Review by Shellie: A Map of Home – A Novel by Randa Jarrar

Review:

In this wonderful, humorous, and powerful story - Nidali is a strong teen caught between self discovery, and the constraints of war within a culture where women are subjected to very confining roles. The story opens with her “Baba" hoping for a the birth of a boy, due to his awareness of the difficulties facing women in Kuwait. In doing so he accidently names her Nidal. When realizing she is a girl, he adds an i creating Nidali, the narrator’s name.

Born in America from an Egyptian and Greek mother and a Palestinian father Nidali’s roots are as complex and ethnically diverse as the middle east itself. When the family moves back to Kuwait in the volatile 80’s from American, they will eventually be forced to leave again. Eventually they will immigrate back to America, confusing and complicating the question of where exactly is home?

Here is a quote which sums the title up of A Map of Home. After leaving Kuwait, Nidali has drawn a map of Palestine while sitting at the family table while talking with her father:

“You still remember that?” I nodded and looked at the map nervously, hesitant about whether I’d drawn it right. I pointed at the western border and asked, “Is that right?” “Who knows,” he said, waving his hand dismissively …

“What do you mean, Baba when you say ‘who knows’?”

“Oh habibti. That map is from a certain year. The maps that came earlier looked different. And the ones that come after, ever more different.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… there’s no telling. There’s no telling where home starts and where it ends.”

Hilarious and thought provoking A Map of Home is a down to earth insight into the complexities of middle eastern cultures. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a mostly lighthearted view on difficult and often misunderstood subjects – war and who are our middle Eastern neighbors. I give this book 4 Stars.

This is book is included in the Women Unbound challenge. I love wonderful strong and complex characters – Nadali is!

This book also has secondary elements which make it available for inclusion in The GLBT 2009 Challenge. These elements are of sexual exploration and the recognition of bisexual tendencies.

For more information on A Map of Home, purchasing information, and the author Randa Jarrar please see the preview post of the book linked on the title.

Preview: A Map of Home – A Novel by Randa Jarrar

I received this book from Penguin for review. Thank you Gabrielle!

Book Stats from Penguin:

Paperback | 8.26 x 5.23in | 304 pages | ISBN 9780143116264 | 25 Aug 2009 | Penguin | 18 - AND UP

Publishers blurb:

From America to the Middle East and back again— the sparkling story of one girl’s childhood, by an exciting new voice in literary fiction
In this fresh, funny, and fearless debut novel, Randa Jarrar chronicles the coming-of-age of Nidali, one of the most unique and irrepressible narrators in contemporary fiction. Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali—whose name is a feminization of the word “struggle”—soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas. This critically acclaimed debut novel is set to capture the hearts of everyone who has ever wondered what their own map of home might look like.

Publicist’s thoughts:

A MAP OF HOME is a humorous, non-stereotypical story about growing up as an Arab girl both in the Middle East and in America and closely mirrors Randa’s life.  Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt – following the 1990 Iraqi invasion – and her family’s last flight to Texas.

Praise for the Novel:

“ [An] extraordinary debut . . . Jarrar’s lack of sentimentality, and her wry sense of humor, make Home a treasure.”
—People (four stars)

“A Map of Home will leave you laughing out loud.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“Randa Jarrar takes all the sappy, beloved clichés about ‘where you hang your hat’ and blows them to smithereens in her energizing, caustically comic debut novel.”
—The Christian Science Monitor

Author Bio:

Randa Jarrar was born in Chicago in 1978. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt, and moved back to the U.S. at thirteen. She is a writer and translator whose honors include the Million Writers Award, the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Award and the Geoffrey James Gosling Prize. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares as well as in numerous journals and anthologies. Her translations from the Arabic have appeared in Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers; recently, she translated Hassan Daoud’s novel, The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-Making Machine. She currently lives in Austin, Texas. A Map of Home is her first novel.

Visit the author online here. Author interview at Penguin is at this link. Goodreads link here.

Amazon purchasing information linked respectively below US/UK/Canada

A Map of Home: A Novel/ A Map of Home/ A Map Of Home