I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops - Softcover

Al-Shaykh, Hanan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385491271 ISBN 13: 9780385491273

Publisher: Anchor, 1998

Synopsis

Since the U.S. publication of Women of Sand and Myrrh--which has now sold more than 35,000 copies and was selected as one of the Fifty Best Books of 1992 by Publishers Weekly--Hanan al-Shaykh has attracted an ever larger following for her dazzling tales of contemporary Arab women. In these seventeen short stories--eleven of which are appearing in English for the first time--al-Shaykh expands her horizons beyond the boundaries of Lebanon, taking us throughout the Middle East, to Africa, and finally to London. Stylistically diverse, her stories are often about the shifting and ambiguous power relationships between different cultures--as well as between men and women. Often compared to both Margaret Atwood and Margaret Drabble, Hanan al-Shaykh is "a gifted and courageous writer" (Middle Eastern International).

About this title

About the Author

Hanan al-Shaykh, an award-winning journalist, novelist, and playwright, is the author of the short story collection I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops; the novels One Thousand and One Nights, The Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, Beirut Blues, and Only in London; and a memoir about her mother, The Locust and the Bird. She was raised in Beirut, educated in Cairo, and lives in London.

From the Back Cover

In the seventeen short stories that comprise I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops, al-Shaykh limns in evocative prose the shifting and ambiguous power relationships that shape the landscape of the modern Arab world. Al-Shaykh's characters find themselves at the intersection of tradition and encroaching modernity, of East and West, of the innocence of childhood and the realities of adult life, of the everyday and the fantastical. In these stories, a woman feigns insanity to escape from an empty marriage, only to have her plans backfire; a young Danish missionary finds herself slowly and inexorably drawn into the world of the Yemeni village where she has been sent to work; a woman's lighthearted attempt to contact the world of the dead turns serious when she encounters the spirit of her late husband.

Reviews

Al-Shaykh has a subtle touch and a mischievous sense of humor.... If one or two of the endings are a touch melodramatic, it is because she cares more for fantastical detail than for resolutions. Her stories are like the silk her characters are so fond of.

In the first of these 17 finely honed stories, a stifled Lebanese wife feigns madness in order to get a divorce from her obtuse but, it turns out, surprisingly resilient and devoted husband. Asked her age, Fatin replies, "The age of madness." This combination of sangfroid and desperation, truly mad situations and sane protagonists, sets the tone for al-Shaykh's (Beirut Blues) fiction. Several stories, notably "The Marriage Fair," spin plots from the ostracism an unmarried woman may endure in the Arab world. In "The Land of Dreams," a female Danish missionary in a Yemeni village tries to find a third way past the impossible choice between a life in the church and a naive assimilation into the surrounding village, which takes an interest in her that has nothing to do with her religious work. The poignant "I Don't Want to Grow Up" concerns a young girl and her brother living in an oil-company compound whose conception of the world is shattered by their servant's clever pragmatism. Setting her tales in the Middle East, North Africa and London, al-Shaykh uses intellectual lightness to buoy even the most oppressive of situations: insanity, suicide, abandonment and immolation. These short narratives represent the faith of a dedicated rationalist whose favorite subject is the stubbornness of unreason in matters of the heart and hearth.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh offers a stunning collection of short stories detailing the complexities of contemporary Arab life. Tenuously poised between the cultures of the East and the West, between the safety of traditional values and the lure of modernity, Al-Shaykh's characters struggle to define themselves and their relationships in an increasingly confusing and often hostile environment. In the title story, a young woman painfully compromises her principles and her selfhood in an attempt to please an English youth. "A Season of Madness" features a bitterly unhappy housewife who concocts an ironically successful scheme to convince her husband she is insane. "The Marriage Fair" provides a bittersweet look at an age-old custom that attempts to bridge the gulf between the romance of courtship and the reality of lifelong commitment. Laced with pathos, insight, and gentle humor, the 17 stories that constitute this delectable collection provide the reader with a provocative glimpse into the multifaceted complexion of the modern Arab world. Margaret Flanagan

A Lebanese writer, al-Shaykh has demonstrated her prowess in three previous collections (e.g., Beirut Blues, LJ 9/1/95). This latest work, a delightful collection of 17 stories, confirms al-Shaykh's rank among leading Arab women writers such as Nawal al-Saadawi. Strong, intelligent, and sometimes sorrowful voices dominate these narratives, exemplifying a diversity of contemporary Arab women. Throughout her career, al-Shaykh has confronted censorship in Arab nations for her fiction's sexual explicitness, politically sensitive topics, and portrayal of women. This collection may likely produce similar reactions. However, it should also bring al-Shaykh additional praise and attention for her powerful prose and soulful depiction of the Arab woman's struggle with modern society vs. traditional ways. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Lib. System, Eugene
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Anchor
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385491271
• ISBN 13: 9780385491273
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288