anna_catherine73's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.75
conspirationista's review
While I have some philosophical qualms with the concept of Homeland, I was touched by this exegesis of Zionist hypocrisy. Heartbreaking and empowering encounters with identity, art and resistance but also with the very material consequences of occupation
perfectplaces's review
5.0
“In southern Lebanon you understood what homeland was for the first time. It was that thing which had been lost. It was this expected return. And when you returned after a year or two to that thing which was lost, you discovered that you yourself were lost.”
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some of the most beautiful writing i’ve ever read and certainly something that i intend to go back to. my only regret reading this is that i can’t read it in the original arabic (though i can only assume the translation does it justice, because it’s incredibly beautiful), and that it took this month’s escalation in the occupation for me to finally read this. even choosing a line to quote for my review took an insane amount of time scrolling through my many, many highlights. darwish’s writing and muhawi’s translation, a mixture of poetry, prose, and essay, grapples with identity, resistance, memory, and the meaning of homeland in such an incredible way.
the quote at the top is from ‘The Homeland: Between Memory and History’, but i was also especially awed by ‘The Moon Did Not Fall into the Well’, ‘He Who Kills Fifty Arabs Loses One Plaster’, ‘Going to the Arabic Sentence on May 15’, and ‘Silence for the Sake of Gaza’. but really the whole thing is stellar and definitely worth a read.
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some of the most beautiful writing i’ve ever read and certainly something that i intend to go back to. my only regret reading this is that i can’t read it in the original arabic (though i can only assume the translation does it justice, because it’s incredibly beautiful), and that it took this month’s escalation in the occupation for me to finally read this. even choosing a line to quote for my review took an insane amount of time scrolling through my many, many highlights. darwish’s writing and muhawi’s translation, a mixture of poetry, prose, and essay, grapples with identity, resistance, memory, and the meaning of homeland in such an incredible way.
the quote at the top is from ‘The Homeland: Between Memory and History’, but i was also especially awed by ‘The Moon Did Not Fall into the Well’, ‘He Who Kills Fifty Arabs Loses One Plaster’, ‘Going to the Arabic Sentence on May 15’, and ‘Silence for the Sake of Gaza’. but really the whole thing is stellar and definitely worth a read.
kathleenitpdx's review
3.0
I have to put this book in historic perspective. Darwish was a Palestinian born in 1941. As a child he lived through the foundation of Israel. This book was first published in Arabic in 1973 after the Six Days War, forty years ago. It explores the author's attempt to understand what it means to be an Israeli Arab.
Darwish was a poet. As a right-brained person who lives in the U.S., I had difficulty understanding parts of the book. I layered in some biographical information on Darwish and reviewed modern Middle East history as well as the translator's forward and notes. I was able to understand much. For me the strongest parts were the "interviews" of Israeli Arabs in prison, the difficulty that Darwish had trying to obtain travel documents and his explanation of the position of Israeli Arabs in Israel.
This book gives a excellent perspective on the Middle East conflict. I also heard echoes of the situation of occupied peoples in the U.S.
Darwish was a poet. As a right-brained person who lives in the U.S., I had difficulty understanding parts of the book. I layered in some biographical information on Darwish and reviewed modern Middle East history as well as the translator's forward and notes. I was able to understand much. For me the strongest parts were the "interviews" of Israeli Arabs in prison, the difficulty that Darwish had trying to obtain travel documents and his explanation of the position of Israeli Arabs in Israel.
This book gives a excellent perspective on the Middle East conflict. I also heard echoes of the situation of occupied peoples in the U.S.
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