The first part of this book was a bit annoying: Here is our main character Yalo being interrogated, and he tells the interrogator what he is thinking. Then he tells us that he doesn't in fact tell the interrogator what he was thinking. Then he tells us "I said those things," and then says "I didn't actually say those things." This on-again off-again was starting to get on my nerves.Moreover, a big chunk of the book is sexual in all kinds of ways: Yalo is aroused by the lovers who park their cars next to the building he guards, and his voyeurism of their love-making stimulates all kinds of possibilities for theft, assault, and rape. We know from the get-go that the character is a rapist, but the book would continue to get on my nerves as it includes certain justifiable and excusable rape-scenes. I realized that it's all part of getting into the character's psyche and understanding his mental state of mind, but the inconsistency of narrating what's going on, together with the over-abundance of sexuality and the *GASP! Are you trying to justify rape!!* questioning were preparing me to dismiss this book...But I kept reading. And I'm glad I kept on reading, because as Yalo tries to unravel his own doings, find his voice and search for "what really happened," "what kind of person does this make him" and "where is he coming from", Elias Khoury, despite some inconsistency, still proves to be a great story-teller. The writer, together with the alter-egos, multiple personalities and psychosis of Yalo, journeys into the harshness of life in the aftermath of Lebanon's civil war. Deep themes are present in this book, including the inevitability of betrayal and deceit. There are also some religion and traditional inflicted themes that have to do with the perception of sin, obedience, women, and sexuality. Also, the characters go through their personal losses in their difficult battles with reality in symbolic ways. For instance, Yalo's mother is obsessively fearful that she can't see herself in the mirror anymore; his grandfather loses his sense of taste, and the girl he loves, Sherin, would have a broken voice.قالت انكسر صوتي هنيك بالبلونة، منشان هيك ما بقدر حبك مزبوط، فلم يفهم معنى هذا الكلام. تخيّل آنية فخّارية تسقط على الأرض وتنكسر. لكنه لم يفهم أنه حين صوت المرأة ينكسر، فهذا يعني أن قلبها أصيب ببحّة عميقة لا دواء لها. والقلب المبحوح لا يتسطيع أن يحبYalo not only becomes obsessive with the telling of his story, but also that of his surroundings, including his mother, a woman whose crime was that she loved a man who didn't deserve her; his grandfather the "Siryoyo" priest who could not erase sin from earth and battled with his sense of identity; as well as Sherin, the girl he believed he loved, who was surrounded with cowardly men. Yalo keeps re-narrating the story, always giving it a different edge, a different side, some sort of hope for a better ending, but the inevitability of the consequences, and the lack of choice in the matter start to get more difficult as the pages turn; and the last pages start to feel heavier and heavier, which is exactly what good books of literature are made of.---------Short summary from Guernica web magazine through Amazon: Yalo is a former sectarian soldier arrested for theft, assault, and rape in the aftermath of Lebanon's brutal civil war. As torturers attack his body and mind to elicit a confession, he creates a series of new narratives, a stream of explanations that simultaneously reinforce and undermine each other by their very number. He justifies, he apologizes, he admits, he denies, and the picture we have of the events recounted becomes more and more distorted and fractured. Yet all this disorientation serves a purpose: the Guardian quotes Khoury as saying that when he started writing, he didn't know what "postmodern" was. "I was trying to express the fragmentation of society," Khoury said. "Beirut's past is not of stability, but of violent change. Everything is open, uncertain. In my fiction, you're not sure if things really happened, only that they're narrated. What's important is the story, not the history."
ثلاثة أرباع هذهِ الرواية جنسيّةتثير الشهوة بشكل أو بآخر، -طبعاً أكيد إشي بيخزي الواحد يكون بيبحث عن المعرفة أو شيء جديد في رواية ويخيب أمله وظنّه ويجد الرواية جنسية-يعني شخص مريض نفسيّاً، عانى ما عاناه، لاقى ما لاقاه، ماذا سيصدر عنه سوى تصرفات مريضة؟والحق يقال: هذه الرواية فيها مجهود كبير من الأستاذ إلياس خوري، مجهود اللغة المتماسكة القويّة، والتوصيفات والإستعارات المعبّرة، فيها من بساطة اللغة الكثير، بعض الكلمات في الرواية تجعلنا نتوقّف لحظة عندها، ونفكّروالحق يقال أيضاً، هناك الكثير مما قيل عن الحبّ في هذهِ الرواية ما يصِف واقعنا، ويصف حالتنا النفسيّةلا أنصح بقراءة هذه الرواية
Do You like book Yalo (2008)?
The other members of my book club found this a difficult book to get through, but I don't really agree with that. Whilst the subject matter may not be comfortable for many people, rape and torture amongst other things, these are not described in any graphic detail, but rather are mentioned in the story and the rest is left to your imagination. The story is non-linear and hops back and forth in time, this can be somewhat confusing, but I think it works well to reinforce the sense that Yalo's mind
—Cat
I was angry and disappointed with this book.Disappointed because (naively) I believed what I read and thought I was going to read a book about the Lebanese civil war.Angry because it is post-modernist. I regard post-modernism as a virus or a cancer that is corrupting and corrosive.The narrator has a problem with words. He has a problem with blank sheets of paper. He has a problem with different versions of reality.So stop writing novels, why don't you? Learn an honest trade. Like plumber. Or electrician.
—Andrew
هيدا الكتاب صعب. أول ما بلشت فيه طبعاً حسيت بالفرق بينه وبين "باب الشمس". الكتابين بينحكوا من وجهة نظر الشخصية الأساسية بس الأولى بتحكي قصة شعب من عينين شخص والتانية بتحكي قصة شخص من عينيه. المهم بالأول ما حسيت هيدي الرواية بمستوى اللي بتذكره من "باب الشمس"، وبمرحلة معينة استفزني التبرير الشخصاني لظاهرة الإغتصاب مثلاً (متل ما كان عم يستفزني بعدد من الكتب اللي قريتها مؤ خراً، Memoires of My Melancholy Whores، Love in the Time of Cholera) بس هيدا حديث طويل ما بيقتصر على الياس خوري ولا رواية يالو بشكل خاص.بس شوي شوي فتت بجو الكتاب وبلشت انقهر مع يالو وحس ببهدلته. وهيدا اللي حلو بأسلوب الياس خوري، هيدي مش رواية سهلة، هيي من الروايات اللي بتحطمك مع ابطالها، بتتعاطف معه وبتحس بعجزه وبتنذل معه وبتتف على الدنية عنه. مش رح قول اكتر من هيك بس الكتاب فعلاً ما بيرحم ومش رح يبسطك. ومن الإشيا اللي يمكن لازم ينتبهلا الواحد قبل ما يجيب هالكتاب إنو وصف التعذيب كتير صوري، ما في وصف تصويري للإغتصاب، في وصف جنسي بس مش الإغتصاب. بس صور التعذيب كتير قاسية.
—Rebecca
