The rest

[Melanie]

Final thoughts

[Stacey]

I finished today. I mentioned in our discussion up to Bear, that I was struggling a bit after Chinese Apples. I didn't finish Echo Twins as I was so bored I wanted to poke my eyes out. But, pushing forward I was enticed by the depth, yet accessibility of Al-Nakib's stories. Her insight is awe inspiring. It felt like the stories had connective threads, education, of course Kuwaiti culture, love, religion, and female strength- often in the form of bucking the system (YAY!). She mentions twice (maybe thrice) in two of the stories, the saying, "like a shawl through a gold ring". I wonder why she used this more than once?

My top three in order are, Chinese Apples, Amerika's box (although I don't want to spoil with the emotion it evoked) and The Hidden Light of Objects, which still has me thinking.

My favorite quote is, "The thing is to be as light as air. To enter the interstices of life like air, like a shawl through a rose gold ring. To be present and, at the same time, to wonder through the alleys of the past, plucking memories and possibilities like grapes off a vine."

[Jo]

The rest of the book just confirmed my admiration for the writing and the way Mai Al-Nakib can write about ordinary couples like in The Straw Hat and Snow Dossiers just beautifully getting into the heads of her characters and then give us stories like Amerikas Box and The Hidden light of Objects which deal directly with the war yet still focusing on the individual viewpoints which are always missing from the news feeds.

I'd be interested to know what others thought of the vignettes as often they were clearly related to the story that came after, other times I had difficulty seeing the links, was there always supposed to be one? I think I need to read a little more closer as there are clearly connection between many of the stories themselves, both in characters but also in objects - fittingly. The pink tissue wrapped pack of cards features in the first and last stories and the Indian shawl appears more than once as Stacey noticed. I like this idea of worlds and people being connected and am not sure if she meant more this repetition.

Anyway, throughly enjoyed this collection and so glad this was our pick, I see Mai-Al-Nakib is writing a novel so will be looking our for that eagerly.

[Kathrin]

Soooo. I finished it late last night (this morning). I really enjoyed this collection. The language was beautiful and felt a little more sober in the second half. I thought the stories were cohesive, but they were also different from a style perspective. "Bear" was a little of a sore thumb, but I thought it was funny, when it was picked up with a side note in a later story. Overall all, I am glad that I read it.

[Britta]

I've finished it last week and, like always with short stories, I loved some of the stories but others left me rather lukewarm. I did enjoy her language, though, although at times it was a bit too 'flowery' for my taste.

[Emily]

I just finished this and thought it was OK. There were a few stories that I thought stood out, but I must admit I did skim/skip over a couple - just wasn't interested. My favourites were Chinese Apples (which reminded me of collecting shitty little items from gift shops while on holiday as a kid), Playing With Bombs, and Echo Twins. I especially liked the description of the house in Echo Twins, I thought that was beautiful.

[Keriann]

I finished this book yesterday on the train to London and don't really have much feelings towards it, as with short stories some stories were better than others. I felt the writing style seemed to changed through story to story which was fine but I would have preferred one style only. I found all of the stories pretty forgettable and couldn't tell you now what they were about, none really stood out for me. I felt like this collection was trying to make a point but I missed that point. Not a bad collection but not one I would recommend I think.

[Marguerite]

I took my time with this book and just finished it today. I enjoyed the stories. Al-Nakib's writing was very easy to read and a bit fanciful especially when she recounted childhood experiences.
The vignettes were very intriguing so I looked forward to the story following but I didn't always feel there was a connection. There probably was but I just didn't grasp it.
While reading I always felt something bad would happen so I read on with a sense of dread...maybe a foreshadowing because of the setting? So if I described the stories I would say sad though I don't think all stories were sad.
Overall like most collections of short stories there are some to recommend and others I wouldn't but as a collection I think it was worth the read.

[Linda]

I found the writing beautiful and most of the stories were like jewels joined with the links of the vignettes. Because these stories are about loss, tragedy, violence and memory, expressed in lyrical language, I think the book deserves a second reading.

[Candace]

Eesh I just read Snow Dossiers and really disliked Charlie. Not much to like about that story at all!!!

[Candace]

Short stories aren’t really my favorite thing to read but this collection had stories that captured my attention. I didn’t love any of them but there were quite a few I liked well enough or gave me insight into Kuwaiti life that made me think.