Product Description

Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that architect Suad Amiry kept from 1981 to 2004, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law evokes the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Amiry writes elegance and humor about the enormous difficulty of moving from one place to another, the torture of falling in love with someone from another town, the absurdity of her dog receiving a Jerusalem identity card when thousands of Palestinians could not, and the trials of having her ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law living in her house during a forty-two-day curfew. With a wickedly sharp ear for dialogue and a keen eye for detail, Amiry gives us an original, ironic, and firsthand glimpse into the absurdity — and agony — of life in the Occupied Territories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #512880 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-19
• Released on: 2006-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Amiry's parents were among the thousands of Palestinians who fled from their homes in 1948; they went to Amman, Jordan, where the author was brought up before attending the American University in Beirut to study architecture. She returned to Ramallah as a tourist in 1981, but then she met Salim Tamari, fell in love, married him and returned to the city, now heavily occupied by Israeli troops. This book is an attempt to illustrate the life of a middle-class, Westernized woman in an occupied territory: the daily anxieties and struggles with curfews, roadblocks, barricades, body searches, gunfire, endless red tape, discourtesy and general harassment;not to mention the less than peaceful presence of a mother-in-law taken in for safety's sake. The account, often surprisingly good-humored (as when Amiry realizes her dog has a Jerusalem passport though she does not), is vivid but somewhat sketchily based on diaries and e-mails; it gains in immediacy and relevance to current newspaper accounts what it may lack in comprehensiveness. The book was awarded Italy's Viareggio Virsilia Prize, and while the writing is unremarkable, the work serves as an important report from the front. (Oct. 18)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* "It was a Palestinian version of The Bold and the Beautiful." Drawing on her personal diary entries and e-mails, Amiry, an architect living in the West Bank town of Ramallah, captures the farce and sorrow of daily life under Israeli occupation over the last 20 years. Some readers may remember her furious appearance on 60 Minutes in 2003 ("No, this stupid wall has nothing to do with Israel's security. . . .This is the biggest land and water grab in the history of Israel"). But her book is no political tirade. She is laugh-out-loud funny about the soap-opera aspects of daily life in Ramallah. Even as she copes with her teen neighbor and collaborator, she has fun with the kitsch electric Mecca gift he gives her: Is it bugged? Is she paranoid? Then there is her mother-in-law, 91, who moves in after losing all electricity and water in her neighborhood ("Shall I pack my purple dress?" she wonders). The irreverence brings home the bureaucratic absurdity of checkpoints, curfews, barriers, and IDs ("Palestinians from Jerusalem who are Israeli residents but not Israeli citizens with Israeli travel documents"). But the suffering is always there: the reality of displacement, neighborhoods destroyed, interminable lines, shootings, separation, and loss. A prizewinner in Italy, this will reach a wide audience. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"* 'A refreshingly funny account of the absurdities of everyday life in occupied territories' Stephanie Merritt, Observer * 'Amiry's acute ear for gossip makes it almost a kind of Palestinian Desperate Housewives' Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times * 'Spirited, thought-provoking and shockingly entertaining' Hephzibah Anderson, Daily Mail Critic's Choice * 'Not only is it really funny but it also shows the kind of courage, vision and humanity needed to bring peace to the Middle East' Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues"

Customer Reviews

A stunning book
In this wonderfully witty narrative, Amiry reveals herself to be a gifted storyteller. I alternated between laughing and crying as I read the vignettes surrounding her daily life in Ramallah. These range from suffering under curfew alone with her mother-in-law, to rattling Israeli soldiers with a disarming stare, to attending a fundraiser featuring campy Palestinian items in order to bail out a friend who had been thrown in jail on false charges. Amiry brings to life the day-to-day human experience of living under occupation. In doing so, she makes a significant contribution to both literature and to our understanding of the Palestinian condition.

A Must Read
It is amazing when one can read a book and feel as if one is living it. I almost wanted to be imprisoned in my house for 14 consecutive days to know how it feels to be living under curfew and military occupation. Just didn't want the mother in law to be part of this deal!

The book very casually shows that Palestinians will never go away. They are here to stay no matter how many walls, checkpoints, raids, and dehumanizing Palestinians suffer under the Israeli military occupation and the world's deaf ear and blind eyes.

So grow up Sharon, get a life, and make real peace.

fantastic book.
I wish I could give this book to everyone who denies the horrors of the Israeli occupation. A wonderful book, funny and moving, that shows the humanity of the too-often dehumanized Palestinian people.