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A Map of Home
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
6 posts | 7 read | 10 to read
Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt (to where she and her family fled the 1990 Iraqi invasion), and her family's last flight to Texas. Nidali mixes humor with a sharp, loving portrait of an eccentric middle-class family, and this perspective keeps her buoyant through the hardships she encounters: the humiliation of going through a checkpoint on a visit to her father's home in the West Bank; the fights with her father, who wants her to become a famous professor and stay away from boys; the end of her childhood as Iraq invades Kuwait on her thirteenth birthday; and the scare she gives her family when she runs away from home. Funny, charming, and heartbreaking, A Map of Home is the kind of book Tristram Shandy or Huck Finn would have narrated had they been born Egyptian-Palestinian and female in the 1970s. From the Hardcover edition.
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LaurenAsh
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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Pickpick

❤️

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broughtyoubooks
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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A story of a girl moving through life in Kuwait (as the Iraqi invasion broke out) to Egypt, and eventually settling in America. A review i saw somewhere found it too 'vulgar' but that served to make the story feel more genuine.

MayJasper Hello 😊 thanks for following me 6y
56 likes1 comment
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Lindy
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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Pickpick

This month's pick for the Edmonton Lesbian Book Club, I wouldn't otherwise have known about this funny, charming debut novel published in 2008. Nidali grows up with a Greek Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father. They live in Kuwait and then Egypt before emigrating to the USA. Jarrar brings middle class life in the Middle East into sharp focus with her irrepressible bisexual protagonist.

Stephanie-Anne The cover is intriguing 7y
shawnmooney This sounds AMAZING! 7y
Reviewsbylola I'm definitely drawn to the cover. 7y
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Lindy @Reviewsbylola @Stephanie-Anne It's a cover design that looks good at a distance. I prefer the paperback cover that other book club members had. 7y
Lindy @shawnmooney I think this is one you would enjoy. Realism, humour, tragedy, fresh voice. 7y
Bibliogeekery Sounds good! #queerbooks 7y
43 likes5 stack adds6 comments
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Lindy
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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We rolled the red meat, rice, cumin and oil mixture into triangles of boiled cabbage leaves, placing them in a big pot, and dropped whole cloves of garlic in. When I looked into the pot, the rolls and the cloves reminded me of dashes and commas. I wanted to tell Sitto this but I remembered that she couldn't read or write.
But she could tell stories.

JazzFeathers That sounds like a good recipes. I'm going to try it out :) 7y
Lindy @JazzFeathers You can find recipes for Palestinian cabbage rolls online, which is where I found this photo. 7y
45 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
Lindy
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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"Sons of the whore!" he said.
"What's wrong?" I said.
"It's Abdel Halim's song."
"It's Jay-Z's song."

... This father-daughter exchange sent me down the Internet rabbit hole:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/21/jay-z-wins-copyright-infringement-...

Donna_sBookMinute I cannot quote one line from a Jay-Z "song." And only the "Red Lobster" line from a Beyoncé "song" because it's so ridiculous. After Destiny's Child, I have no use for her. Blue Ivy's a cutie, though. That's about all I can say about the Carters. 7y
Lindy @Donna_sBookMinute Ha! Well, I'm glad you had this much to say, because you made me chuckle. 😀 7y
Donna_sBookMinute 👍🏽😂 7y
ReadingEnvy I actually enjoyed a book "by" Jay Z called 7y
24 likes4 comments
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Lindy
A Map of Home | Randa Jarrar
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"Did you tear down my Woman of Wonder stickers?"
He paused for what seemed like an hour, then spoke. "You mean the pictures of the naked heathen that were on your bed?" He adjusted the skullcap on his flat, ugly head. I no longer found Esam handsome; I saw his chin growing warts as he spoke. "Yes, I did," he said.