Pantheon Books | 2009 | 320 pages | List price: $24.95 | Get it for less at Amazon

For Lebanese-born author Hanan al-Shaykh’s first non-fiction book, she has turned to a story that is deeply rooted in the personal, that of a biography of her mother Kamila. THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD chronicles Kamila’s life growing up in Lebanon, following her story from the early 1930s into the present day, and depicts the brutal honesty of Kamila’s passions as well as her struggles as she came to discover who she was as an individual and what it was that defined her life. Forced to marry her brother-in-law after her older sister died when she was only fourteen years old, Kamila was torn apart from the man whom she truly loved, the strikingly handsome Muhammad. THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD thus has at its heart an emotionally charged love story, and one that will whole-heartedly engage readers from beginning to end.

Combing through a myriad of faded papers from the people involved, al-Shaykh is able to assemble the fragmented remnants of memory into a cohesive narrative that masterfully and vividly paints a rich and evocative picture of the changing social landscape of the Middle East during the decades the book covers as well as the emotional journey that Kamila took. al-Shaykh’s brilliance though is found in the voice that she has chosen to tell Kamila’s story in. al-Shaykh does not use her own voice, or a disembodied third person narrative that would keep the reader separate from the action, but rather chooses to tell Kamila’s story posthumously through her own voice. What is remarkable here is that Kamila was illiterate, she never learned to read or write, so al-Shaykh did not have the benefit of journals that chronicled her mother’s life to search through for the pieces that would eventually assemble Kamila’s tale. Also, al-Shaykh was not raised with her mother who left when al-Shaykh was only seven years old, and seeing her only sporadically through the years, did not have the added luxury of a lifetime of first hand memories of her mother’s narrative to draw upon. THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD, while outwardly is evident of the empowerment Kamila’s voice is given, it also has on the subtextual level the author’s own journey of discovery, and ultimately, understanding of her own mother. As al-Shaykh explains, “THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD is a universal story in the sense that it’s about families, and everything that surrounds them: love, divorce, adultery, abandonment, poverty, injustice. But most importantly, for me, it’s a story about forgiveness.”

Having essentially lived two lives, with two families and two sets of children, those stemming from the forced marriage and those from that of her marriage with her true love Muhammad, Kamila is always depicted with an unadulterated honesty. There is no glamorizing of Kamila’s choices and equally no condemnation of them, but instead Kamila is given free reign to tell her story as if she herself had written it, or if al-Shaykh had simply assembled it from numerous recorded interviews. This was not the case though as al-Shaykh instead almost embodied the essence of who Kamila was, and in turn, allows the readers to do the same. Thus, even though Kamila was a woman who consistently fabricated lies to tell others to not allow issues such as her illiteracy or her at times abject poverty ever be known, the truthfulness of her story becomes all that is found within her voice. From this arises a story not of pity, but rather of the amount of bravery and courage it takes to follow one’s heart.

This focus on the strength of conviction of basing one’s life within the passion of love, and the sacrifices that one must at times endure, make Kamila’s journey a remarkable read. Yes, Kamila is at times selfish. Yes, she does at times seem far removed from the actual reality of the moment. At the same time though, she seems ultimately real. Individuals in the book are never allowed to remain solely planted within a singleminded viewpoint, but are rather constantly shown to exist as dichotomous in nature, possessing the ability for love and for scorn, for selfishness and for altruism. While the boldness of Kamila’s voice is what resonates the loudest from THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD, it must be remembered at all times that this voice is being told from the pen of a daughter whom she abandoned, and who has the ability to project her own boldness in producing a very personal insight into a fascinating narrative without letting it ever slip into a scathing indictment of the past.

It is here that the book does come full circle, showing that the same character of strength and boldness that was what ultimately defined Kamila during her lifetime, still carries on in the voice of her daughter. In the end, two voices are ultimately freed. Kamila is allowed to transcend her own illiteracy to tell her story and al-Shaykh is able to unlock memories that have been locked away through the desire to learn and to understand more about the bird that flew against the face of convention and followed her own heart.

THE LOCUST AND THE BIRD is ultimately a book that would be enjoyed by all and one that will inspire readers to perhaps get to know their own family a little bit more.

To order directly from Amazon for less, CLICK HERE.

Rating: