A review by gwend
Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine by Ibtisam Barakat

4.0

I liked Balcony on the Moon as much as or more than her first memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. As Ibtisam grows up, her spunky, engaged with life personality emerges: she sneaks away from home during the day to go work at a tissue paper factory, and then quits due to the poor treatment of workers, which she tries to stand up for. She endears herself to all her fellow workers, and her parents forgive her as well. They move often, so she describes the wide variety of neighborhoods and schools she is in. The secondary awesome woman in this story is Ibtisam's mother, who gets married at 15 (!), has 7 kids in quick succession in unstable conditions, and then decides to go back to school to get her high school diploma. Her husband bends to her strong will, and Ibtisam helps her study. Informative, funny at times, well-written: a great memoir!