Beirut Blues

Rating:
Summary: Poignant novel of dilemma to remain in a war zone
Review: "Beirut Blues" is a thoughtful reflection of the decision to remain home, when home has become a war zone and the dominant concern has been reduced from an abilty to plan for a better future, to being able to survive today without being killed. This book is a haunting portrayal of living in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. Many Lebanese immigrated during those years; knowing that leaving they had a possibilty of returning when the conflict ended.

The main character of the novel, Asmaran is a single Lebanese woman, who has many opportunites to leave the country. Most of her friends and loved ones have left, and physically it would be easy for her to move to a safer nation until the dangers in Lebanon pass. One recieves the impression that she is well educated and relatively affluent, so that suporting herself elsewhere would be perfectly feasible.

The story is expressed through letters that she writes to people about her daily struggles and her debate about remaining in Lebanon. Some critique the writing style for being initially confusing to the reader, but I thought that the format creatively demonstrated the turmoil that one experiences when witnessing the end of the only way of life that once has ever known, and never knowing why such things occurred; the struggle to find meaning in it all and retain sanity in an absurdly insane situation.

Unfortunately, the torment that the dilemma posed to Asmaran is not anomalic to the people who lived in Beirut during the war. Urban warfare is predicted to be more often to modus operandi for conflicts in the future. This novel is essential to comprehending the plight of many who live in war zones, and was written by an author from Beirut. The novel also helps us respect better the gravity with which many refugees have made the decision to leave their home land and seek solace in ours.

Rating:
Summary: Praised far beyond its worth
Review: I agree with another reviewer who called this book "long, confusing and boring". Not only did I not relate or empathise with the main character, Asmahan (an upper-class woman purposelessly travelling back and forth between Beirut and her family's country village), but I also found the description of her relationships to others (friends, lovers, family members, etc.) to be vague and insufficient. You never get to fully understand her actions and motives, much less her feelings. The book, which consists of letters written by Asmahan to such an unlikely cast of recipients as her friend Hayat, the war, Beirut and Billie Holiday (?), among others, drags on forever, without adding to your knowledge of either the characters or the political context. I finished it out of sheer stubbornness, and regret not having paid enough attention to previous reviewers.

A further comment (though in all fairness not concerning the book's quality) should be made in relation to the preposterous comment on the book's front flap, which says: "With the critical and commercial success in the U.S. of her two earlier books ... Hanan al-Shaykh's standing as the Arab world's foremost woman writer has been confirmed". Are we supposed to take this seriously? I should believe that Ms. al-Shaykh's standing as an Arab female writer ought to relate to the quality of her writing first of all, and - if any commercial element must be introduced at all - then to the sales of her books in that very Arab world whose foremost novelist she is supposed to be (an assertion which this book should call into question, by the way). American arrogance has been at work here. Would great sales in Arab countries make an American writer "the U.S.'s foremost"?

Rating:
Summary: Confusing and Boring
Review: I personally thought that Beirut Blues was long, confusing and boring. I didn't have any clue what was going on nor did I have any motivation to finish the book, because I had grown no emotional attatchment to the characters. I couldn't work out what the main character, Asmahan, was actually thinking or understand her relationship with her friends and family. I also didn't know what was going on in the setting throughout the book either which is a shame because I know from research that she lives in an interesting place, yet it was not portrayed clearly enough for the reader to get that impression. I DO NOT recommend this book to anyone because I think it was a waste of time, words and paper.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to rate
Review: This novel poses complex problems for the reader, and there fore I find it difficult to give either a straight positive ranking or negative one. If you are interested in understanding the inner workings of the mind of someone who is living in a war-ravaged society, then this book is excellent. But if you are reading it to understand more about Lebanon's bloody history and civil war, you won't find much here...it's really focused on the thought processes of its protagonist, Asmahan, and if you don't bring to the book existing knowledge of the place or the conflict, you won't learn anything. Therefore, I'd really recommend it only to those who know the backdrop of Lebanon's civil war.