Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine (2009, Trade Paperback)

Bronwyne's Books and Things
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eBay item number:406137919154

Item specifics

Condition
Acceptable
A book with obvious wear. May have some damage to the cover but integrity still intact. The binding may be slightly damaged but integrity is still intact. Possible writing in margins, possible underlining and highlighting of text, but no missing pages or anything that would compromise the legibility or understanding of the text. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
Seller Notes
“Overall Wear...Complete and Readable”
Narrative Type
Fiction
Intended Audience
Adults
ISBN
9780307386274
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0307386279
ISBN-13
9780307386274
eBay Product ID (ePID)
66199597

Product Key Features

Book Title
Hakawati
Number of Pages
528 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2009
Topic
War & Military, Family Life, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology, Literary
Genre
Fiction
Author
Rabih Alameddine
Format
Trade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height
1.1 in
Item Weight
13.8 Oz
Item Length
8 in
Item Width
5.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2007-035917
Reviews
"A wonderful book-poignant, profane.... This novel will keep you transfixed." -TheBoston Globe "Stunning.... If any work of fiction might be powerful enough to transcend the mountain of polemic, historical inquiry, policy analysis and reportage that stands between the Western reader and the Arab soul, it's this wonder of a book." -Lorraine Adams,The New York Times Book Review "Alameddine's intoxicating, ambitious, multi-layered new novel is a marvel of storytelling bravado.... Alameddine creates a compelling portrait of the underpinnings of Arab culture-riddled, like every culture, with contradictions.... Wonderfully bittersweet and complex." -The Seattle Times "A fantastic tapestry . . . After reading [The Hakawati] I didn't want to return to the mundane world. [Osama al-Kharrat] returns to his native Beirut after long years spent in Los Angeles to visit the bedside of his dying father. That's the brightest thread of this tale. But this is the story of a thousand threads interweaving legends, fables and parable. There are the mythic wars of Arab lore, and the real civil war in Lebanon. . . . A story that ranges from the seven gates of the underworld to a deathbed in Beirut could only be told by a real storyteller, a hakawatia spellbinder. . . . We meet many, many other characters here: Fatima, who appears to be a goddess, we meet Baybars, the slave king, we meet imps, djinn, witches and horses with magical powers. They're the atmosphere, and the real people feel like mortals walking around in this fairytale atmosphere. . . . In this book, people are often entering the world of legend when the real world is painful. And that is, after all, one of the places that the imagination springs from. In other words, when [Osama's] fictive family is suffering the real pains of the Lebanese civil war, the mother in this book will say, tell me a story, distract me, enchant me, and the imagination serves that function too. . . . I really liked that very gentle image, that Osama, even as his father is breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, is going to begin a new tale." -Jacki Lyden, senior correspondent,All Things Considered "Exhilarating . . . In Alameddine's world there are magic carpets, but they can misbehave in midair. There are imps, but they can end up in an imp stew or be transformed into colorful squawking parrots. And there are Kama-Sutra topping tales of sex and seduction. Alameddine has great fun telling this story, and it's infectious. . . . Both dazzling and dizzying. [The Hakawati] meanders, doubles back, moves back and forward in time, takes off on tangents and then eats its own tail. There are stories within stories within stories. . . . It's an audacious all-you-can-eat buffet . . . Alameddine's talent is that each of these tales is as picaresque as the next, each feels just as real, just as contemporary. In some ways the stories leak into each other, full of the same ingredients of love, family, betrayal and sex. . . . Alameddine is a wonderful raconteur and teller of tales, as effortless in conjuring up a war in ancient times as a garden party in Los Angeles. He can be serious and poignant, [and he] also refuses to be awed by the sweep of history-at one point producing a prophet who announces he's not going to eat any more broccoli." -Sandip Roy,San Jose Mercury News "A riot of stories concerning the rise of the eccentric al-Kharrat family. Osama [al-Kharrat]'s waggish grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his classic tales of princes, genies, and wise-cracking seductresses are worthy of Scheherazade. Rabih Alam, "A wonderful book-poignant, profane.... This novel will keep you transfixed." -TheBoston Globe "Stunning.... If any work of fiction might be powerful enough to transcend the mountain of polemic, historical inquiry, policy analysis and reportage that stands between the Western reader and the Arab soul, it's this wonder of a book." -Lorraine Adams,The New York Times Book Review "Alameddine's intoxicating, ambitious, multi-layered new novel is a marvel of storytelling bravado.... Alameddine creates a compelling portrait of the underpinnings of Arab culture-riddled, like every culture, with contradictions.... Wonderfully bittersweet and complex." -The Seattle Times "A fantastic tapestry . . . After reading [The Hakawati,] I didn't want to return to the mundane world. [Osama al-Kharrat] returns to his native Beirut after long years spent in Los Angeles to visit the bedside of his dying father. That's the brightest thread of this tale. But this is the story of a thousand threads interweaving legends, fables and parable. There are the mythic wars of Arab lore, and the real civil war in Lebanon. . . . A story that ranges from the seven gates of the underworld to a deathbed in Beirut could only be told by a real storyteller, a hakawatia spellbinder. . . . We meet many, many other characters here: Fatima, who appears to be a goddess, we meet Baybars, the slave king, we meet imps, djinn, witches and horses with magical powers. They're the atmosphere, and the real people feel like mortals walking around in this fairytale atmosphere. . . . In this book, people are often entering the world of legend when the real world is painful. And that is, after all, one of the places that the imagination springs from. In other words, when [Osama's] fictive family is suffering the real pains of the Lebanese civil war, the mother in this book will say, tell me a story, distract me, enchant me, and the imagination serves that function too. . . . I really liked that very gentle image, that Osama, even as his father is breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, is going to begin a new tale." -Jacki Lyden, senior correspondent,All Things Considered "Exhilarating . . . In Alameddine's world there are magic carpets, but they can misbehave in midair. There are imps, but they can end up in an imp stew or be transformed into colorful squawking parrots. And there are Kama-Sutra topping tales of sex and seduction. Alameddine has great fun telling this story, and it's infectious. . . . Both dazzling and dizzying. [The Hakawati] meanders, doubles back, moves back and forward in time, takes off on tangents and then eats its own tail. There are stories within stories within stories. . . . It's an audacious all-you-can-eat buffet . . . Alameddine's talent is that each of these tales is as picaresque as the next, each feels just as real, just as contemporary. In some ways the stories leak into each other, full of the same ingredients of love, family, betrayal and sex. . . . Alameddine is a wonderful raconteur and teller of tales, as effortless in conjuring up a war in ancient times as a garden party in Los Angeles. He can be serious and poignant, [and he] also refuses to be awed by the sweep of history-at one point producing a prophet who announces he's not going to eat any more broccoli." -Sandip Roy,San Jose Mercury News "A riot of stories concerning the rise of the eccentric al-Kharrat family. Osama [al-Kharrat]'s waggish grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his classic tales of princes, genies, and wise-cracking seductresses are worthy of Scheherazade. Rabih Alameddine has a d, "Here is absolute beauty. One of the finest novels I've read in years." -Junot Díaz "Stunning." -The New York Times Book Review "Sharp, seductive storytelling." -O, The Oprah Magazine "Delightful. . . . Alameddine juxtaposes truth and fiction, contemporary lust and bawdy tales of the past, today's grief and sorrow in the ancient world." -The Washington Post Book World "A wonderful book-poignant, profane.... This novel will keep you transfixed." -TheBoston Globe "Alameddine's intoxicating, ambitious, multi-layered new novel is a marvel of storytelling bravado." -The Seattle Times "A fantastic tapestry . . . After reading [The Hakawati] I didn't want to return to the mundane world. [Osama al-Kharrat] returns to his native Beirut after long years spent in Los Angeles to visit the bedside of his dying father. That's the brightest thread of this tale. But this is the story of a thousand threads interweaving legends, fables and parable. There are the mythic wars of Arab lore, and the real civil war in Lebanon. . . . A story that ranges from the seven gates of the underworld to a deathbed in Beirut could only be told by a real storyteller, a hakawatia spellbinder. . . . We meet many, many other characters here: Fatima, who appears to be a goddess, we meet Baybars, the slave king, we meet imps, djinn, witches and horses with magical powers. They're the atmosphere, and the real people feel like mortals walking around in this fairytale atmosphere. . . . In this book, people are often entering the world of legend when the real world is painful. And that is, after all, one of the places that the imagination springs from. In other words, when [Osama's] fictive family is suffering the real pains of the Lebanese civil war, the mother in this book will say, tell me a story, distract me, enchant me, and the imagination serves that function too. . . . I really liked that very gentle image, that Osama, even as his father is breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out, is going to begin a new tale." -Jacki Lyden, senior correspondent,All Things Considered "Exhilarating . . . In Alameddine's world there are magic carpets, but they can misbehave in midair. There are imps, but they can end up in an imp stew or be transformed into colorful squawking parrots. And there are Kama-Sutra topping tales of sex and seduction. Alameddine has great fun telling this story, and it's infectious. . . . Both dazzling and dizzying. [The Hakawati] meanders, doubles back, moves back and forward in time, takes off on tangents and then eats its own tail. There are stories within stories within stories. . . . It's an audacious all-you-can-eat buffet . . . Alameddine's talent is that each of these tales is as picaresque as the next, each feels just as real, just as contemporary. In some ways the stories leak into each other, full of the same ingredients of love, family, betrayal and sex. . . . Alameddine is a wonderful raconteur and teller of tales, as effortless in conjuring up a war in ancient times as a garden party in Los Angeles. He can be serious and poignant, [and he] also refuses to be awed by the sweep of history-at one point producing a prophet who announces he's not going to eat any more broccoli." -Sandip Roy,San Jose Mercury News "A riot of stories concerning the rise of the eccentric al-Kharrat family. Osama [al-Kharrat]'s waggish grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his classic tales of princes, genies, and wise-
TitleLeading
The
Dewey Edition
22
Dewey Decimal
FIC
Synopsis
In 2003, Osama al-Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father's deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama's grandfather was a hakawati , or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger, heartbreaking tale of seemingly endless war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati , Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.
LC Classification Number
PS3551.L215H35 2008

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