A review by jordanrisa
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book is one I’m glad I picked up, especially because it’s written by an Arab American woman, whose perspective is so underrepresented in literature and in media overall. While the author is clear about the dangers of having her single story be used to represent an entire community and culture, she was able to pull from her own experiences and upbringing to create a voice for herself that has reached so many and also enabled her to break the cycles she didn’t want her daughter to have. The story follows 3 generations of Palestinian women who had to flee Palestine to come to America. It’s about familial obligation, unfair gender roles and expectations, and generational trauma — specifically about mothers passing it on to their daughters. 

While the book does read a bit like a YA novel and could have been wrapped up better and with a bit more nuance and less repetition, I appreciate the ways she showed the various reasons the women in the story were stuck in their ways or were complicit in the cycle — out of fear or shame, and also the ways the men acted as a result of extreme familial pressures that were pushed onto them by prior generations. 
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