The Long Way Back by Fuad al-Takarli
This one's Iraq:
This one's the summary:
The Long Way Back tells the story of four generations of the same family living in an old house in the Bab al-Shaykh area of Baghdad. Through exquisite layering of the overlapping worlds of the characters, their private conflicts and passions are set against the wider drama of events leading up to the overthrow of prime minister Abd al-Karim Qasim and the initial steps to power of the Baath party in Iraq in 1962-63.The skilful building-up of the characters and their worlds within a brief and clearly determined period of recent history allows for a bold and intelligent portrayal of the ambiguous strengths and weaknesses of Iraqi and wider Arab culture. In addition, the dramatization of the relationships between generations, social groups, and genders is achieved with a mixture of humor, bitter irony, and compassion that identifies it as a great work of Arabic literature.
One thing I've found during my reading is that the non-fiction books start to get pretty heavy after a while (turns out humans have been garbage forever). So I'll pick a novel to get a little break, but then I feel almost guilty, like I threw away an opportunity to learn something. Stupid, right? But I also find such beautiful descriptions and ideas, which really should be enough. Come on, brain, give yourself a break!
Some of the descriptions were obviously depression. The book is set in the Middle East in the 60s, so I'm guessing there wasn't a lot of mental health concern, but here are some of the feelings expressed:
"But it wasn't the illness that was eating at me: it was an idea, an obsession, a devil on my back."
"He was neither hungry nor tired, but he felt his body failing to respond as he walked. This might be due to some kind of spiritual fatigue, he thought, for which he would soon have to find an explanation."
"It's enough to make it your aim in life not to be filled with terror to the point of madness."
"I had no practical experience of life because I couldn't overcome the particular conditions of the society in which I lived, nor could I overcome the feeling that I was waiting, in some remote corner, to be allowed to experience life."
And my favorite one: "Sometimes we can't survive without some help. Life wears us down without us realizing it."
I find all of these thoughts kind of beautiful. Sad, of course, but depression is such a personal experience; it feels different for everyone even though it's so common. And the fact that your mood changing can completely debilitate you is almost interesting. I realize this makes me sound like someone who has no idea what depression feels like, but I assure you I do. I've found that, as I've gotten older, some things seem more perplexing, and it's less a lack of empathy/sympathy and more an interest in how it all works.
Of course depression wasn't the only overarching theme. We have the standard sexism, complete with (SPOILER) wanting to kill a woman for being raped. Because, "She was not a virgin; therefore she had lost her honor and must be punished by him or any other member of the family who volunteered. Everyone knew this equation. Honor resided in a woman's hymen, and she was entrusted with preserving it until the appointed time."
My rage with this passage can only be expressed as such: FAL;DSFIM;AWEOI NFEARHG IPE8BOAENJFC BIUAWER H.
Get it together, WORLD.
And then this one kind of made me laugh because apparently this sentiment is eternal: "Has he got a cold? Everyone's got a cold. Just because they call it influenza now, so what? It doesn't make it any more serious." Oh, hey, Covid anyone?! At least back then they didn't have the social meeds to mess it up even more.
And with that, I'll be taking a small break. It won't seem much different to you since I've been taking for freaking ever to finish my books. But I got a few new books for Christmas and would like to crack those open. See you soon!
