Death Is Hard Work, Khalad Khalifa, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2019, 180 pp (originally published in 2016 by Nawfal, Lebanon, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price.)
This novel, set in present day Syria, is my translated book for the month. It turned out to be another example of Death Bed Lit. In fact, it could be the Syrian version of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
Abdel Latif, an elderly man from a village near Aleppo, lays dying in a Damascus hospital with his son Bolbol standing by. The old man extracts from Bolbol a promise to make sure he is buried in the family plot back in their village, Anabiya.
Anabiya is just a few hours drive from Damascus. How hard could it be? Bolbol contacts his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima, convincing them to make the journey with him. Hussein procures a small van, Fatima gathers provisions. They get the unembalmed body in the vehicle and set out.
Syria at this time is a war zone and the few hours' drive takes three days. Clogged roads, competing militias, checkpoints with long lines every few miles. Due to the high death rate from continuous bombings, they had to take Abdel's body away from the hospital with only a death certificate and it begins to decay in the brutal heat. Every difference, grudge and personality defect between the siblings boils up.
In a mere 180 pages, Khalifa relates the history of this family and what the war has done to them. It is not all grim because a black humor pervades the tale giving a look into the Syrian soul and temperament. I kept trying to imagine how it would be to travel through such trying conditions.
Khaled Khalifa has an earlier novel set in Syria: No Knives in the Kitchens of This City. Both novels won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. The author is Syrian born and lives in Damascus, refusing to abandon his country despite the dangers created by its Civil War. For that alone, I figured I could pay him the homage of reading this truly horrifying but finely written tale.
What a COMPLETE mess Syria is....!
ReplyDeleteI am still learning about Syria, but I think it is probably the most messed up place on earth right now. And if you look on a map it is really small as countries go, so there has to be more going on there than meets the eye.
Deleteits history isn't much better: thousands of years of war and fighting, tribal and regional... but i guess that could be true of almost any country except maybe eskimos; don't know much about Siberia...
ReplyDeleteI have the idea that Eskimos are a peaceful people though I could not tell you where I got it.
DeleteSounds like an engaging read that would give light to outsiders on what life in Syria is really like.
ReplyDeleteIf this novel is indeed like Faulkner's writing though, I will skip on it as my one encounter of Faulkner's writing had me running for the hills.
Oh, I may have given the wrong impression. The story is similar to the Faulkner novel but the writing is clear and great where Faulkner is murky and hard to understand sometimes.
DeleteGood to know!! I will now add it to my ever growing reading wishlist.
DeleteIt certainly does sound like a Syrian version of As I Lay Dying which in itself is reason enough for me to read it. That's my favorite of Faulkner's tales.
ReplyDeleteWhen you do, we will have to figure out a way to discuss, compare and contrast the two novels!
DeleteCan you tell in the story what he thinks of Assad? Or it is just overall war is hell? It is quite something he writes out of Damascus, wow he must be brave. I will check out his work.
ReplyDeleteGood question. I had to do some study of the civil war, the sides (of which there are at least 4), and which countries back which sides (which has weird overlaps.) So no, I could not tell what the author thinks of Assad or of the opposition. In fact, there is conflict between the siblings about it all. He paints a realistic picture of what it is like to live in Damascus.
DeleteSyria sounds like a a sad place...
ReplyDeleteIt is sad and bad. I read somewhere that it is one of the most destructive conflicts of the 21st century.
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