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Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs: An Omani Novel
Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs opens with the return of Khalid Bakhit, a government employee, to his hometown in Oman after a time away in the big city, and concludes with his return to the city with a new maturity born of a series of wrenching encounters with reality. Khalid's return home, sparked by his flight from a painful love affair, coincides with events that reveal the force of long-established traditions that have a stranglehold on the town: from racial prejudice, to religious bigotry, to ossified patterns of leadership. Khalid's awakening and transformation are catalyzed by his encounters with a certain "Saturnine poet" who, in the course of chasing after an elusive ode, has stumbled upon this unnamed village. For a period of time "the Saturnine" becomes Khalid's closest companion: listening to his woes, helping him see himself with new eyes, and imparting to him a wisdom from a world beyond untainted by human smallness.
"As the full moon listened in, Walad Sulaymi said, 'Thirty years ago I heard my grandfather say to my father (God have mercy on them both), "If God allows a country to be chastised, He causes everyone who has left it to come back." So here you are again, and with your return, that completes the number of those who left the village and have come back. Mark my words: the chastisement will descend soon.'"
"As the full moon listened in, Walad Sulaymi said, 'Thirty years ago I heard my grandfather say to my father (God have mercy on them both), "If God allows a country to be chastised, He causes everyone who has left it to come back." So here you are again, and with your return, that completes the number of those who left the village and have come back. Mark my words: the chastisement will descend soon.'"
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 7, 2019
This story starts with Kahlid Bakhit who has returned to his home village after being in the city. He is returning after a break up from a woman he truly loved. His return happens when the village is looking for a shift in leadership. Old leaders are about the be forced out.
In the meantime, Kahlid as met a Saturine poet who stumbled upon the village whlie writing an ode. This poet becomes Kahlid's closest friend and opens him to seeing himself in a new way.
Each chapter in the book in told from a different villager's point of view, but there is one central theme - the village is in trouble. Everyone is spouting ideas of how the village should be run and alliances are being formed. The villagers seem to have too much time on their hands and use it to pit one against the other.
This book was fine. I felt that there were way too many points of view to find it easy to follow. I wasn't able to get attached to any of the characters, and just got really lost in who belonged to whom, and who was pitting against whom.....it just didn't flow well.
In the meantime, Kahlid as met a Saturine poet who stumbled upon the village whlie writing an ode. This poet becomes Kahlid's closest friend and opens him to seeing himself in a new way.
Each chapter in the book in told from a different villager's point of view, but there is one central theme - the village is in trouble. Everyone is spouting ideas of how the village should be run and alliances are being formed. The villagers seem to have too much time on their hands and use it to pit one against the other.
This book was fine. I felt that there were way too many points of view to find it easy to follow. I wasn't able to get attached to any of the characters, and just got really lost in who belonged to whom, and who was pitting against whom.....it just didn't flow well.
September 18, 2020
Hibáitól eltekintve érdekes történet ez a modern Ománról, illetve azon belül egy elátkozott faluról. A képlet ismerős: sokan változást szeretnének a társadalom életébe, mások akkor érzik biztonságban magukat, ha minden marad a régiben – és egyik féllel sem lehet maradéktalanul azonosulni. (Azért érezhetően több rokonszenves szereplő tartózkodik a változtatni akarók oldalán, mint a másikon. Az eltitkolt bűnök és csúf családi titkok is inkább az utóbbiakra jellemzőek.) A váltott szemszög, a fejezetenként változó nézőpont segíti az olvasót abban, hogy hol ennek, hol annak az igazságát próbálja megérteni.
Részletes értékelés a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
Részletes értékelés a blogon:
https://gyujtogeto-alkoto.blog.hu/202...
April 6, 2026
”In my country, winter and death are two faces of the same desire. And in the soul, my village and Antarctica are two faces of the same homeland.”
Călătoria mea prin cărți în Oman. O carte scrisă cu un simț rafinat al umorului, atent la detalii sociale și cu o proză frumoasă (Why are people afraid of you, wind? Doesn’t it make you sad for people to hurl all these accusations at you?) care se vede mai ales în pasajele personajului cu care începem cartea: Zahir Bakhit, un tânăr care a devenit fundamentalist și își caută sensul (I want to be more than just a passerby whose tracks are erased by the wind).
A părăsit satul, a făcut facultatea, s-a îndrăgostit, a fost deziluzionat și a revenit aici, ca să își lingă rănile( alone, in love, and maybe on the run), cu acest poet Saturnian pe umărul lui drept. Povestea lui e complexă, pentru că implică să audă sfaturi de la acest poet, o iubire interzisă și o relație complexă cu mama și tatăl decedat.
Cartea este un întreg teatru al înlocuirii puterii de facto, jucat ca o piesa la o scara mai mica, in acest sat. Și avem multiple perspective, fiecare cetățean mai de vază sau implicat în acțiune având ceva de adăugat (uneori ca să contrazică pe ceilalți), cam ca la Narine Abgaryan, căci poveștile sunt amestecate și una o influențează pe alta: At that moment, everything in life was all mixed up together. The desire for tranquillity was tangled up with the angst of existence.
Avem un constructor care e si un fel de judecător, asculta probleme si da dreptate. Si oamenii au probleme cu băiatul de mai sus, care noaptea spune poezii saturnine. E preferatul meu, căci pe el cade sarcina să adopte un copil venit pe ape, după ce își pierde familia. Și tot ce vrea în viață e să se joace în nămol. Și datorită lui mi-a plăcut mult finalul, cu ciclicitatea lui si Mihyan care închide cercul.
Cartea este un izvor de lecții. Despre credință (Who are you to oppose God’s plan?
“Who said I was opposed to God’s plan? All I’m opposed to is your way of understanding the plan.”, despre familie (my grandfather’s threats that I would follow them to prison and forfeit my future and my dream of graduating from the university unless I shaved off my beard and lengthened my robe), despre dragostea de țară, de familie și trupească, despre rasă (As far as the people of the village were concerned, a black person was nothing but a slave who was attached to a particular tribe).
Pasaje calde (Those who subsist on the memories of childhood live for a long time, and they never get old. There isn’t a single gray hair on my mother’s head) se ascund după pasaje de acțiune aproape caricaturală (Am ras la stupiditatea povestii cu cei 2 muezzini care se întrec in fuga dimineața sa ajunga la moschee ca sa cânte chemarea la rugăciune, si o fac pe 2 voci, lucru nemaintalnit in lume).
De fapt, ne și spune autorul ce fel de lume s-a construit aici: How is it that, as I see it, conflicts are this village’s bread and butter? We can’t live without them. Cam ca la noi la țară, nu?
Rolul femeii în familie și în luarea deciziilor este explorat și el( I know this village’s weak spots where women are concerned. You could more easily sink a knife into a man’s heart than tell him that his wife or his sister shows her face to strange men.). Din cele sau 7 personaje, doar o voce e de femeie, iar poveștile conexe despre femei sunt majoritatea asa: (My husband is seventeen years older than I am. He’s thirty-seven. I don’t love him. He brought me here just to humiliate his first wife, and so that I could be a nanny to his children.”)
Și din perspectiva Aydei, care inițial pare că e acolo să se îndrăgostească, avem un POV: I wanted you to break the monotony and subservience in our lives, to rebel against this barbaric separation between us. Și are vocea cea mai critică, rezumând în același timp tot ce restul cărții încearcă să facă prin vocile celorlalți
”The people of this village are saturated with hypocrisy, treachery, and duplicity. They’ve inherited dishonesty and miserable customs.
Everything’s phony. And its phoniness is compound. Haven’t you ever dreamed of being free from this slavery, a slavery you didn’t choose for yourself? Haven’t you ever dreamed of loving and conversing and mixing with people without restrictions being imposed on you?”
Cuvinte noi învățate: Hayya ‘ala al-falaH!’ (‘Come to salvation!’ and Hayya ‘ala al-salah!” (“Come to prayer!”)
Omul zici ca e poet, asa scrie. Oare de ce asa multe carti din orientul mijlociu suna a poezie? (ma gandesc aici la Martyr scrisa de un autor din Siria)
Călătoria mea prin cărți în Oman. O carte scrisă cu un simț rafinat al umorului, atent la detalii sociale și cu o proză frumoasă (Why are people afraid of you, wind? Doesn’t it make you sad for people to hurl all these accusations at you?) care se vede mai ales în pasajele personajului cu care începem cartea: Zahir Bakhit, un tânăr care a devenit fundamentalist și își caută sensul (I want to be more than just a passerby whose tracks are erased by the wind).
A părăsit satul, a făcut facultatea, s-a îndrăgostit, a fost deziluzionat și a revenit aici, ca să își lingă rănile( alone, in love, and maybe on the run), cu acest poet Saturnian pe umărul lui drept. Povestea lui e complexă, pentru că implică să audă sfaturi de la acest poet, o iubire interzisă și o relație complexă cu mama și tatăl decedat.
Cartea este un întreg teatru al înlocuirii puterii de facto, jucat ca o piesa la o scara mai mica, in acest sat. Și avem multiple perspective, fiecare cetățean mai de vază sau implicat în acțiune având ceva de adăugat (uneori ca să contrazică pe ceilalți), cam ca la Narine Abgaryan, căci poveștile sunt amestecate și una o influențează pe alta: At that moment, everything in life was all mixed up together. The desire for tranquillity was tangled up with the angst of existence.
Avem un constructor care e si un fel de judecător, asculta probleme si da dreptate. Si oamenii au probleme cu băiatul de mai sus, care noaptea spune poezii saturnine. E preferatul meu, căci pe el cade sarcina să adopte un copil venit pe ape, după ce își pierde familia. Și tot ce vrea în viață e să se joace în nămol. Și datorită lui mi-a plăcut mult finalul, cu ciclicitatea lui si Mihyan care închide cercul.
Cartea este un izvor de lecții. Despre credință (Who are you to oppose God’s plan?
“Who said I was opposed to God’s plan? All I’m opposed to is your way of understanding the plan.”, despre familie (my grandfather’s threats that I would follow them to prison and forfeit my future and my dream of graduating from the university unless I shaved off my beard and lengthened my robe), despre dragostea de țară, de familie și trupească, despre rasă (As far as the people of the village were concerned, a black person was nothing but a slave who was attached to a particular tribe).
Pasaje calde (Those who subsist on the memories of childhood live for a long time, and they never get old. There isn’t a single gray hair on my mother’s head) se ascund după pasaje de acțiune aproape caricaturală (Am ras la stupiditatea povestii cu cei 2 muezzini care se întrec in fuga dimineața sa ajunga la moschee ca sa cânte chemarea la rugăciune, si o fac pe 2 voci, lucru nemaintalnit in lume).
De fapt, ne și spune autorul ce fel de lume s-a construit aici: How is it that, as I see it, conflicts are this village’s bread and butter? We can’t live without them. Cam ca la noi la țară, nu?
Rolul femeii în familie și în luarea deciziilor este explorat și el( I know this village’s weak spots where women are concerned. You could more easily sink a knife into a man’s heart than tell him that his wife or his sister shows her face to strange men.). Din cele sau 7 personaje, doar o voce e de femeie, iar poveștile conexe despre femei sunt majoritatea asa: (My husband is seventeen years older than I am. He’s thirty-seven. I don’t love him. He brought me here just to humiliate his first wife, and so that I could be a nanny to his children.”)
Și din perspectiva Aydei, care inițial pare că e acolo să se îndrăgostească, avem un POV: I wanted you to break the monotony and subservience in our lives, to rebel against this barbaric separation between us. Și are vocea cea mai critică, rezumând în același timp tot ce restul cărții încearcă să facă prin vocile celorlalți
”The people of this village are saturated with hypocrisy, treachery, and duplicity. They’ve inherited dishonesty and miserable customs.
Everything’s phony. And its phoniness is compound. Haven’t you ever dreamed of being free from this slavery, a slavery you didn’t choose for yourself? Haven’t you ever dreamed of loving and conversing and mixing with people without restrictions being imposed on you?”
Cuvinte noi învățate: Hayya ‘ala al-falaH!’ (‘Come to salvation!’ and Hayya ‘ala al-salah!” (“Come to prayer!”)
Omul zici ca e poet, asa scrie. Oare de ce asa multe carti din orientul mijlociu suna a poezie? (ma gandesc aici la Martyr scrisa de un autor din Siria)
July 31, 2023
There are few things that can send me into a reading slump. More often than not, it’s got nothing to do with my current reading choices, but the external circumstances I find myself in. In short, when the days become unbearable or my trauma kicks in or someone from my toxic environment decides to be spiteful and malicious, reading is usually one of the first things to fall by the wayside.
But a bad book? Or even a perfectly decent book that I just didn’t like? No, that’s typically the last thing to send me into a slump. If anything, reading a book I didn’t enjoy only serves to catapult me towards the next thing on my TBR list. It’s like mouthwash after vomiting—something to cleanse the palate and get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste.
I now find myself on the precipice of a potential reading slump, not because someone decided to abuse me for sport or punish me for speaking my mind, but because of Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs. Like I said—a real rarity.
This novel has some good social commentary, quite a bit of humour and some savage zingers spoken by the wiser characters. There’s a power grab and pushback and badmouthing. The gist of it is that change comes at a glacial pace when you’re looking to introduce it in a place ruled by ingrained beliefs and customs teeming with stubborn traditionalists.
There’s nothing bad about it, per se, but I still barely managed to make it to the final page. There were simply too many things impeding my progress—a writing style I didn’t like, dozens of ill-defined characters I kept confounding, a meandering plot, overly long soliloquies, a protagonist that doesn’t stand out in almost any way, a baffling combo of traditional narration and inner monologue, etc. etc.
I reckon it all boils down to this simply not being a book I enjoyed. I didn’t like the author’s style. I periodically lost the narrative thread and was left scratching my head too many times to count. Having read everything, I’m still not sure what happened or why or when. I simply don’t care about this one village and its residents. Nothing in the text made me care. I wasn’t the least bit curious about their lives, ambitions and problems.
Despite isolated pockets of humour, I found this narrative so bland and tiresome. Given how bored and indifferent I was, it’s a miracle I even finished the novel. Oh well, nothing to be done about it, but hope I don’t succumb to that dreaded slump.
But a bad book? Or even a perfectly decent book that I just didn’t like? No, that’s typically the last thing to send me into a slump. If anything, reading a book I didn’t enjoy only serves to catapult me towards the next thing on my TBR list. It’s like mouthwash after vomiting—something to cleanse the palate and get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste.
I now find myself on the precipice of a potential reading slump, not because someone decided to abuse me for sport or punish me for speaking my mind, but because of Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs. Like I said—a real rarity.
This novel has some good social commentary, quite a bit of humour and some savage zingers spoken by the wiser characters. There’s a power grab and pushback and badmouthing. The gist of it is that change comes at a glacial pace when you’re looking to introduce it in a place ruled by ingrained beliefs and customs teeming with stubborn traditionalists.
There’s nothing bad about it, per se, but I still barely managed to make it to the final page. There were simply too many things impeding my progress—a writing style I didn’t like, dozens of ill-defined characters I kept confounding, a meandering plot, overly long soliloquies, a protagonist that doesn’t stand out in almost any way, a baffling combo of traditional narration and inner monologue, etc. etc.
I reckon it all boils down to this simply not being a book I enjoyed. I didn’t like the author’s style. I periodically lost the narrative thread and was left scratching my head too many times to count. Having read everything, I’m still not sure what happened or why or when. I simply don’t care about this one village and its residents. Nothing in the text made me care. I wasn’t the least bit curious about their lives, ambitions and problems.
Despite isolated pockets of humour, I found this narrative so bland and tiresome. Given how bored and indifferent I was, it’s a miracle I even finished the novel. Oh well, nothing to be done about it, but hope I don’t succumb to that dreaded slump.
October 31, 2022
Best summary of the plot (NB wouldn't click on this for those who don't like spoilers) is at the Modern Novel here: https://www.themodernnovel.org/asia/a....
My quick thoughts on this book is that the writing is clever, and I particularly like the trope of each person adamantly being convinced by their own point of view - it is a brilliant, and funny comment on society in general and executed in a very original way.
In a way that reminds me somewhat of Hamad Ismailov's The Railway, I like both the nicknames of the villagers e.g. the Experimenter and the Hyena (and would be my question to the translator) and the glossary at the end.
Very obvious comment and I see the Modern Novel actually said this too, there is a distinct lack of women in this piece and especially the female point of view.
I did like it though (maybe partly because I have read Celestial Bodies to balance it out) and especially like this:
"He made a mistake, but don't go overboard in settling accounts. Instead, compare his mistakes with the mistakes all of us have made."
My quick thoughts on this book is that the writing is clever, and I particularly like the trope of each person adamantly being convinced by their own point of view - it is a brilliant, and funny comment on society in general and executed in a very original way.
In a way that reminds me somewhat of Hamad Ismailov's The Railway, I like both the nicknames of the villagers e.g. the Experimenter and the Hyena (and would be my question to the translator) and the glossary at the end.
Very obvious comment and I see the Modern Novel actually said this too, there is a distinct lack of women in this piece and especially the female point of view.
I did like it though (maybe partly because I have read Celestial Bodies to balance it out) and especially like this:
"He made a mistake, but don't go overboard in settling accounts. Instead, compare his mistakes with the mistakes all of us have made."
March 7, 2021
I want to give it 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this novel: the writing was beautiful, the story was intriguing and the events of the final half moved along so quickly. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, but I think it works well...I can't imagine everything being tied up with a little bow after all.
I would suggest reading the glossary found at the end before beginning the novel though. It defines and helps explain certain words and concepts. Reading on my Kindle, I didn't realize it was there until I was almost done with the book, so I wish they would put it at the beginning so that I could go into the book with that knowledge.
I would suggest reading the glossary found at the end before beginning the novel though. It defines and helps explain certain words and concepts. Reading on my Kindle, I didn't realize it was there until I was almost done with the book, so I wish they would put it at the beginning so that I could go into the book with that knowledge.
January 5, 2020
Fascinating and accomplished novel. Like Celestial Bodies, it explores some of the tensions between tradition and modernity in rural Oman, but for me this is more varied and entertaining. Switching between characters we get a variety of perspectives and no easy answers. Characters and incidents are memorable and often quite amusing. The only parts I found a little tiresome were the purple-prosed ramblings of the star-crossed lovers ("thou hast set my soul ablaze", etc). The ending is blackly comic.
May 31, 2017
[#45 Oman] This book takes place in a little village where people have too much time on their hands and use it to intrigue against each other. I liked the atmosphere, and the opposition between the conservative older villagers and the more progressive youth. There were too many points of views for my taste though, it made the plot sometimes difficult to follow and it was harder to get attached to the characters while spending so little time with them.
April 11, 2018
Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs er lettere satirisk fortælling fra en landsby i Oman. På flere måder ganske interessant, men den er også lidt ujævn, og den havde svært ved at fange mig.
Læs hele anmeldelsen på K’s bognoter: http://bognoter.dk/2018/04/11/abdulaz...
Læs hele anmeldelsen på K’s bognoter: http://bognoter.dk/2018/04/11/abdulaz...
January 30, 2023
Is there a plot here? Characters with goals?
January 21, 2025
4/5 - Contemporary Fiction
4/5 - Oman
2/5 - Characters
3/5 - Story
3.25/5 - Rating
4/5 - Oman
2/5 - Characters
3/5 - Story
3.25/5 - Rating
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews