Imagine that while reading your newspaper, a stranger comes and grabs it. That would surely cause an outburst in your whole system, and I bet even if you are the most polite person in the world, your tone would reflect the rush of unpremeditated feeling.
Now think about this fact, more than 700,000 Palestinians were thrown out of their houses - their homeland.
With already three books under her belt, a Viareggio-Versilia Prize (2004) for her book Sharon and My Mother-In-Law and the Nonino Prize (2014) for her work of promoting peace; Suad Amiry has walked me in the time when the unimaginable happened in Palestine, a definite social, political and moral kiss of death.
I need not be under the shadow of the Palestinian conflict to feel the oppression.
Huda, a significant character in the story, made me feel as if I live in the book, within its pages. I see myself in her - blunt, persistent and always on the go amidst challenges and uncertainties. She had the courage to go back to her house again and again, even if she is not permitted to do so, even if it endangers her own life. She dared to face her enemies: the ones who are enjoying her once so called home; the shameless people who claimed ownership but had not shed a sweat to build it.
I would have done the same or even more, which I won’t enumerate here to avoid being scolded by the editor.
The story made me miss my homeland. It took me to familiar places and as if watching a movie, random scenes and faces flashed in my mind.
If not for the 30 kilograms limit in airline luggage and the skyrocketing price I have to pay for per kilo of excess baggage, then I would have packed my whole hometown in my suitcase.
In reality the only privileged species to carry their homes along with them are turtles and the likes, but it is sad to think of people wishing they were turtles, to be able to carry their home away.
In the Palestinian situation described in the book ‘Golda Slept Here’ - lips were sealed; hands were tied even without chains; hopes for justice are dim. If the emotions depicted in each page were paints of different hues then this book would have been a gallery of art - be warned as this book is a probable mood swing trigger.
Suad’s punch lines drop like a bomb. It rewards with moments of sensitive prose and sharp-witted humour: “I tell you, Huda, with the service-free arnona they impose on us and the many fines and penalties we East Jerusalem Arabs pay them [Israel], we’ve become the casino where they always win… or even better, the cash cow that they continue to milk.”
Suad Amiry’s literary opus is a mirror of the past from which it bridges us to the present and makes us hope for a future.
It’s not often enough we are given a reachable and widespread look into the lives of people that seem a world away but want exactly what we all want - people and places that we can call home.
Book: Golda Slept Here
Author: Suad Amiry/ Translated by Aiman Haddad
The writer is a Gulf News reader reviewer based in Dubai and working in the hospitality industry.
