Praise for the women of the family by Mahmoud Shukair

Book set in Jerusalem, Palestine (pre-1948). Reviewed on 2019/08: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1T8d8Tgo7Q/

I’m very conflicted with this book. On the one hand, #mahmoudshukair does a terrific job at telling the early story of the occupation, the displacement of #palestinians and the beginning of a collective and individual trauma specially from a family perspective which reverberates to this day. More than a rapid succession of wars and battles, #shukair forces the reader to concentrate on the daily lives and what irreparably breaks and scars people for generations. However my biggest problem with the book is the title and my expectations. For starters, #praiseforthewomenofthefamily has instead a lot of praise for the men of the family which rely on the selfless support of the women and then proceed to abuse them and relegate them to secondary inferior roles. I guess that is literally what Shukair wanted to portray. I get it. But all the narrators are male, except for one if I remember correctly. At the end, we are left to derive any praise or perspective on these #women from the myopic and egocentric monologues of the male-brother-narrators. This doesn’t seem right to me. Overall it’s still quiet a story about the beginnings and the claws of the occupation and post-1948 #palestinian identity. It’s also a #sequel . Hopefully that might explain some of the shortcomings I personally felt. #palestinianliterature #interlink#interlinkbooks #jerusalem#internationalprizeforarabicfiction#palestinianwomen #‎مديح_لنساء_العائلة #‎محمود_شقير #lifeundertheoccupation#epistolary #monologue