Daisy Al-Amir

This book of short stories and poems fulfills the "book set in the Middle East" and "book of 100 pages or less" categories of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge-2 2016.

[b:The Waiting List: An Iraqi Woman's Tales of Alienation|407414|The Waiting List An Iraqi Woman's Tales of Alienation|Daisy Al-Amir|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347388418s/407414.jpg|396736] is an appropriate title for this selection of stories by Daisy Al-Amir, as the stories are mostly set in liminal places, places show more of transition, such as airline terminals, modes of transportation such as cars, buses or airplanes, temporary residences, such as hotels or houses in which the characters (who are nameless) never feel at home. If they ever do come to feel a sense of permanence in their residence, it's ripped out from under them by a war which seems to have no purpose but to uproot people and do violence to their lives.

Ms. Al-Amir is a great writer, and her stories capture the sense of timeless impermanence experienced by those who have often had cause to move frequently and suddenly throughout their lives.

In one story, "Fires of the Past," her character leaves a house where she has lived for 27 years, leaving behind her precious papers and books and mementos, in the care of her neighbors. She moves to a foreign country and believes she will not be able to bring these items with her. During the Lebanese war, a bomb drops on her house. Her neighbors, eager to save her belongings from the flames, soak all her papers and books with water. They put out the fire; but the precious belongings are ruined. Once again, the futility of clinging to the past is restated.

These characters are in a constant state of flux, in a liminal world between worlds.

There were some typos and errors, but not enough to detract from the overall pleasure of reading the stories.

Other than "The Kite Runner," and "The Thousand and One Nights" when I was a child, I haven't read Middle Eastern literature, but I think I would like to read more stories from Middle Eastern women. This was an unusual find and I'm glad I stumbled upon it. show less