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A review by helene0707
The Fall of the Imam by Nawal El Saadawi
4.0
4.5 Stars
A harrowing read. At points I loathed even opening my Kindle because I did not want to go on reading. The novel stirred a form of aversion in me I would only expect from horror stories. As a person who has sworn to boycott Egypt due to their FGM practices, I can only wonder whether the novel holds some truth to it. In a World of patriarchy, the woman becomes the vessel of pain.
In terms of the plot, it is hard to describe what is going on. A postmodernist novel at its heart, the author experiments with causality and point of view. Although difficult to adapt to, I found the techniques well executed. The only downside is in my opinion then the translation to English. The foreword mentions that the author’s husband contributed to the English version. Metaphors seem to have been lost in translation. Would the novel have been different English, had an “outsider” translated it?
Read it if you want a feminist (inside) view of the brutality and naivety of a country torn between reason and desire.
A harrowing read. At points I loathed even opening my Kindle because I did not want to go on reading. The novel stirred a form of aversion in me I would only expect from horror stories. As a person who has sworn to boycott Egypt due to their FGM practices, I can only wonder whether the novel holds some truth to it. In a World of patriarchy, the woman becomes the vessel of pain.
In terms of the plot, it is hard to describe what is going on. A postmodernist novel at its heart, the author experiments with causality and point of view. Although difficult to adapt to, I found the techniques well executed. The only downside is in my opinion then the translation to English. The foreword mentions that the author’s husband contributed to the English version. Metaphors seem to have been lost in translation. Would the novel have been different English, had an “outsider” translated it?
Read it if you want a feminist (inside) view of the brutality and naivety of a country torn between reason and desire.