Inheritance of Exile, The: Stories from South Philly - Hardcover

Darraj, Susan Muaddi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0268162263 ISBN 13: 9780268162269

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017

Synopsis

In The Inheritance of Exile, Susan Muaddi Darraj expertly weaves a tapestry of the events and struggles in the lives of four Arab-American women. Hanan, Nadia, Reema, and Aliyah search for a meaningful sense of home, caught in the cultural gap that exists between the Middle East and the United States.

Daughters of Palestinian immigrants who have settled into the diverse southern section of Philadelphia, the four friends live among Vietnamese, Italians, Irish, and other ethnic groups. Each struggles to reconcile her Arab identity with her American one. Muaddi Darraj adds the perspectives of the girls’ mothers, presented in separate stories, which illuminate the often troubled relationship between first and second generations of immigrants.

Her suite of finely detailed portraits of arresting characters, told in evocative, vivid language, is sure to intrigue those seeking enjoyment and insight.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Muaddi Darraj is associate professor of English at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland. She is also a Lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University’s MA in Writing program.

From Publishers Weekly

Darraj, who edited Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab and Arab American Women on Writing, makes a capable debut with this collection that follows Palestinian-American émigré families in South Philadelphia. Darraj succeeds admirably in suggesting the diversity of Palestinian-Americans: the four friends Nadia, Aliyah, Hanan and Reema each comes from a family with its own story of exile. Nadia's mother, a doctor's daughter, discovers in "The New World" that the mysterious "tall, slim blonde woman" whom she nicknames "Homewrecker Barbie" was her husband's former green-card wife. Aliya spends "An Afternoon in Jerusalem" at the Dome of the Rock where a hijab-wearing woman, noticing her crucifix, welcomes her in and shows her how to wrap her hair. After suffering the patronizing attitudes of her husband John's parents and graduate school colleagues, Hanan makes "The Journey Home," reconciling with her parents and practicing her mother's craft, basket making, with commercial success. In "The Scent of Oranges," Reema's mother retells her refugee camp experience, specifically for her daughter. Darraj's first-person narrators are not distinct, and her vignette-like stories remain at the edge of plot. There's a passionate sense here of inheritance as a two-way street that transforms immigrants and their children, but Darraj doesn't quite connect the dots. (Apr.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0268162263
• ISBN 13: 9780268162269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208