Alongside the aforementioned personification of the moon, eliot also personifies a streetlamp throughout the poem. Scholars have extensively analyzed trauma in literary texts about world wars, the. At the time of writing, although he has evaded conscription, he is a prisoner, as abused. Kafka and solzhenitsyn gave us the classics of living in european police states. Late in the book there is a vision of letters, characters, who throw away their dots. Written by a young man in detention, the prose moves from prison life, to. The other is in the country of men, by hisham matar.
Reading guide ijaam ijaam reading guide author bio from city lights. Structurally, too, this novel is a gem despite its political overtones, however, ijaam works on an aesthetic level as well. The bulk of the book presents furats prison diaries as transcribed and dotted by the. As an apparent gesture of mercy after a brutal regimen of torture, his captors provide him with a pen and paper to record his memoirs. Format pdf introduction and first 18 pages from ijaam. Sinan antoons i jaam is included in an article about contemporary arabic novels in the current issue of the new yorker. English missouri state university, december 2015 master of arts zahraa qasim hasan habeeb.
An iraqi rhapsody on kpfas voices of the middle east and north africa. Sinan antoon is an iraqiamerican author and his novel tells the story of an iraqi. In less than a hundred pages, antoon provides a moving portrait of life in saddams iraq. Not only is ijaam written without dots, the narrative itself leaves much open to interpretation. Allowing for some past perspective, the narrative attempts to shed light on the terrorized life of certain iraqi citizens under saddam husseins rule. Ijaam is the story of furat, a prisoner in an iraq reminiscent of the baathi era. Rebecca c johnson format pdf introduction and first 18 pages from ijaam. An iraqi rhapsody by sinan antoon translated from arabic by rebecca c. This book arrives at a crucial moment in our history as the decision is being made whether to expand or terminate the u. In saddam husseins iraq, a prisoner is given pen and paper to write. Ijaam, an iraqi rhapsody press city lights bookstore. The book of collateral damage the margellos world republic of letters. If writing is meaning, then ijaam is the metaphor as well as the method of.