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perfectplaces's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
“—No, brother. They deceived you. My sea is your sea, and your sea is my sea. We came from the same sea and are heading to the same sea. The sea is the sea.”
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well this was depressing and kind of a fever dream in that it has a very timeless and placeless feeling to it. piecing together what’s happening and where it’s happening between the dialogue and prose and brief moments of poetic back-and-forths and moments where darwish just pastes extended references to historical works(??).
but i enjoyed it and darwish is pretty much one of my favorite poets at this point - i love how he represents identity and homeland, and the running themes in memory for forgetfulness of identity and homeland (as always) but also the importance of the poet as well as anger and patriotism and war and trauma both first-hand and generational and the claustrophobic feeling of turning war into a kind of routine. and in its best moments this book is truly claustrophobic in the best way possible.
the best parts in this were the discussion of kamal and the dove and the sea, as well as the moments where darwish goes on a spiral discussing the symbolic meaning of beirut (which was strangely evocative to me, though i’m not lebanese, but that’s probably a point to think about some other time). this is strange and meandering and depressing but i found it a very worthwhile read though nothing gripped me the way the best poems in journal for an ordinary grief did.
(could do without the misogyny *tiktok audio voice* but i accept that as part of reading books written by 20th century arab men which is something you’ll find you have to do frequently)
-
well this was depressing and kind of a fever dream in that it has a very timeless and placeless feeling to it. piecing together what’s happening and where it’s happening between the dialogue and prose and brief moments of poetic back-and-forths and moments where darwish just pastes extended references to historical works(??).
but i enjoyed it and darwish is pretty much one of my favorite poets at this point - i love how he represents identity and homeland, and the running themes in memory for forgetfulness of identity and homeland (as always) but also the importance of the poet as well as anger and patriotism and war and trauma both first-hand and generational and the claustrophobic feeling of turning war into a kind of routine. and in its best moments this book is truly claustrophobic in the best way possible.
the best parts in this were the discussion of kamal and the dove and the sea, as well as the moments where darwish goes on a spiral discussing the symbolic meaning of beirut (which was strangely evocative to me, though i’m not lebanese, but that’s probably a point to think about some other time). this is strange and meandering and depressing but i found it a very worthwhile read though nothing gripped me the way the best poems in journal for an ordinary grief did.
(could do without the misogyny *tiktok audio voice* but i accept that as part of reading books written by 20th century arab men which is something you’ll find you have to do frequently)
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny
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