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wren_in_black 's review for:
A Land of Permanent Goodbyes
by Atia Abawi
3.5 Stars.
It took me 55 days to finish this book. That's unheard of for me. I kept putting it down for other things. It was difficult to read.
Things I liked about this book:
- Tareq's character is golden. He's a pure and helpful soul, despite what he goes through in this book.
- Susan is adorable. She's also blond haired and blue eyed. It's important to remember that not all Syrians look the same and that not all refugees fit a common mold.
- Different perspectives are used to tell the story.
- It humanizes refugees and helpers in a way that makes no one perfect but everyone worthy of help and acceptance.
- The ending isn't perfect and emphasizes that the story isn't close to over.
Things I did not like about this book:
- Odd phrasing from both the narrator and characters can make things difficult to understand. Typically it's Destiny, the narrator, that does this and not the characters. Since the characters don't naturally speak much English, it's forgivable from them. I honestly thought the author wasn't raised around English, but she was.
- The narrator didn't add much to the story. Destiny narrates the story much like Death narrates [b:The Book Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426i/19063._SY75_.jpg|878368]. However, the author only uses Destiny to info-dump early on and then make large generalizations that fall rather flat as the story progresses. It was an interesting idea, but I felt it was ineffective and actually took away from the emotional charge of this story.
- Islam is not really a part of the story. Sure, the characters occasionally say things like, "God willing", but I think making Tareq a mostly agnostic character means that there's a major part missing from this story. It would have served well to show that Islam is not the problem. I almost feel like this aspect is missing from the story to "make it more palatable" somehow.
- The problems causing the conflicts in Syria feel like they're rooted there and they really aren't. I understand that the point of this book isn't necessarily to delve into why so many factions and conflicts exist in Syria, but it would be nice to acknowledge that the evils these people are facing are not of their own making and not caused by Syria, or Islam, or any simple cause. But, that might be offensive, so again, I think that's why it was avoided.
- A plot device near the end should have either taken more time, or better yet, been cut from the book.
All in all, a worthwile and important story that was probably bigger than the author's current ability to tell with the gravitas needed.
It took me 55 days to finish this book. That's unheard of for me. I kept putting it down for other things. It was difficult to read.
Things I liked about this book:
- Tareq's character is golden. He's a pure and helpful soul, despite what he goes through in this book.
- Susan is adorable. She's also blond haired and blue eyed. It's important to remember that not all Syrians look the same and that not all refugees fit a common mold.
- Different perspectives are used to tell the story.
- It humanizes refugees and helpers in a way that makes no one perfect but everyone worthy of help and acceptance.
- The ending isn't perfect and emphasizes that the story isn't close to over.
Things I did not like about this book:
- Odd phrasing from both the narrator and characters can make things difficult to understand. Typically it's Destiny, the narrator, that does this and not the characters. Since the characters don't naturally speak much English, it's forgivable from them. I honestly thought the author wasn't raised around English, but she was.
- The narrator didn't add much to the story. Destiny narrates the story much like Death narrates [b:The Book Thief|19063|The Book Thief|Markus Zusak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522157426i/19063._SY75_.jpg|878368]. However, the author only uses Destiny to info-dump early on and then make large generalizations that fall rather flat as the story progresses. It was an interesting idea, but I felt it was ineffective and actually took away from the emotional charge of this story.
- Islam is not really a part of the story. Sure, the characters occasionally say things like, "God willing", but I think making Tareq a mostly agnostic character means that there's a major part missing from this story. It would have served well to show that Islam is not the problem. I almost feel like this aspect is missing from the story to "make it more palatable" somehow.
- The problems causing the conflicts in Syria feel like they're rooted there and they really aren't. I understand that the point of this book isn't necessarily to delve into why so many factions and conflicts exist in Syria, but it would be nice to acknowledge that the evils these people are facing are not of their own making and not caused by Syria, or Islam, or any simple cause. But, that might be offensive, so again, I think that's why it was avoided.
- A plot device near the end should have either taken more time, or better yet, been cut from the book.
Spoiler
Susan's kidnapping only takes the space of a few pages and she's found so quickly it doesn't even have a chance to sink in. It provided an opportunity for the American girl to become a "white savior" and I'm not really okay with that.All in all, a worthwile and important story that was probably bigger than the author's current ability to tell with the gravitas needed.