكتب.
استمتعت جدا بقراءة الكتاب ولكن لو كنت كاتبته لما اخترت له هذا الاسم على الرغم من أني لم اشتر الكتاب إلا من أجل اسمه. لم أقول هذا؟ لأني لم أجد حماتها إلا في عدد قليل من الصفحات ولكن شارون كان فعلا مهيمن.
ظلمتِ حماتك يا دكتورة سعاد :)
استمتعت جدا بقراءة الكتاب ولكن لو كنت كاتبته لما اخترت له هذا الاسم على الرغم من أني لم اشتر الكتاب إلا من أجل اسمه. لم أقول هذا؟ لأني لم أجد حماتها إلا في عدد قليل من الصفحات ولكن شارون كان فعلا مهيمن.
ظلمتِ حماتك يا دكتورة سعاد :)
Sharon and My Mother in Law is a fantastic book by a fantastic woman who I had the honour of meeting at a literary festival during the summer.
This is an irreverent, wacky account of the afflicted state of Palestine .
You learn a lot about the daily life of ordinary people in an occupied country.
I would recommend this book to everyone.
This is an irreverent, wacky account of the afflicted state of Palestine .
You learn a lot about the daily life of ordinary people in an occupied country.
I would recommend this book to everyone.
Should be compulsory reading for Israelis, so that they might begin to understand what it's like to be Palestinian in Israel. Plenty of humour in the book, but what black humour it is. How much longer is the world going to let Israel continue with this inhumane treatment of innocent people? Read this - and despair.....
اثناء قراءة الكتاب
تذكرت كل ذكريات الانتفاضة الثانيه ! القرف و الملل اللي كنا عايشين فيه و الاخبار الماساويه و المدارس الشعبيه ..عائلة الشعبي .
الصبانه اللي هدوها الله يهدهم جدار الفصل .. الاجتياح . منع التجول الدبابات منع السفر .. كيف كنا لما نسافر انام باريحا
لاني انا عايشه بفلسطين كتير اشياء كانت تحكيها احس انها اشي بديهي من واقع عايشينه !بس مهوالقراء ممكن يكونو مش فلسطينيين فبلزمهم
مليت في بعض الاجزاء بس الكتاب ذكرني بكتير اشياء ...!
و هي صارت تحكي عن كلبتهة نمورة .. و عن بعض مواقفها مع حماته...more
تذكرت كل ذكريات الانتفاضة الثانيه ! القرف و الملل اللي كنا عايشين فيه و الاخبار الماساويه و المدارس الشعبيه ..عائلة الشعبي .
الصبانه اللي هدوها الله يهدهم جدار الفصل .. الاجتياح . منع التجول الدبابات منع السفر .. كيف كنا لما نسافر انام باريحا
لاني انا عايشه بفلسطين كتير اشياء كانت تحكيها احس انها اشي بديهي من واقع عايشينه !بس مهوالقراء ممكن يكونو مش فلسطينيين فبلزمهم
مليت في بعض الاجزاء بس الكتاب ذكرني بكتير اشياء ...!
و هي صارت تحكي عن كلبتهة نمورة .. و عن بعض مواقفها مع حماته...more
It's a brilliant, brilliant book. Amiry is scathing and funny at the same time. Reading the book was a roller-coaster ride emotionally; I was laughing one moment, and crying the next. But overall, I found myself cheering for Amiry's spiritedness that she preserves so fiercely especially during trying times.
Jun 07, 2007
Jesse Bacon
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
daughters in laws, blog enthusiasts, people with a sense of humor about tragedy
This one of the five best books I have read on Palestine/Israel and that IS saying a lot. It is also one of the best books I have ever read that was distilled from emails, the kind you send out when you are trapped umder curfews for days at a time. it captures the fabulous senses of humor i saw everywhere in Palestine, which reminded me of the best of Jewish humor. That said, there are particularly painful episodes in this sometimes riotous book. For one thing, the book tells the story of forgot...more
This book gives an excellent glimpse into life in the Palestinian Territories and living under occupation. Dr. Amiry shares many stories about the myriad ways day-to-day life is made more difficult and/or impossible due to curfews, checkpoints and military action taking place literally in the middle of civilian neighborhoods. There is definitely a strong thread of frustration that runs through this book (and understandably so), yet Dr. Amiry manages to find the humor and joy in life despite the...more
Little is known about the normal Palestinian life except for conflict & occupation. This book gives you a look on an ordinary Palestinian's joys, sorrows and sufferings in a fun way. And that makes it all that different and special.
كتاب كأنه صفحات مقتطعة من دفتر مذكرات الكاتبة تنقل فيه صور وأحداث ووقائع للأفراد الفلسطينيين ومعاناتهم تحت الاحتلال الاسرائيلي في مدينة رام الله
This book was excellent. It's a diary/memoir of a Palestinian woman and what its like to live in occupied territories where you can't even leave your own house if you want to; you have to have permits to travel; they live every day in a war zone.
I feel like every day I hear on the news about the Israelis and the Palenstinians; it's something that has been a part of the news all my life so i think i tend to kind of gloss over it-oh more terrorism, peace processes, israel is doing this, the plo,y...more
I feel like every day I hear on the news about the Israelis and the Palenstinians; it's something that has been a part of the news all my life so i think i tend to kind of gloss over it-oh more terrorism, peace processes, israel is doing this, the plo,y...more
I enjoyed this book. I had seen a TedX Ramallah video from the author, Suad Amiry, and her persona was inviting. Reading about her experiences during the two intifadas made me empathize with the struggles of curfews, checkpoints, night raids, separation walls, permits, and other ugly aspects that accompany a brutal occupation. There were quite a few funny moments, and the authors voice really came through in her writing. It makes me want to be friends with her!
must to be read! highlight the crazy unpredictable daily life under occupation, and the Palestinians ability to live and laugh in the middle of that chaos, dogs and monkeys have rights more than people there!
This is a great read for anyone remotely interested in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Amiry's wry humor paints a human, feminine, and humorous face on the conflict--it's original. Written in the form of diaries that capture moments in the architect’s life from 1981 to 2004, Amiry takes the reader through a first-hand account of the occupation and the major political events that defined the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. It's about civil disobedience and the heartache of being illegal in one’s...more
I loved this book because the author is hilarious and witty as she describes the dehumanizing stuff of daily life that she deals with as an average Palestinian living in the occupied territories.
Sep 18, 2009
Maha
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who hasn't already closed their mind to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
raises a lot of political angst that can't easily be disspelled... at the same time, an "easy" and quick read. It's engaging, but as a witness to an impossible life situation.
I did like this book, but was a bit disappointed that so much was left out. Although this was just supposed to be a compilation of writings the author had made chronicling her experiences as they happened, I felt it would have been more powerful to "fill in the gaps" a bit and to explain what happened to everyone and where they are now. This approach, however, would make this more of an historical fiction piece instead of it's current non-fiction style. All in all, though, the story was interest...more
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Suad Amiry (Arabic: سعاد العامري) is a Palestinian writer and architect has been living in Ramallah since 1981.
Born in Damascus, Amiry grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, Michigan, US, and in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Amiry is author of the well-known book Sharon and My Mother-in-Law which has been translated into 17 languages...more
More about Suad Amiry...
Born in Damascus, Amiry grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, Michigan, US, and in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Amiry is author of the well-known book Sharon and My Mother-in-Law which has been translated into 17 languages...more
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“Fucker, I though to myself. So irritated by a stare!
I wonder what your reaction would have been if you had lived under occupation for as many years as I had, or if your shopping rights, like all of your other rights, were violated day and night, or if the olive trees in your grandfather's orchards had been uprooted, or if your village had been bulldozed, or if your house had been demolished, or if your sister could not reach her school, or if your brother had been given three life sentences, or if your mother had given birth at a checkpoint, or if you had stood in a line for days in the hot August summers waiting for your work permit, or if you could not reach your beloved ones in Arab East Jerusalem....
A stare, and you lose your mind!”
—
3 people liked it
More quotes…
I wonder what your reaction would have been if you had lived under occupation for as many years as I had, or if your shopping rights, like all of your other rights, were violated day and night, or if the olive trees in your grandfather's orchards had been uprooted, or if your village had been bulldozed, or if your house had been demolished, or if your sister could not reach her school, or if your brother had been given three life sentences, or if your mother had given birth at a checkpoint, or if you had stood in a line for days in the hot August summers waiting for your work permit, or if you could not reach your beloved ones in Arab East Jerusalem....
A stare, and you lose your mind!”
Sep 15, 2011 07:28am
Sep 15, 2011 07:56am