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Helia R. (Goodlettsville, TN)
hooked from beginning to end
Thank you to this book and its brilliant author for transporting me out of my boring, pandemic seclusion. I didn't expect to get so caught up in an American poet's quest to find answers to old family mysteries and issues of identity and belonging in a tale set in 1995s Jordan, but I was hooked from beginning to end. If, as Rebecca Solnit wrote, (quoting loosely) the point of reading is to transcend your gender/ race/ class/ nationality/ moment in history/ age/ ability/ to experience being the other, Abu-Jaber has done her job beautifully.
The writing is skilled, intimate, and evocative, and book clubs will enjoy
…more discussing the power of family ties, religion, materialistic versus transcendent goals, and more...Immensely Powerful. (less)This is such an entertaining book! I enjoyed it from the first page. It has a great mix of historical fiction with details from the distant past combined with current events and political intrigue. Our lives do not start with us, the past, sometimes the ancient past, influence and even control our fortunes. The international events connect the Kingdom of Jordan with the United States and lightly explores living as a bridge between two very different cultures. The book focuses on changing female roles in Jordan, and the difference for Americans, but does not preach or argue one position. The setting in Jordan
…more enhances the ability to learn a bit about Jordanian society and levels of society. I have always been intrigued by ancient cultures and their current influences. This is a totally enjoyable novel. (less)I thoroughly enjoyed Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber, and it had me captivated from the start. This lovely book contains genuine characters and vivid descriptions of the country Jordan while unfolding Amani's search for answers about her family's past history and heritage in Jordan, provoked by a poem written by her grandmother years ago. The prose flows easily as the story incorporates family dynamics and relationships, mystery and intrigue, and politics. The book wove Amani's family history with Jordanian history and the plight of immigrants. I believe this book will have wide appeal to readers and
…more would be great for book clubs. (less)Fencing With the King is an absorbing fictional saga inspired by members of award-winning author, Diana Abu-Jaber's, paternal roots. Her father descends from upper-class Jordanians, and the society and culture of late 20th century Jordon inspire the characters and structure of the story. A professor of English at Portland State in Oregon, Abu-Jaber's weaves of tale of high-stakes family intrigue as seen through the eyes of Amani, a young, attractive Jordanian-American on her first trip to her father's homeland. In the company of her father. This would be a great pick for book clubs whose members enjoy easily
…more digested armchair travel to this intricately beautiful part of the world. (less)
Beverly J. (Hoover, AL)
Emotionally Rich Drama
A touching story with wide appeal and a sharp example of a family's past haunting the present.
It is 1995 and Jordanian- American Amani Hamdan has convinced her father to return to his native Jordan to fence, a sport she did not even know he ever played, with the Jordanian king as part of this 60th birthday celebration. Amani has recently found a blue letter written by her paternal grandmother, Natalia, and is determined to learn about Natalia and her history. As Amani peels back the layers of her complex and complicated relationships within her family, the secrets reveal a history of trauma and hidden objectives.
…more
Abu-Jaber writes with style, keenness, and fervor as she artfully blends in cultural and historical details of the past to help readers understand Palestine and Transjordan areas in Middle East history.
There is plenty of adventure, sexual tension, and poignancy. But at times the pacing felt uneven and the end felt a little rushed and I needed more closure.
I recommend this book to readers who enjoy family drama stories with a historical bent and elegant prose. (less)This deliberately paced, sensuously written novel is the story of a lost woman regaining her self. It's the story of a poet finding her voice. And it's the story of a "true Jordanian" family, in the sense that this family represents many facets of Jordan, those on display as well as those buried in the past. The book starts slowly, unfolding to reveal a twist worth the wait. Jordan, circa 1995, is depicted with such love. We feel that love through Abu-Jabar's ability to immerse us in its culture and landscapes. I recommend this novel to anyone who likes their historical fiction infused with poetry, family
…more dynamics, political machinations, romance, and the grace, intrigue, and sport of fencing. (less)Fencing with the King is a marvelous book, taking the reader back to a time that is close enough for us to remember, but totally unknown from a non-American viewpoint. The atmosphere of 1970s Lebanon is one of the highlights of the book, and strange yet familiar to me. As an Armenian, I am very familiar with the immigrant/refugee experience in the US but to see that it also happened in the Levant (as it was called pre-WWI) was new to me. A distraught mother, hiding a heart-breaking secret, an American-Lebanese granddaughter trying to understand the family dynamics, and a cast of believable, loveable characters
…more make this truly a new and different book. After I started this book, I made a note to find the author's other books to see what they have to show me. (less)Amani is a Jordanian-American woman who feels the pull to visit the country of her ancestors. When her father, Gabe, is invited to return to Jordan to fence with the king at his 60th birthday celebration, his daughter decides to tag along. She is recently divorced, a prize-winning poet who hasn't written in years, and a college professor without much drive to teach. She has also just found, in one of her father's books, a piece of her grandmother's writing which is clearly the work of a sharp and insightful, if disturbed, mind. Amani never met her grandmother, who is long dead, and this writing whets her
…more curiosity about her, the country she fled, and the Jordan which cradled her and where she bore her sons.
There is also the curious case of Musa, Gabe's cousin who may or may not still be alive somewhere in Jordan or the surrounding desert. Thought by many in the family to be long dead, Amani has an inkling this might not be the case and that there may be considerably more to his story. What she knows of him is that he was a gentle, intellectually limited man with a unique perspective on the world. She sets out to find him, if she can, in the brief time she and her father have determined to be in the country.
Gabe was invited to Jordan at the behest of his older brother, Hafez. Gabe is the youngest and their middle brother, Faroqu, is a wealthy merchant and their host at his lavish estate. Faroqu's son, Omar, becomes Amani's co-conspirator, guide, and interpreter.
At the beginning, this novel is a bit confusing; a family tree would have been helpful to keep everyone straight, though it only takes 30 or 40 pages for the relationships to become clear. I was also a bit uncertain about what Amani's motives might be in coming to Jordan and feared early on that this vagueness would permeate the book. I need not have worried. Diana Abu-Jaber, it turns out, is a masterful guide and her characters' uncertainty is deliberate and in service of an emotionally complex, carefully constructed story of one woman's movement toward reconciliation with herself as a woman and writer. She understands the stakes, acknowledging that "she'd begun to lose faith. It seemed as if it wasn't worth so much to write fearlessly if you didn't know what to fear. In fact, she'd started to think maybe it was more courageous just to be afraid."
While on her personal journey, Amani simultaneously works to resolve her family's mysteries and the clotted, intertwined relationships they have inhabited as they grew into middle age and beyond. But the journey will not be easy. As Gabe reflects early on, "the longer you're away, the bigger and more elusive the past becomes; a beautiful monster." The final 100 pages or so are particularly moving and perceptive.
One curious aspect of Fencing with the King is a strain of elitism displayed by the characters and, it seems, the author. These privileged people think nothing of obtruding into the lives of their servants and others who might be considered lower class. At one point, Amani and her cousin rummage through the possessions of a servant, seemingly without any compunction. I might have written this off as a cultural anomaly, but they are clearly worried about being caught doing something wrong, while at the same time they have no concern about the violation they are committing, nor does the author comment on it, leading me to believe that, while it might be thought of as naughty, this intrusion is acceptable on some level. This is only the most egregious example of the assertion of privilege on the part of the comparatively wealthy in this story. Until quite late in the book, servants are dismissed as less than fully human and those who don't live Westernized lives are casually marginalized.
Despite this blind spot, I ended up thinking this quite an excellent, insightful, finely-crafted work of self-discovery and growth. I look forward to reading more of this author's work in the future. (less)
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