We Are All Equally Far From Love

November 14, 2011
Palestinian author Shibli’s poetic yet precise language and nimble characterizations partially make up for a sludge of undifferentiated melancholy in this series of interrelated vignettes set in her native land. In the course of her work, an increasingly isolated woman writes letters to a man she’s never met that go from professional to personal; “I wanted to offer him the essence of my existence,” she says. Intimate correspondence also informs “The First Measure,” the teenager Afaf, who leaves school to work in the post office for her father, reading, and sometimes altering people’s letters (changing “Palestine” to “Israel” among other edits). A married woman falls in love with the physiotherapist she visits for treatment and finds her new feelings overwhelming her conservative life. A woman’s devotion to physical fitness fails to ameliorate her increasing horror and disgust with the world around her. A shy man who has failed in his university studies and works in a supermarket looks longingly at a woman on a public bench and thinks of the few women he has known. Shibli (Touch) writes beautifully piece to piece, but fails to achieve much of a cumulative effect; readers will do better to dip in and out of this collection rather than consume it whole. Agent: The Susijn Agency Ltd.

January 1, 2012

In Shibli's well-received first novel, Touch, her impressionistic prose brings a sense of physical beauty to the drab surroundings of a young Palestinian girl. In her second novel, Shibli directs her talent at darker themes, and the occasional flashes of poetic imagery are the only sparks in scenes of otherwise oppressive ennui. This brief novella consists of six vignettes, linked by their despairing tone: a woman is stalked and threatened with rape by a former lover; trapped in a loveless marriage, another woman (or is it the same one? Shibli's minimalist style offers few clues) has romantic illusions about her physical therapist; a young woman wracked with the flu dwells on her hatred for her parents and siblings. Only one vignette clearly places the character in Palestine: a young woman works for her magistrate father in a post office, erasing the word Palestine from letters and replacing it with Israel. VERDICT Recommended for readers keeping up with modern Middle Eastern literature and this award-winning author.--Reba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Libs., Harrisonburg, VA

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