The women in this story are not seen as equals and oftentimes are the victims of horrific abuse, which everyone turns a blind eye toward. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story like this before that is focused on Palestinian American women. We’re a nation of immigrants, yet, stories like this are quite rare. Set in an America at once foreign to many and staggeringly close at hand, A Woman Is No Man is an intimate glimpse into a controlling and closed cultural world, and a universal tale about family and the ways silence and shame can destroy those we have sworn to protect. In her debut novel Etaf Rum tells the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community-a story of culture and honor, secrets and betrayals, love and violence. Still, though, there is love in this story between some of the women, which is able to rise above all else. There’s domestic abuse, emotional turmoil with many difficult scenes. This is one of those novels that I believe many should read.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |