American drandaughter

The American Granddaughter Reviewed by Dr. Raymond Shekoury I obtained “ The American Granddaughter ” from Amazon It is the English translation of “ ‫” ﺍاﻟـﺣـﻔـﻳﯾـﺩدﺓة ﺍاﻷﻣﺭرﻳﯾﻛـﻳﯾـﺔ‬, written by Inaam Kachachi. published in 2008 by Dar al-Jadid. The translation into English was carried by Nariman Yousif and published by Bloomsbury Publishing foundation in 2010 I enjoyed reading the English translation of “The American Granddaughter ”. It seized my interest so much that I could not put it down until the end. Though the translation seems to be good enough, I am sure I would have enjoyed it much more if I had the opportunity of reading it in its original Arabic.

Inaam Kachachi is an Iraqi author, currently living in Paris. Therefore, it is natural, that when writing about her mother country, you feel that words are flowing down from the very depth of her heart, and not from her keyboard The Arabic version of “ The American Granddaughter ” was submitted for the 2009 International Prize for Arabic fiction. It did not win the prize, but reached the six-short-list of among more than 250 works. Since I had not read the other woks, I cannot make a comparative objective judgement, but the mere fact that Kachachi`s novel ascended to that prestigious position, I can confidently assert that it must be a valuable piece of literature The plot of the novel runs like this :.

Zeina, is the protagonist of “ The American Granddaughter ”. Her father, when she was about twelve years old, was arrested and tortured by Saddam`s police.

After his release he fled to Jordan. Then he immigrated with his family to America In 2003, when George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Zeina is a young woman. The invading army needs to recruit Arabic speaking American citizens as interpreters who would be paid with lucrative salaries. Zeina happens to be in bad need of money mainly, to treat her mother and her drug addicted brother. Therefore, it is tempting for her to seek one of those positions. Zeina being well-versed in Arabic, was among the selected for the jobs.

Hence, She returned to her original homeland as a veteran translator serving the occupying US army. Zeina, was happily presuming that she would be serving both of her two countries; the adopted country liberating the old one from the tyranny of Saddam. But things did not turn as anticipated.

She arrived in the country of her birth at that period of time when the trampled people of Iraq, realized that the invading Americans were not liberators,as claimed, but occupiers.. This was an unexpected surprise to her that conveyed shocking waves through her spine. Even more shocking was the attitude of her

own Iraqi-rooted grandmother, full with patriotic zeal, who vigorously resented her granddaughter`s position serving the occupiers, and wearing the disgustful army uniform.

It is always expected in any novel that the main protagonist falls in love. Well, Zeina did. Unfortunately, her fall was different. It was an agonizing one-sided illicit unresolvable love with a member of Jaish Al-Mahdi ( i.e., Mahdi`s army ), who explicitly resisted all her seductions because she was his “ milk-sister ”.

The accumulated effects of the animosity of the majority of the Iraqi people towards the occupation, the steady bombardment of scoldings by the grandmother, and the failed love, shattered Zeina`s dreams and demoralized her.

Consequently, she learned, in a hard way, the lesson of the incompatibility of being allegiant to both,of her two countries, of being a dog of two homes,unable to feel at home in either.

Eventually she left her lovely native land, which she aspired to serve, a shattered and torn country; and returned to America describing herself in her words as a broken mirror, a broken-hearted, devastated torn and drained woman. .

Listening to the chatting of people in a cafe might produce a more intricate or complex plot.

But the superiority of literary a work is not measured by the complexity of its plot, but by its abilities in portraying the personalities of its main characters, in producing in the reader some emotions, or in refreshing forgotten memories, Let us put generalities aside. Kachachi erected upon that plot as scaffolding a beautiful edifice, and elegantly maneuvered through its different floors. She wrote a sentimental novel that holds you breathless until you finish. She excelled throughout The American Granddaughter in describing the ugliness and the brutalities of Bush`s War, and in portraying personalities of the characters of her novel. Moreover, Kachachi vividly described localities in a poetic prose, that made me longing to go back to my mother country. She chronicled events in a colorful dramatic phrases, some of which made me laugh from the depth from my heart, such as “ A nun who did not smell of the sweat of a man.”, and others that made me cry from the depth of my heart too.“ The prayers of Zein`s grandmother ignited memories of my own grandmother praying to the very same saints.

At first I thought that the novel`s title was ill-chosen. However, upon second thought I realized that the “ grandmother ”, though refers to a real person, of blood and flesh, carries with it another connotation as a symbol for the proud country, which was the cradle of civilization, the land of the thousand and one night, its famous two rivers, its homogenized multiracial society, its traditions, its culture, and its palm trees, etc.

With such symbolization, the novel's title would become more meaningful as the rebounding echoes of the rebukes and curses of the “grandmother” to the prodigal American granddaughter.

The death of the grandmother stands for the demise of Iraq as a country tornapart by the devastating American occupation.

The author of “ The American Granddaughter ” had created Zeina in her own image.(that is Kachachi`s image) Zeina,then starts to wrestle with her creator; throughout the novel putting statements such as : “ I ignore the writer who is intruding on my space on my computer ”. Nevertheless,; Kachachi, on the other hand, by projecting herself on Zeina. was able to express in a smooth manner, through the lips of her protagonist, some aspects of her own biography; for example, her high school, her mastery of poetry her familiarity with movies and songs. She is to be envied for her capabilities