Beirut Nightmares - Ghada Samman

"When one's own homeland has 'emigrated,' leaving behind the values of humanity and social justice, how can any of its citizens be 'stable'?"




Set during the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Beirut Nightmares is presented as a journal of a woman caught literally in the middle of the war.  Trapped in her apartment building where the war front has come and stalled, no one can escape; snipers are always seemingly present somewhere in the nearby buildings, waiting to shoot anyone who dares to appear outside.  Exactly whose side anyone is on is never clear; whether the author is Christian, Muslim, or something else in also kept hidden. 


The chapters are each presented as a separate nightmare, but are held together by the overall narrative.  While some of the chapters seem extremely real, others are not so obvious as to whether they are real or in the narrator's head.  Early on, she manages to sneak out at night to an adjacent pet shop that has been apparently abandoned but still full of animals in their cages.  She tries to help them by providing food and later escape, but finds that freedom is not so simple for the animals, just as it is not so beneficial for those trapped. 


Later on, the mannequins in stores along the street come to life; at first they are able to enjoy the restaurants along the avenue that have been abandoned by people, but soon they become victims of war just like everyone else.


A harrowing book, the best sections dealt with the narrator and her neighbors in the apartment below her as they slowly descend into panic and chaos.  Choices have to be made, but no one is there to help decide what is the best choice, or if there is a best choice, or if there is any choice.

The Bird Artist - Howard Norman

"I've never been all night anywhere but my own house," I said.

"Now you have."

"I'm going to have to explain it."

"Not to me."

"My mother, I meant.  My father."

"If we walk right up to your house hand in hand, stand right in the kitchen and ask for breakfast together, I bet they'll get the hint."



The bird artist is Fabian Vas, a young man living in Witless Bay, in the far reaches of Newfoundland in the early 20th century.  Fabian has been drawing since he was a young boy and is taking lessons, by correspondence, with a rather critical teacher who is sparse with compliments but who does seem to suggest that Fabian does have talent.  The village of Witless Bay is populated with the odd sorts you might expect in a remote village (think Northern Exposure, which was out at about the time this book was published) by the sea.  Fabian lives with his parents, who seem to mostly endure their marriage rather than enjoy it. Fabian has a puzzling relationship with Margaret Handle, who is a bit older than Fabian, drinks a lot, and is the dominant half of their relationship.  Fabian's passivity is, in fact, the distinguishing feature of his life. 


It seems the unchanging inflexibility of life in Witless Bay is a motivator, primarily for the women in this book, to seek, or inspire, change in the men in their lives.  Both Margaret and Fabian's mother, Alaric (his father is Orkney; odd names are a staple of life here), end up sleeping with the menacing lighthouse keeper Botho August.  Their motivations for doing so are intertwined;  Alaric is dissatisfied with her married life and Margaret is dissatisfied with Fabian, who has, essentially by providing no resistance, agreed with a marriage to his cousin (who he has never met) set up by his parents.  Alaric is not fond of Margaret.


The result of all this is a murder, the breakup of a family,  the beginning of an outlaw legend, and the growing up of Fabian.  And the making of an artist.  This is a decidedly peculiar book;  I have reread it several times, just for sheer enjoyment.  Margaret is an odd, at time frustrating, but always interesting character, as is Orkney, who seems to find himself in a most unconventional way.


Howard Norman has written 2 other books that I have read, The Museum Guard and The Haunting of L. Both take place in early 20th century Canada and include similar themes to The Bird Artist.  While I was less taken with them, they are both excellent.

The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem

“What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?”

Dylan Ebdus grows up in 1970's Brooklyn, one of the only white children in his run down neighborhood.  His father is a reclusive avant-garde artist, working on an film project that will never be completed; his mother Rachel runs off with another man early on in the book.  Inasmuch as that is completely at odds with the way I grew up, I related to Dylan like few other fictional characters I have been acquainted with. 




Lethem throws a ton of pop culture from the 70's and 80's at you over the course of this sprawling book.  Dylan acquires a love of comic books from the man Rachel ends up with.  Besides providing the title of the book, this also leads Dylan to Mingus Rude, the son of a faded, drugged soul singer, who becomes Dylan's best friend growing up.  Though, in a book that is exceptionally keen to the unspoken rules of race relations, there are always qualifiers on their friendship.  Even after Dylan grows out of his dorky white kid early years, he still will be an outsider in his own neighborhood.


There's so much going on in this book - Rachel, though she is gone, remains a presence in Dylan's life for many years through the postcards she sends, always encouraging Dylan.  His father, who, despite living with Dylan and being his sole means of support, is almost a non-existent part of his life, holed up in his room working on his project.  In order to support his son, he eventually accepts some work designing covers of science fiction novels and despite himself, becomes celebrated in that community.  Dylan and Mingus traverse their separate paths through adolescence and their teen years, sometimes together, sometimes apart.  There's always music to bring them together, along with the comic books and tagging.  Dylan also comes into possession of a magic ring.  In a nod to experiencing the other's life, he ring makes Dylan invisible, while it allows Mingus to fly and reach unreachable heights.  Each has their own path to follow, emblematic of the differences in opportunities available to each because of their skin.  Dylan, through the help of a teacher, ends up getting admitted to Stuyvesant High, a academically rigorous high school, and eventually Camden College (the fictional college of a bunch of novels, and which seems to shift novel to novel between Vermont and New Hampshire, and sometimes goes by Hampden, depending on the writer).  Dylan develops a drug habit (its the 80's, so cocaine is the choice), while Mingus remains back in the old neighborhood, and is a dealer for the same. 


As with real life, its the dealer, not the user, who gets in trouble with the law (or is it the black, not the white?), and Dylan carries out a wild attempt to free Mingus from prison that does not go exactly as planned, and mainly reinforces the guilt Dylan feels.


This is a story where I was fascinated with the details, populated with people who care about the same things I did and still do.  While fully integrating into one giant melting pot seems at times impossible, we are much better people for making the attempt to try and break down walls and mix with one another.