Cait’s Comments (group member since Jan 31, 2017)

Cait’s comments from the Around the World in 80 Books group.

It turns out our catalog is just down... whoops! We'll see if they have a copy or not once it's back up.

FYI for Twin Cities folks, there is a very cool looking film festival this weekend: Iraqi Voices: Mini Film Fest. We should check it out!

First thought: Nooooo, it's not in the Hennepin County Library!

Initial thoughts?

You're right, it probably did greatly enhance his natural abilities. And thinking about it, a lot of the friends/networking he was able to do was at least in part because he was vouched for by other parts of his network (although obviously that was not the case every time.)

I find the kinship/neighborhood aspect of this very interesting - my cousins seem to have similar relationships within their small rural towns, where they know exactly what everyone is doing, and even what houses and buildings are doing - I often hear them say things like 'where are you moving?' and a response like 'the old Johnson house' even though the Johnsons haven't lived there for decades. I do not have the same connection to my home town. I think that established, generational neighborhoods in urban areas have the same thing, but I don't think my neighborhood, with people constantly moving in and out (and a real divide between home-owners and renters) does. Maybe we'd have better networks if everybody had stoops, I've definitely heard that before!

Do you think it was *completely* because of the indigenous culture? I mean, I definitely agree with you about his kinship network, and how word was passed from families and friends and neighbors (with information passing even faster when it has there's no way for it to travel, I think he says at one point). And it has occurred to me, not just with this book but with many of the others that we've read, that we (or at least I) do not have the same information networks or people connections, which echoes what I've read about Americans individualized lives. But I think in addition to that, Daoud has to have an incredible ability to make connections himself - with his jailer in Egypt, with western reporters and aid workers who were so instrumental in his release - even in his ability to convince his driver to take him on that last trip (which he regretted). Do you think it is all part of the same thing - growing up in that type of connected culture makes you more able to engage and befriend those outside the culture, too - including his readers?

I really appreciate your perspective on his 'optimistic' (even though that's not actually the right word) on trauma - your note about the other differing accounts from Frankl and Wiesel is a good one... and connecting their experiences to our current readings is making me think about the fact that even though everyone's story and experiences are different, there's so much that's the same as well - which sounds super trite, but it's something I've been noting with each book we read on this list.

You can view see the official list of countries & book choices in this google doc.

I think this one falls just behind Persepolis for me (we need to have a poll when we're done with all 7 books to find our favorites!).

One last thing that stuck out to me was how well connected Daoud was - not in the sense of being rich, etc., but in the very literal way where he had personal connections with *so* many people - people in the refugee camps, people in surrounding villages, people in Egypt and westerners and aid workers around the world. Obviously you shouldn't have to have so many friends just to survive, but quite apart from his bravery and intelligence, he must be amazing to have so many genuine friends!

Yes, the times were adjusted to time zones. However, looks like we already are having problems finding a time that works for the four people who have replied! Should we shift to next week, since it seems like it might be a particular work schedule issue, or should we just settle for asynchronous discussion here?

I think it will be easier to come up with a plan for the book club if we come up with an agreed upon time for a discussion - to that end I set up a doodle poll for times we can chat here: https://doodle.com/poll/a2kvk83tvcw4inp3. If you want to be involved in the new plan, please respond to the doodle poll asap (at least by Wednesday night) - and if you don't want to be part of the discussion you can still add your suggestions to the google doc!

Both of your points about the 'out-of-body' tone on this have given me a different perspective. I didn't fully see that when I read it, but looking back after you point it out I definitely can. I read another book this year, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, where the author was obviously and understandably traumatized by what had happened - there were chunks of the story missing, probably suppressed, and an overall tone of disconnect, which grew more noticeable as his story progressed. I'm not sure why I didn't note the same thing in the Translator - possibly just because of the optimistic (?) tone, which is probably related to coping mechanisms and Hari's unique personality, which he attributes to being like his brother and being able to make friends wherever he goes (even, in this case, through his storytelling in this book).

As to the title - I think it probably does unnecessarily de-centralize him. That's a problem with many books, though - the most marketable part, after all, and sometimes the marketing department doesn't have the same objectives authors and publishers and readers do. Your questions about the title remind me of an article I read about Suki Kim's 'Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite'. The book is the result of her investigative journalism, but it was marketed as memoir (which, apparently is a big problem for lots of non-fiction women authors), which made her motives appear far different and got her a lot of criticism from people for risking people's lives for 'selfish' reasons and a tell-all book, versus the accolades that other (male) investigative journalists would get for the same work. Anyway, after that long tangent, I would say yes I think it does make him seem more ancillary versus the main mover and shaker, but that title problems are a different, and at times even more problematic part of the publishing industry.

I don't think think it's bad that his tone was what it was either - frankly I was a little grateful that it wasn't a repeat of A Woman in the Crossfires which was so very hard to read. But it was my gratitude that made me think about what gets published anyway.

I'm glad you brought up the bird part, that stuck out to me as well. A strong image of how terrifying it was, and also another way to describe how even if you survive an initial attack, it's no guarantee. I thought about those birds after reading that heartbreaking part about the mother who hung herself just before help arrived after her children starved to death.

I also appreciated his, as you said, 'very polite but very direct critique.' That's what made me go back and edit to say I definitely wasn't saying he was sugarcoating anything. His critiques of foreign aid, journalist, politics, and rebels were all very honest, but he was also somehow gracious and even humorous in a way that was amazing.

There was also a quote that stood out to me, after the journalist Paul found out about Hari's real name and that he was Sudanese. "Paul said I should have told them these things. I replied that I could not tell many people. Everything is complicated like that in Africa. Nothing is simple. No one is simple. Poverty generously provides every man a colorful past." The quote, aside from its general truth about poverty, made me think about how Hari's experiences before the attack on his village, his travels and long imprisonment, near death and experience with foreign aid, along with his childhood in Sudan, made him exactly the right person to bring journalists in, even if he was 'wrong' on paper.

I had a slow start with this, but I'm about half-way in now.

One of the things that is striking me is Hari's overall... positive?... attitude in the face of genocide and all of the horrible things he's seen and been subjected to. I know he says something like you have to laugh a little every day or you lose your ability to do so, and that does resonate. But it's also making me think about who 'gets' to tell the stories.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not *at all* criticizing Hari, who obviously can & should react in any way he needs to, and is just as obviously am amazing person - brave, intelligent, moral, funny, and kind.

Edit: I also don't mean that I think he's sugarcoating anything. I just mean that he's clearly a heroic person and except when speaking of actual terrible events, he's maintains an positive perspective? Positive isn't quite the right word but I don't know what is.

But I am thinking about the kind of stories that 'sell' and how even when books are written about actual genocide, it seems like we expect them to be uplifting in some fashion. It makes sense, because as we know from our reading, you can only read so many books that rip your heart out in a row. But it also seems like it's silencing a lot of stories of people who are justifiably angry, depressed, and traumatized, and can't/won't make these stories 'palatable'. Just continuing thoughts about who is allowed to tell their stories.

Ok, so once we finish the list of countries on the original travel ban, we'll have to come up with another plan for how we choose our books to read around the world / how the book club works. To help brainstorm what we want that to look like, I have a google doc here so we can track our thoughts on what we do / don't want, for further discussion/planning next month!

Our traditional ongoing discussion of the book. Post your thoughts here!

I don't know Nasir seeing the jinn makes him more blinded than anyone else. Multiple other characters saw the jinn as well, although not so clearly and I don't think they say him at he instant of the disappearance.

Like I said, he does miss her actual disappearance, even though he is watching it, but I think that is because he's refusing to accept the magic because it doesn't fit into his world view. Whereas Ali does accept it, even though he didn't see it, and he is rewarded with Jasmine's bag and later her clothes.

Regarding the policeman... I initially thought it might be a case of the author kind of putting himself in the detective's shoes, as he is as much of an ally as Jasmine really has throughout, and a good guy (and I do think this story is a form of allyship as well as a societal critique for the author). It might also be a way to outline how ineffective the state is, as you said. It's frustrating to see deep problems and have no power to fix them, and the detective is definitely feeling that.

My book has the literal translation of the title of the book as "A Land Without Sama (of a Sky)". Given how deliberate his details and descriptions are, I feel like that might connect with the moon references? Maybe not, I'm obviously not an expert on Yemen! Still, I think you're right, Claire, that there's a deeper meaning behind the ancient moon references. Al-Ahdal didn't seem to include anything random.

Same with the white handbag Sylvia mentioned, I'm sure. Hard to figure out without being more familiar with cultural symbolism, though... a brief Google says that white means "a bright future", at least in the context of their flag (oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white)). Do you think that has anything to do with the white handbag? It's kind of tempting to think of it that way, both in terms of Jasmines ultimate transformation and the bag driving men crazy. If this were western culture we might guess at purity, or surrender, but color meanings really vary widely around the world.

And yes, Sylvia, tell us about Queen of Sheba connections!

Yes, the snack guy! I was also was interested in that. He started off as kind of a comforting part of the book, as I imagined Jasmine felt about him, and then we find that every man participates in the male gaze (except the detective, perhaps? I wonder if that's kind of how the author saw himself).

I wish I had my book with me, so I could look at the chapter titles again. Do you think that perhaps Nasir, in a sense, ends up the most blinded of them all? He's the one who sees the world the clearest, arguably, and he's the one who is there and watching when Jasmine disappears, but he can't see beyond his expectations of the world.

Oh I agree that she really is the book, and it's not just a way for the characters to pretend that something worse didn't happen. I just meant, on the author's side, was that a cop out? And I don't really think it was, because like I said, he was totally willing to describe the horrible stuff that happened to Ali.

Does she really *escape* the male gaze, though? Because it seems to me that the jinn is exerting that just as much as anybody else - perhaps moreso since he's been invading her dreams for a long time (and remember that she's very disturbed at the beginning of the book, checking for damage on her body, and then decides it was a "delightful" dream later".) Also it just occurs to me that as a book, you're kind of definitively trapped under someone's gaze...

I feel like we're kind of used on the western side to people being trapped as trees or plants etc to save them from rapey men (thanks Greek mythology) but being kidnapped by a jinn is sort of like being kidnapped into Fairie - still still a sexual element to the "rescue".

More thoughts on other stuff to follow :)

**SPOILERS********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

So, the ending. Jasmine has been transformed into the book / story. What are your thoughts?

I find this interesting, but I wonder... do you think Jasmine is supposed to be like, the actual story we're reading right now? Or just a story in that book.

Also, is this a cop out? A way to avoid the fact without this ending, Jasmine is probably horribly raped and murdered? Al-Ahdal had no problem describing the violence, including sexual violence, that Ali suffered (and in western culture, at least, I think talking about sexual violence towards males is much more taboo, where sexual violence towards women is considered, well, sexy.)