Library Journal Reviews
March 1, 2008
The Hakawati
by Andrea Kempf
REVIEWS; Fiction; Pg. 73
Alameddine, Rabih. The Hakawati. Knopf. Apr. 2008. c.544p. ISBN
978-0-307-26679-8 . $25.95. F
Alameddine (Koolaids; The Perv ) assumes the role of a hakawati , a
Middle Eastern storyteller, in a tour de force that interweaves at
least five separate narratives into an exquisite tapestry in the
denouement. He spins the story of Osama al-Kharrat, a Lebanese
American returning to Beirut to sit at his dying father’s bedside;
the al-Kharrat family’s rise to prominence, from its beginnings in a
Lebanese Druze village and a Turkish Armenian village; the Mameluk
warrior Baybars, known for his victory over the Mongols; the mythic
Fatima, who became the consort of the jinni Afrit-Jehanam; and, above
all, the disintegration of a tolerant, civilized Lebanon into a
battleground for competing religions, ethnicities, and ideologies.
Each narrative is further enhanced by smaller stories about raising
pigeons and playing traditional melodies as well as tales drawn from
the Koran, the Bible, The Arabian Nights , Ovid, Shakespeare, and
every person who ever spoke to the author. This magical novel is epic
in proportion and will enchant readers everywhere. Recommended for
all libraries.-Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib.,
Overland Park, KS