Ramsco's Women Empowerment Initiative Recognized Among Top BRICS Businesswomen Practices for 2025    Egypt, Elsewedy review progress on Ain Sokhna phosphate complex    Gold prices end July with modest gains    Pakistan says successfully concluded 'landmark trade deal' with US    Egypt's FM, US envoy discuss Gaza ceasefire, Iran nuclear talks    Modon Holding posts AED 2.1bn net profit in H1 2025    Egypt's Electricity Ministry says new power cable for Giza area operational    Egypt's Al-Sisi, Italian defence minister discuss Gaza, security cooperation    Egypt's FM discusses Gaza, Nile dam with US senators    Aid airdrops intensify as famine deepens in Gaza amid mounting international criticism    Health minister showcases AI's impact on healthcare at Huawei Cloud Summit    On anti-trafficking day, Egypt's PM calls fight a 'moral and humanitarian duty'    Federal Reserve maintains interest rates    Egypt strengthens healthcare partnerships to enhance maternity, multiple sclerosis, and stroke care    Egypt keeps Gaza aid flowing, total tops 533,000 tons: minister    Indian Embassy to launch cultural festival in Assiut, film fest in Cairo    Egyptian aid convoy heads toward Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens    Culture minister launches national plan to revive film industry, modernise cinematic assets    Rafah Crossing 'never been closed for one day' from Egypt: PM    I won't trade my identity to please market: Douzi    Two militants killed in foiled plot to revive 'Hasm' operations: Interior ministry    Egypt's EHA, Huawei discuss enhanced digital health    Egypt, Oman discuss environmental cooperation    Egypt's EDA explores pharma cooperation with Belarus    Foreign, housing ministers discuss Egypt's role in African development push    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Three ancient rock-cut tombs discovered in Aswan    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



In a sea of words, an American translator searches for herself
Published in Daily News Egypt on 12 - 03 - 2009

In war, identities are polished and wrecked, all at once. Some prophecies are fulfilled, others are never realized. Sometimes war leaves nothing behind; for Zeina Bahnam, the only thing war spared was undead ashes.
She left Detroit upbeat and sanguine only to return lost, confused, and at war with herself. This is the state of mind troubled Iraqi-American heroine of Inaam Kachachi's "Al-Hafeeda Al-Amerkeya (The American Granddaughter) finds herself in upon her return from Iraq to a world that has been disfigured for good.
On the back cover, the author describes herself as "a journalist and a writer who, despite her long stay in France, has closely adhered to her Iraqi-ness. The novel has been deservedly brought to the spotlight after it was shortlisted for this year's International Prize for Arabic Fiction (aka the Arabic Booker Prize). Despite the eminence of this year's contenders, it would come as no surprise if Kachachi walked away with the prize next week.
Zeina's family fled from Saddam Hussein's Iraq when she was a teenager.
In need of cash and proper work, she decides to return to her home country, wearing another nation's army uniform, working as a translator for the American army. Steadily, she realizes that the dream she had of the US bringing democracy to Iraq is nothing but a delusion. She also discovers she has a brother through breastfeeding who's fighting with the Mahdi militia.
After surviving the horrors of the war, she goes back to the US to examine both her life and her family's history through new eyes.
In Zeina's mother, father, American boyfriend, Iraqi grandmother and her brother, Kachachi has created deeply empathetic, fully-rounded rich characters. The Christian-raised Zeina is the most complex. She is constantly battling the writer inside her, torn between authoring a dramatic story and documenting the facts with no additives.
She "tries and tries to write a nationalist novel, drawing a portrait of the stray daughter returning on a US tank.
The novel's sole drawback is the sparse Iraqi dialect, which is often employed unaccompanied by Arabic translation. You can't help but sense that the novel wasn't written with the international or general Arabic readers in mind.
Engaging narrative and multifaceted themes aside, what makes Kachachi's a masterpiece is her vivid imagery, lyrical meanderings and introspective analysis. Several passages feel like pure poetry; heartbreaking, startling in their frankness. Kachachi's writing is breathtakingly beautiful, demanding multiple reads via a deliberate pace to digest the sheer splendor of her words. Take for instance the passages Zeina writes upon her return to Detroit:
"Even my laugh has changed. I don't chuckle anymore like I used to do, openly showing my crooked lower teeth which Kelvin [Zeina's American boyfriend] describes as a local cafe with brawling customers. That day Kelvin was flirting with me. But today flirtation doesn't suit me. Who flirts with a woman carrying a catacomb between her ribs?
"I am miserable; a make-up table trashed to the ground, a cracked mirror. I laugh briefly, a meaningless, cold laugh; a fatless laugh, tasteless like a carbonated drink. Am I really laughing or struggling for a muted smile? Am I deliberately avoiding joy? I hide the true core of my heart lest its insides spill over and divulge my weakness. I have returned from Baghdad like a strained floor-moping rag. A Khaki rag, this is how I returned.
Although the rest of the novel is constituted of Zeina's light cynical diary, its core as tragic, capturing the heroine's sense of loss with such honest gravity.
Kachachi refuses to offer a solution for Zeina's predicaments, and in this refusal, the abyss of despair in which Zeina becomes a submissive prisoner is expanded.
"The American Granddaughter grants the Arabic reader the rare chance of delving into the mind of an American who speaks their language and at times shares their concerns. Using this specific ground as platform, Kachachi flies with Zeina into more universal skies where themes of sadness, identity crisis, and loyalty to one's heritage become dark mountains of clouds blocking each last ray of the shy receding light.


Clic here to read the story from its source.