Welcome to Litsy!

This was a difficult read due to the MC's risky behaviours and unsettling psychological state. Zaher packs a punch in a small volume, with her chosen themes of statehood and statelessness, inherited trauma, physical and mental displacement, mental health, loneliness and the risks of being vulnerable with others.

It was a fascinating read and I look forward to more from such an accomplished author.

I picked this up on vacation without knowing a thing about it. I liked the author‘s writing style. I wanted to like it. But the story just didn‘t connect for me at all. I‘d give it a pan but I really did enjoy the writing, and I didn‘t feel like I was forcing myself to finish it. But I wouldn‘t recommend it. This copy is going to a neighborhood Free Library.

Maybe the first sign that the unnamed narrator shouldn‘t be teaching young men is that she wheels her supplies in a CVS cart—a sign that she‘s ready to take. If she teaches the boys anything, it‘s the value of pretense: dressing well, sneaking around, crafting stories. You can spend all day trying to clean the dirt off you, or you could learn a lot more about yourself by throwing it around.

My current audiobook. I'm only 24% in, so not entirely sure where it's going, but it looks like nowhere good 😅 The MC is an utterly unlikable ball of narcissism and unresolved trauma. I can't help thinking that if the Women's Prize really had to have rich people immigrant problems , this is a better choice than the boring Persians. And if they wanted women being gross and transgressive, All Fours has nothing on this woman's skincare rituals.

You know how sometimes you‘re reading a book and thinking: Is this a waste of my time? Well, this felt like it. I just couldn‘t get where this story was going…And don‘t get me wrong, I don‘t mind reading about a character‘s day to day, but this just felt like it was leading nowhere.

Bailed at 25%

I suspected this would not be for me and indeed it was not. It occasionally felt like it was going to veer close to an understandable metaphor, but instead of getting there would then throw in a deliberately provocative sexual statement and I‘m never a fan of that, as I don‘t think it informs the story. #TOBlonglist

I‘m not really sure I understood this at all. 🤷‍♀️ A wealthy young Palestinian woman arrives in NYC to teach, and slowly starts to unravel, teaching in a very unconventional manner and getting involved in a Birkin bag scam.

She also has a cleaning obsession, and hang-ups with her body, and the final 25% gets *really* weird.

I‘m sure there metaphors / allegories aplenty, but I couldn‘t grasp any of them to make much sense of it.

#ToBlonglist

This book is so different and creative that the synopsis actually works against what this one is. A woman unravels, ravels back in her own way, and I have no idea what it means. So, that makes it intriguing enough to suggest it.

Acquired a new treasure. This store in Newburyport MA isn't in the database.

As unhinged as everyone says it is. More Broder than Moshfegh in my mind. I probably would have DNF'd this, but the chapters are just so short and I needed to know where we would end up.