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A review by books_ergo_sum
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
reflective
5.0
Welcome to my TED talk: Minor Detail is an existential philosophy masterpiece.
This dual timeline book set in occupied Palestine gave me ANXIETY, in the existential sense. I swear this was a The Stranger by Camus retelling—but better. For the following reasons:
First, because the two timelines perfectly described what existential angst is, and what it isn’t. It’s not fear of your own death (a common misconception), existential angst is fear of your own freedom in a world that is Absurd (existentially). And the MC of one timeline had one, the MC of the other timeline had the other.
With this added bit of mind F-ery: the MC who feared their own death but didn’t have existential angst GAVE THE READER EXISTENTIAL ANGST—the world was so Absurd and their choices/freedom so anxiety-inducing that that section read like horror.
Second, the absurdity of the world leapt off the page in a way that existential texts typically struggle with. Existentialism is a child of the way WWI shattered our faith in the Enlightenment project. But despite this foundation, existential novels aren’t typically set in wars or occupations, to their detriment. Not so with this book—the absurdity of its occupied Palestine setting (in 1949 and present day) was perfectly portrayed.
And third, my favourite part, existentialism has an Achilles heel. Or, I should say “had”—because if you’d have asked me before, I would’ve said existentialism is so rooted in Enlightenment philosophy (even though it reacts against it) that it never escapes liberal individualism. Yet now, I think Minor Detail does escape liberal individualism—maybe it was never rooted there in the first place. Because, while a philosopher/writer like Camus’s characters are so individualistic they feel like they have personality disorders, Shibli’s characters feel so human that she must be tapping into a richer ontology of humanity.
The book was excellent, completely recommend. The symbolism alone was so powerful I’ll never smell gasoline or hear thunder the same way again.
This dual timeline book set in occupied Palestine gave me ANXIETY, in the existential sense. I swear this was a The Stranger by Camus retelling—but better. For the following reasons:
First, because the two timelines perfectly described what existential angst is, and what it isn’t. It’s not fear of your own death (a common misconception), existential angst is fear of your own freedom in a world that is Absurd (existentially). And the MC of one timeline had one, the MC of the other timeline had the other.
With this added bit of mind F-ery: the MC who feared their own death but didn’t have existential angst GAVE THE READER EXISTENTIAL ANGST—the world was so Absurd and their choices/freedom so anxiety-inducing that that section read like horror.
Second, the absurdity of the world leapt off the page in a way that existential texts typically struggle with. Existentialism is a child of the way WWI shattered our faith in the Enlightenment project. But despite this foundation, existential novels aren’t typically set in wars or occupations, to their detriment. Not so with this book—the absurdity of its occupied Palestine setting (in 1949 and present day) was perfectly portrayed.
And third, my favourite part, existentialism has an Achilles heel. Or, I should say “had”—because if you’d have asked me before, I would’ve said existentialism is so rooted in Enlightenment philosophy (even though it reacts against it) that it never escapes liberal individualism. Yet now, I think Minor Detail does escape liberal individualism—maybe it was never rooted there in the first place. Because, while a philosopher/writer like Camus’s characters are so individualistic they feel like they have personality disorders, Shibli’s characters feel so human that she must be tapping into a richer ontology of humanity.
The book was excellent, completely recommend. The symbolism alone was so powerful I’ll never smell gasoline or hear thunder the same way again.