I’jaam
Sinan Antoon
2007
97 pages

This short novel poses as a manuscript found in the Central Security Headquarters of Baghdad, Iraq. Written without dots, it is given to “a qualified personnel” to add the dots (I’jaam is the adding of dots to provide elucidation in Arabic script) and provide clarification as to what was written. The translator, so to speak, adds a few footnotes, to clarify meaning and probably to cover his ass. The manuscript was written by a political prisoner, a poet who records reflections of his days as a university student, as well as snapshots of his time in prison. It shows the fear and paranoia of daily life in Iraq during Sadaam Hussein’s reign in the late 1980s. It is also a chilling portrait of the atrocities of prison.

Despite all that, the book still falls a bit short. At 97 pages, it is too brief. The author only gives a snapshot…the book easily could have been fleshed out, with more descriptions of Baghdad. Although, I guess if you’re striving for accuracy, that might not have been on a prisoner’s mind as he wrote. Still, it’s missing a bit of something. And the end is driving me batty. If it truly was his last piece of paper, as he stated, then he must have been hallucinating, and he just imagined the last scene of freedom. Right? Anyone??