Arabian Jazz (A Harvest Book) - Softcover

Abu-Jaber, Diana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156000482 ISBN 13: 9780156000482

Publisher: Harvest Books, 1994

Synopsis

Balances are struck in this luminous first novel-between two radically distinct cultures, between obligation and self-will, between past and future, between hilarity and heartbreak-as the Jordanian family of Matussem Ramoud settles in a small, poor-white community in upstate New York. Winner of the Oregon Book Award. PEN/Hemingway First Novel finalist.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Here is the hyphenated-American story told with a sense of humor and bitter-sweet love. Set in a small poor-white community in upstate New York, where "ethnics" are few and far between, it is the story of the Ramoud family: Matussem, his two daughters, Melvina and Jemorah, his sister, Fatima, and her husband, Zaeed. Matussem loves American jazz standards, Arab folktales, lawn ornaments, and - above all else in the world - his daughters. Fatima, the truest representative of the Old World in the New, is obsessed with joining the social committee of the local Syrian Orthodox Church and with seeing her nieces - Jemorah is nearly thirty! - married. Melvina, "all-Nurse", has her mind set firmly on her work, but Jemorah will consider marrying anyone from a pool hustler to a car mechanic to a Jordanian cousin. With "Family Function Season" about to begin ("thick with the air of summer upstate and heavy, sweating relatives who thought, somehow, that this was preferable to the desert"), Arabian Jazz will explode into a hilarious, poignant tribute to family bonds, hybrid cultures, and the individual search for home.

About the Author:

Diana Abu-Jaber is a contributor for the following Houghton Mifflin Company Title: Arabian Jazz

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0156000482
• ISBN 13: 9780156000482
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392