“To surrender to the vulnerability of love and allow ourselves to be loved by others—isn’t that the most courageous act of all?”
Raised in a super conservative Palestinian family in New York, Yara thought she had escaped the fate of most of the women in her community by marrying a charming entrepreneur, Fadi who let her finish university and find work outside the home. Even though she is still a traditional wife who is in charge of her two daughters, takes care of the house and has dinner ready when her husband gets home, she still finds her life infinitely more rewarding than her mother’s life was. After she responds to a colleague’s racist provocation, Yara is put on probation at work and must attend mandatory counselling to keep her position.
As more things in her life come tumbling down, she finds herself increasingly uneasy with her mother’s warnings of a family curse and old superstitions. To save herself from her increasingly chaotic behaviors, Yara must face the reality of her childhood and the reality of her current life and marriage to prevent her daughters from the same fate in the future.
Yara continues to explore the nuances between culture, motherhood, marriage, benevolence sexism and female autonomy. If you have ever wondered what benevolence sexism means, look no further than Fadi. Fadi is a representation of men who think they are so magnanimous to allow women have a little bit of freedom as long as it doesn’t disrupt the labor that they believe they are owed from women.
Fadi thinks he has been a better husband and father than Yara’s father, which is objectively true, but the freedom he allows Yara is just enough freedom to think she’s escaped her mother’s life and broken the cycle and that gratefulness that he’s not as bad as the other men, keeps her on a tight leash. When Yara dares to try to test the limits of her leash, she discovers that Fadi is not the man she had built him up to be.
I loved Etaf Rum’s debut book – A Woman is No Man. It was my favorite book of 2019 and I couldn’t wait to read what Rum came out with next. I have to say that this book did not live up to her debut work. The name of the book and the description made it seem like we were going to go into superstitious territory. Rum kept telling us stories that never built up to be anything or mean anything. The future Yara’s grandmother saw for her daughter before she left for America, was never explored, the fact that Yara’s mother kept saying she was cursed, was never explored. Rum kept mentioning storylines and effectively dropping them. When the truth about Yara’s mother and their constant communication came to light, I did not think it did anything for the plot or moved me in anyway. I was like okay, another story where she’s not going to explore the reason why.
When Yara finally made a decision at the end about her marriage, everything just seemed to be wrapped up in a bow. No mention of any blow back from her family and her overall community. Honestly, nothing happens in this book. Etaf Rum is a fantastic writer and it kept me reading this book but ultimately, it didn’t do what I expected it to do when I rushed to get it immediately after publication. I’m going to definitely pick up her next book but this was a 3 star read for me.
Have you read Etaf Rum’s new book? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments.
Leggy
TwoNightStands 