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booksonmars 's review for:
Enter Ghost
by Isabella Hammad
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“I think that sometimes, when calamity strikes and puts normal life under strain, feelings that have been stifled by everyday evasion can break free and make it easy to talk where before it felt impossible. Clouds, parted, dissolved. I wondered if this was always happening in Palestine, where calamity was always so close. Or whether it was different for those who, living here, endured it without respite, for whom constant calamity was itself the condition of normal life. “
enter ghost is, to me, a quiet study on estrangement. the estrangement of sisters, distant since childhood, and the grievances not discussed between them. the estrangement of a person and the home of their ancestors, and the frustration in desiring to belong again. additionally, despite me not being used to it at the beginning, the author causes estrangement between the reader and sonia, our main character, by switching from first person to script format.
the book is also an insight into daily life in palestine, something that would seem surreal to the uninformed. the production of the play, which is the main bulk of the novel, involves the familiar such as tech rehearsals and set design, but are interspersed with cast members showing up late because of being held up at checkpoints, or cancellations due to tear gas activity in the area. it’s a reminder that despite the genocide there is still a thriving culture and art scene. it’s also uncanny and a show of how art will always imitate life, how much of hamlet, the play they perform, has reflections on the current state of the country.
i really enjoyed hammad’s other work, the parisian, and it was interesting to read this afterwards, set on the other side of palestinian history. even if it felt slow at times, there was just something that mesmerised me.