Gate of the Sun
by Elias Khoury
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 121)
Read in September, 2007
Beautifully written, fictionalized historical perspective on the Palestinian conflict, ranging from the 1940s to present day. In a refugee hospital outside of Beirut, Dr. Khalil spends most of his time at the bedside of Yunes, a Palestinian freedom figher who now lies in a coma. As he nurses Yunes, he engages in a one-sided conversation that is, really, anything but. As he talks through Yunes' stories as he's heard them, his own stories, and the stories of his family and friends, he seeks answer...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone interested in Palestine, refugee studies
This book is extremely commendable in its articulation of a Palestinian history, experience and identity. I guess what I most liked about it was that the author isn't blatantly political, ofcourse there are obvious political undertones b/c it deals with the issue of Palestine, but the author deals with it in a very subtle way.
The story revolves around Khalid and Yunes. Yunes is Khalid's "father-figure" and is in a coma in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Khalid is a doctor who is workin...more
The story revolves around Khalid and Yunes. Yunes is Khalid's "father-figure" and is in a coma in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Khalid is a doctor who is workin...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Jim Hermanson
Gate of the Sun is a brilliant stream of consciousness novel that takes place in a nearly abandoned hospital in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila. The narrator, a male nurse named Khaleel, desires to stave off the death of a freedom fighter/father figure named Yunis who, for years after the founding of the State of Israel, made clandestine trips back to see his "left behind" wife. As another review (Guardian) notes, it deliberately borrows the idea of trying to stave off death wi...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommended to John by:
saw it in a bookstorerecommends it for: loving internationalists, citizens of the world.
The Palestinian diaspora, rendered with the humanity of a naturalborn artist and the swirl of a savvy urban postmodernist. Khoury's is an epic of scraping by, set in one cave or cubbyhole after another, on the fringes of the Euro-American technocracy that has been wrought out of the former orchards and sheep-ranches of what's now Israel. Yet, impressively, this tragic picaresque about love and displacement saves its harshest criticism for the Muslim mistreatment of the women -- the figures who...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
pretty much anyone, especially those interested in storytelling or the history of palestine
Massive attempt at telling the story of the Palestinian people since 1948, collectively, by telling the stories of Palestinian people since 1948, individually.
Beautifully translated and overflowing with rich storytelling, the book only barely holds together as a single story, which can make it overwhelming at times, and certainly the sheer number of stories of heartbreak and horror can be numbing, but the characters also all emerge as folk heroes like a popular mythology. This book is almost...more
Beautifully translated and overflowing with rich storytelling, the book only barely holds together as a single story, which can make it overwhelming at times, and certainly the sheer number of stories of heartbreak and horror can be numbing, but the characters also all emerge as folk heroes like a popular mythology. This book is almost...more
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Read in May, 2007
This novel was full of stories -- funny, fascinating, and heartbreaking -- that I am told the author gleaned from his interviews and work with Palestinians over the course of his career as a writer. However, I'm embarrassed to say that I was simply too ignorant of the historical backdrop of the novel to really have a feel for what was going on from one flashback memory to the next. Perhaps I should read up on history first and then give this book another shot.
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An absolutely beautiful, brilliant book. Khoury conveys the Palestinian experience as well as-- if not better than-- Darwish and Said, and his style is reminiscent of Naguib Mahfouz. Gate of the Sun is a very touching meditation on belonging, love, and death, which humanizes the Palestinian experience and also transcends national and political boundaries.
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