Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life | 
Kashua is constantly both hilarious and heartbreaking
11 likes1 stack add
Kashua is constantly both hilarious and heartbreaking
I wanted to tell the Israelis a story, the Palestinian story. Surely when they read it they will understand, when they read it they will change, all I have to do is write and the occupation will end, I just have to be a good writer and I will free my people from the ghettos they live in, tell good stories in Hebrew... and my children will already have a better future....
Twenty-five years of writing in Hebrew, and nothing has changed.
From the moment that I discovered books, and that the sciences no longer interested me, I sat in the library and I began to read. Very quickly my Hebrew became nearly perfect. The boarding school library had books only in Hebrew, so I began to read Israeli authors. I read S. Y. Agnon, Meir Shalev, Amos Oz, and I started to read about Zionism, about Judaism and the building of the homeland. I very quickly understood the power of books ...
...will look for a book that will give him an anthropological experience, a rare look into the mind of an Arab, or a book that is a journey into the very heart of Arab society. It's an undeniable fact that every time I am invited to an Israeli literary event I find myself sharing the stage with two belly dancers, an unemployed Arab academic, and a darbuka player.
When I started to work for Jewish bosses, who were usually older than me, whenever there was something I was asked to do, but didn't want to, I said "insh'Allah," which is the politest word I can use with someone who is older, to say, "I don't want to." ... When an Arab says, "Insh Allah, I will come at five o'clock to fix the faucet in the bathroom," he is actually telling you: Forget it
My book came a long way for me to read.
bailedI've read about a dozen of the short humour pieces collected in this volume and Kashua's self-deprecating I'm-a-lazy-ass-dad-and-a-drunk slice-of-life columns just aren't hitting the right note for me. I selected this from my library TBR for the letter Q in the #LitsyAtoZ challenge. Turns out the book cover's transliteration of the Arabic letter is K rather than Q, so I'm not sure I would have even counted it anyway.
bailedI requested this read from the library hoping to gain some perspective of the Israel/Palestinian conflict from an Arab Israeli who lives and works in Jerusalem. Unfortunately the book is a collection of essays the author wrote while working as a columnist for an Israeli Newspaper. The essays are musings and ramblings without much context or content. It wasn't really what I was hoping for, so I'm bailing after 50 or so pages. 🙄😐😞
photo Google
Shoot! I've been so preoccupied with my #NetGalley & #BOTM books, I completely forgot about my library ebooks😳😫 I have 8 days to finish two memoirs before they expire😱😱😱starting Native today....
"I wish I could say I didn't have to think about my audience when I write." Palestinian columnist, author, and tv writer #SayedKashua on addressing geopolitical issues and ideas through his fiction, personal essays, and screenplays #bkbf
