Reviews

Η Πύλη του Ήλιου by Elias Khoury

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furby's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

The writing style really destroyed me. It was constantly jumping from one person to the next over and over so it made it difficult for me to follow and keep track of everyone. The story started quick and quite interesting but then just jumped till the ending, which was again a good one to me, though sad. Everything in between could have been shorter and it would have helped to have memorable lead character.

wezafabregas's review against another edition

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5.0

ملحمة. ملحمة حزينة، كئيبة، مؤلمة وإبداعية.

أكثر شيء عجبني هو طريقة السرد واللي واضح جدا مدى تأثر إلياس خوري بـ غسان كنفاني – وده أسعدني جدا – التأثر ظهر بوضوح شديد في طريقة السرد ورسم الشخصيات وحتى في اسم الرواية نفسه. تأثر لدرجة أنه ذكر بنفسه اسم غسان كنفاني أكثر من مرة في الرواية وذكر روايته المبهرة، رجال في الشمس.

الاعتماد على نقطة واحدة ثابتة وهي غرفة المستشفى كنقطة انطلاق لأي حكاية ومغامرة جديدة لكل شخصية في الرواية، كانت عظيمة جدا والسبب في ده إنها خلتني أحس شعور اللاجيء في المخيم.

كأني محبوس في مكان واحد ومحاط بالعديد من الحكايات، بس في الأخر محبوس مستني موتي. كل ما أحس إني حر طليق بتجول براحتي في أماكن عديدة في الرواية، ألاقي نفسي رجعت تاني للنقطة الأساسية اللي هي الغرفة. حسيت بالخنقة وعدم الحرية والظلام وده بالظبط اللي بيحسه أي لاجيء.

الحقيقة أني معنديش أي فكرة – ولا أظن حد عنده – هل كان متعمد إيصال شعور اللاجئين للقارئ عن طريق الغرفة الواحدة ولا لا، بس ده على الأقل اللي شعرت به.

emilyberrios's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Certainly a worthwhile read, but extremely challenging.

The narration in this book is not consistent. The main narrator, Khalil, is unreliable. Whenever Khalil is retelling a story he doesn't change the voice, he just starts repeating what he was told. So he starts retelling a story w/o warning and continues talking as if he was the one experiencing the events while also going on marginally related tangents as he goes along. Perhaps the incoherent narrative style is intended to help the reader understand or more directly feel Khalil's nervous and disjointed prattling as he sits with his dying step-father-son-friend-hero.

A part of me thinks we're watching Khalil lose his mind.

Another interpretation of this book is that reading it is like being bathed in memories, trauma, chaos, and confusion. Impossible to truly understand, you sort of have to sit with it. Experience it, best you can. Sit with the people living these injustices and atrocities and bear witness for them. Your confusion and sense of being unmoored is theirs, they're sharing it.

This is just my perspective as a Westerner/outsider: The culture as a whole is shockingly patriarchal. Well, that's not really shocking in an of itself, I came in expecting a patriarchal society. What was shocking was how it was romanticized. It seems like upstanding men in this culture will write a poem about their wives, then rape them, neglect them, treat them like servants, obsess about controlling them, and call that love. Strong women are prized, then broken.

Content Warnings