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Book Review: The Hakawati

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  • Book Review: The Hakawati

    Library Journal Reviews
    March 1, 2008


    The Hakawati

    by Andrea Kempf
    REVIEWS; Fiction; Pg. 73


    Alameddine, Rabih. The Hakawati. Knopf. Apr. 2008. c.544p. ISBN
    978-0-307-26679-8 . $25.95. F

    Alameddine (Koolaids; The Perv ) assumes the role of a hakawati , a
    Middle Eastern storyteller, in a tour de force that interweaves at
    least five separate narratives into an exquisite tapestry in the
    denouement. He spins the story of Osama al-Kharrat, a Lebanese
    American returning to Beirut to sit at his dying father's bedside;
    the al-Kharrat family's rise to prominence, from its beginnings in a
    Lebanese Druze village and a Turkish Armenian village; the Mameluk
    warrior Baybars, known for his victory over the Mongols; the mythic
    Fatima, who became the consort of the jinni Afrit-Jehanam; and, above
    all, the disintegration of a tolerant, civilized Lebanon into a
    battleground for competing religions, ethnicities, and ideologies.
    Each narrative is further enhanced by smaller stories about raising
    pigeons and playing traditional melodies as well as tales drawn from
    the Koran, the Bible, The Arabian Nights , Ovid, Shakespeare, and
    every person who ever spoke to the author. This magical novel is epic
    in proportion and will enchant readers everywhere. Recommended for
    all libraries.-Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib.,
    Overland Park, KS
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