B as in Beirut (2008) is Younes’ first novel. Set in Beirut, Lebanon, during the civil war (1975-1990), it is predominantly about the latter years of the conflict.
Four
women in one building write their narrative about the conflict, their childhood
and the way life was before the war, their loves, their lives and the affects
of the conflict on their well-being. Each is narrated in the first person by
Lilian, Warda, Camilia, and Maha.
Lilian
always has her suitcases packed and ready to leave. As she is continually
waiting and wanting to be somewhere else, she is struck by Maha’s “unusual
ability to wait.” Her husband Talal cannot write after an accident leaves him
without a hand. She plans a new life for their two school-aged children in
Australia. But first Lilian has to go to the Australian consul in Cyprus.
Warda
loved her balcony of flowers and vines on the first floor – that was before it
became too dangerous – and she loved to take her dog for a walk – that was
before he disappeared. She loved her 8-year-old daughter too, who remained with
her husband in the Gulf, and then America. “I keep running: from Beirut, to the
Gulf, to America.” But on her return home to Beirut, she is trapped there. Warda
retreats to the darkness of her apartment, with curtains drawn, while she is
waiting, and waiting, for a visa to America. She is going crazy with waiting,
and with the loss of her daughter, and with her chronic seizures.
Camilia
has been living in London for six years, and wants to return home to Beirut to
make a film about the militiamen and those who continued living along the
frontlines of the war. She never did want to stay in her hometown in the south of
Lebanon – she yearned for Beirut, and then further afield. But now she wants to
settle back in Beirut, with her two relationships – a doctor 20 years older
than her, and a young militiaman. She liked visiting Muhammad’s apartment, “full
of colors and books.” And although her relationship with young Ranger
displeases people, she says it’s “necessary for the film … of course.”
Maha
has never left her apartment during the entire war, unlike everyone else. She
has watched her city change, and the lives of people change, along with their
hopes and dreams. When Camilia came to live with her, she was angered by her
relationship with Ranger: a most inappropriate situation. But Ranger started
visiting every day, and he ensured that Maha’s apartment had electricity. At the
most intense period of fighting, Ranger stayed. But as the war is about to end,
the building is shelled. For Maha, Camilia, and Ranger – as everyone else has
left the building – their world changes dramatically once more.
Each
woman tells her own story, but in doing so, the reader builds an image of each
woman from another woman’s point of view. The reader comes to know why their
dreams and hopes are important, and how the conflict affects their outcomes – over
the period of the fifteen-and-a-half year war: the waiting, the hoping, the
planning, the determination, the loss, the losses, and all the while the gradual
but constant restriction and isolation. But the novel also reveals the coping
mechanisms of each woman – and their breaking points.
Comments
Post a Comment