Mornings in Jenin
Susan Abulhawa
February 2010
331 pages
Published by Bloomsbury
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FTC disclosure: I bought this book. But the copy I read is actually one that my mom bought to replace the copy that she stole and mailed to a friend. Okay, the stealing was an accident, so please don’t send the cops after her and make me bail my mommy out of jail.
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Israel has always been a golden child in the eyes of the US. However, it’s important to remember that there are two sides to every story. Mornings in Jenin is a fictional account of that other side, one that offers up a rebuttal to the idea that all Palestinians are fanatical suicide bombers. It humanizes Palestinians, which I think is something that the US press fails to do. But don’t worry…while the book does show the atrocities perpetrated upon the Palestinians by Israelis, it doesn’t make all Israelis out to be the monster under the bed. Rather, it’s a reminder that ordinary people can do both good and bad things, and often they are responding to the circumstances around them.
Publisher’s Comments:
Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. This is the Palestinian story, told as never before, through four generations of a single family.
The very precariousness of existence in the camps quickens life itself. Amal, the patriarch’s bright grand-daughter, feels this with certainty when she discovers the joys of young friendship and first love and especially when she loses her adored father, who read to her daily as a young girl in the quiet of the early dawn. Through Amal we get the stories of her brothers, one who is kidnapped by an Israeli soldier and raised Jewish; the other who sacrifices everything for the Palestinian cause. Amal’s own dramatic story threads between the major Palestinian-Israeli clashes of three decades; it is one of love and loss, of childhood, marriage, and parenthood, and finally of the need to share her history with her daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has.
Previously published in a hardcover edition with a limited run under the title The Scar of David, this powerful novel is now available in a fully revised, newly titled paperback edition. The deep and moving humanity of Mornings in Jenin forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetimes.
Although certainly grim and at times, brutal, this is a fantastic book. I got caught up in the lives of the Abulheja family…I didn’t even notice the changes in tense and point of view that bothered Aarti and Amanda. I highly recommend it as a counterpoint to the multitude of sympathetic information there is about Israel (and please know that I’m talking about the Israeli state here, rather than Israelis in general).
Also of interest:
- Susan Abulhawa contributed her recommendations for further reading on Palestine to Five Books.
- Be sure check out what Aarti at BookLust and Amanda at The Zen Leaf had to say.
I was talking to my sister about this book the other day (the sister who lives in Jenin and is married to a Palestinian refugee). I hadn’t realized when I read the book just how much of it was true. Obviously the narrator is an invented person, but all the events she talked about actually happened. I don’t remember this – it’s been too long – but apparently during the seige of the Jenin Camp, there was a man run over by a steamroller in his house? I don’t remember that mentioned in the book, but apparently it was and Becky said this story has become legend in Jenin. She said reading this book was like hearing all the stories she’s already been told by people she lives with and works with put into one volume. I thought a lot more was fictionalized than actually was. Made me want to reread it.
I think that the synopsis sounds very interesting, and I am glad that you really liked it. I will have to give this another look.
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I like your review (but have not one single thought of the slightest intelligence to contribute to the conversation).
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It’s so nice when a book can be political and yet show the good and bad on both sides instead of demonizing one and elevating the other.
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You just reminded me I need to move this up in my queue. I read a great review of it several months ago and have be interested since. Actually, it kinda inspired my recent goal to read books about things/places/events I know little about. I mean, that’s generally one of my goals of reading, but usually I’m not very good about sticking to it.
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Jill…this sounds good but intense. Great review.
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This sounds like a great book. I think too often we fail to remember the individual people on both sides and the effects these things have on them. Definitely a book I am going to be looking out for.
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Jeez … your mom sounds like A Book Thief.
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Ooh, so glad you read this one and enjoyed it so much. I definitely think it will be on my top ten list this year. It was so much food for thought.
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Gosh I love your FTC Disclosures! I have this book (got it at our SB blogger’s lunch) and really look forward to reading it
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This is another book for my tbr. Thanks!
Care´s last [type] ..August is Over- School About to Start
Your mom sounds like a shady character, but just like the novel, I realize that it’s important to see things form different perspectives. And it is important to see the other side and to see the human factor.
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Sounds like a very interesting book and viewpoint. It’s definitely a subject that I would like to know more about.
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This does sound great – I remember you chatting about it at the Book Blogger Lunch! I’ll have to read it at some point!
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This is the type of book I like to read. I would definitely give this a try and i read the 1st comment here, and I say that is an added bonus
Veens´s last [type] ..Really Random Tuesday 2
I read and reviewed this book at around the same time Aarti did — I did find the abrupt POV changes to be distracting sometimes. However, like you, I felt this was a very good read, especially since it provided a sympathetic view of the Palestinians that isn’t often seen.
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The chapter about the Jerusalem orphanage is totally autobiographical – the author spent three years of her life in that orphanage (between the age of 10 and 13).
I am so glad you liked this one, Jill. I picked it up on a whim at the store one day and haven’t gotten to it yet. It sounds like such a worthwhile book to read.
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