Miral

May 30, 2011
Jebreal refracts the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of the experience of generations of Israeli and Palestinian women, focusing ultimately on Miral, a young Palestinian orphan who comes of age in the shadow of the intifada and gradually joins the resistance. Sneha Mathan's dignified delivery has a light, indistinctly Middle Eastern accent that lends the narration authenticity. She infuses emotion through emphasis and tonal shifts, but never crosses into the overdramatic. Despite an ever-shifting cast in the first half, she keeps vocal consistency of the characters and moves into other accents seamlessly. A Penguin paperback.

June 14, 2010
This novel of a Palestinian girl growing up amid the intifada is packed with historical facts, but never rises above mediocrity. Philanthropist Hind Husseini creates a children's shelter in 1948 in response to the destruction wrought by the first Arab-Israeli war. Decades later, Miral comes into Hind's care after her mother kills herself. As Miral witnesses the effects of the Israeli campaigns against the intifada, she draws closer to the political fringes, finally choosing to join the struggle in full. Yet the benevolent influence of Hind and an eye-opening friendship with an Israeli socialist subdues Miral's radicalism and offers some hope for the future. Jebreal is a successful journalist in Italy, and true to form the plot rips along with quick-reading prose, though the characters' simplicity presents a big problem, in that, despite the dire circumstances, it's hard to connect with archetypes. It's perfectly serviceable and offers a reliable refresher of the Palestinian struggle, but there are many more distinguished novels on the subject.

September 1, 2010

Many of us understand the motives of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but neglect the stories of the individuals involved. Here, Palestinian-born Jebreal, now a leading Italian journalist, shares the realities of these people--the objectified woman who fights for independence, the intellectual who takes up the pen instead of guns only to meet an untimely death, the young woman who chooses marriage over university. The novel opens with the story of Hind Husseini, who in 1948 finds 55 children abandoned after the first Arab-Israeli war and opens a school. One of her brightest students, Miral, finds herself at the center of the ongoing conflict and increasingly drawn to join the intifada. Jebreal's refusal to categorize her characters as angelic or evil is refreshing; she simply demonstrates that each acts according to circumstances. However, the narrative reads more like nonfiction than fiction; Jebreal seems to tell, not show, readers the emotions and desires of the people who drive her novel. VERDICT With a narrative style that recalls Chico Buarque's Budapest, this work will appeal to lovers of political fiction, particularly when focused on the Arabic world. The novel is soon to be a major motion picture directed by Julian Schnabel, which testifies to its relevance.--Ashanti White, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro

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