Improvisations on a Missing String - Softcover

Yared, Nazik Saba

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557284962 ISBN 13: 9781557284969

Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 1998

Synopsis

Nazik Saba Yared’s novel, Improvisations on a Missing String, tells the story of Saada Rayyis, who, after a mastectomy and prior to another operation which she may not survive, considers the course of her life with the purpose of understanding not only where she has been, but also where she is going.

In her attempt to cope with complex feelings of alienation and insecurity, she struggles against traditional expectations in order to secure a sense of belonging and fulfillment—but always on her own terms.

From her childhood in Palestine, through her university studies in Cairo, and finally as a teacher in Beirut, we follow the development of this independent woman as she comes to terms with her feelings about family, lovers, politics, art, and finally her own aspirations for belonging.

About this title

About the Author

NAZIK SABA YARED is a part-time professor at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. A native of Jerusalem, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Arabic literature from the American Univer sity of Beirut. She has published fifteen fiction and nonfiction books and received the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the French government.

STUART A. HANCOX, originally of London, England, is presently a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He received the University of Arkansas Press Award for translation of Arabic fiction in 1996. He has also received the Gary Wilson Award in Translation for 1995 and 1996.

Reviews

Meet Saada Rayyis. She is lying in a hospital bed, awaiting an operation and summing up her past. She ponders her strained relationship with her mother, wonders about her sister, and remembers old boyfriends. Mostly, she thinks about her identity: of being a Christian of Arabic blood who grew up in Palestine. Keenly aware that her Arabic heritage gives her strength, she becomes a teacher of Arabic literature and language. Like Yared herself, the author of 15 other books, Saada is a professor in Beirut, and much of this novel takes the form of her internal questions, severely dampening the narrative tension. In addition, there are few descriptions of cities, landscapes, or historical events, which makes this book a universal fable of being true to oneself but disappoints the reader looking for a more evocative depiction of life in the Middle East. Recommended only for large public library Arabic literature collections.?Yvette Weller Olson, City Univ. Lib., Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557284962
• ISBN 13: 9781557284969
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112