Asharq Al-Awsat Talks with Acclaimed Author Suad Al Amiry
Already the daughter of a prominent literary father, the wife of an academic and a book editor, Palestinian architect and academic Suad Al Amiry had no plans to become a famous writer of her own right. Yet, with the success of her latest diaries, "Sharon and my mother-in-law", transl
Asharq Al-Awsat Talks with Acclaimed Author Suad Al Amiry
Already the daughter of a prominent literary father, the wife of an academic and a book editor, Palestinian architect and academic Suad Al Amiry had no plans to become a famous writer of her own right. Yet, with the success of her latest diaries, "Sharon and my mother-in-law", translated into sixteen languages, Al Amiry has, suddenly, found herself embarking on a successful writing career.
The book is a story of over forty days under siege in Ramallah, in March 2002, when Israeli troops, led by the Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, encircled the headquarters of Palestinian Authority leader, Yasser Arafat. Al Amiry spent those days confined by Sharon”s soldiers and her ninety-two year old mother in law, in what resembled a prison. Unable to leave the house because of the curfew, Al Amiry emerged from this ordeal with a beautiful and cynical account that remains popular.
In her book, Al Amiry spoke in detail of her suffering under siege, as well that of her friends and neighbors. She writes of the siege on Ramallah and other Palestinian towns in the West Bank, the killings of civilians, house demolitions, and the daily struggle to buy food and gas. Addressing Sharon, she is willing to forget what he did "when [he] laid siege to our towns and villages for forty two days. However, I will never forgive [him] for forcing to spend all this time locked in with my mother-in-law; these days felt a long more than forty two." With its cynical writing style, Al Amiry believes, the book attracts new readers everyday, because people have become bored of big words and grand speeches.
With a humorous tone, the author tells of her ordeal during the second Intifada and her migration from Jaffa in 1948 when Israel was created. Al Amiry also writes of her time at the American University of Beirut, studying engineering, her studies in Michigan in the USA and then Edinburgh in Scotland, and finally, settling in Ramallah in 1981 to teach Engineering at Birzeit University.
Discussing the success of her diaries with Ashar Al Awsat, Al Amiry revealed that started she started sending emails to her friends abroad during the Israeli invasion of the West Bank on March 28, 2002 that later formed the basis of her diaries. "I didn”t know they would turn into a successful book." She believes the journal owes it popularity to the wider narrative of a people under siege. "When I started writing the emails from my mother-in-law”s house which is close to Arafat”s headquarters, I didn”t have a particular audience in mind. The writing was affectionate, full of mundane details, and lacked a political orientation. My mother-in-law is an intelligent woman with specific dietary needs and a daily medical program to follow. Of course, under curfew, that became impossible. It was a very stressful period, with the Israeli Army encircling the town; we couldn”t even go out to the garden! I was trapped with an old lady to take care of.
What follows is the interview Asharq Al Awsat conducted with the Palestinian writer, Suad Al Amiry to celebrate the continuing success of her diaries.
Q: To what extent did your use of humor play a part in the book”s success?
A: Undoubtedly, humor played a role. I think the best quality of the diaries is that they do not ask the reader to take any positions on Palestinian issues. I do not discuss the future of Jerusalem in the book, or the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, or the problem of water. For the first time, perhaps, the Western reader finds him and herself reading about the Palestinians as human beings, primarily, rather than participants in a political dispute. Of course, the diaries feature details on the Israeli occupation; the main characters however, are two women, one old and the other ageing! In this instance, the human factor is more important that politics. Usually, in media accounts, the Western public isn”t made aware of the details of life under Israeli occupation. Instead, it is only aware of Sharon ordering air strikes on the Gaza Strip or Palestinians carrying out suicide attacks in Israel.
Q: With regard to the diaries, what, if any, are the differences between the Arab and Western readers?
A: I think readers in the West have a stereotypical image of the Arab World. It”s important for us to break this stereotype so the Western reader becomes more interested in finding out about Arab issues.
Q: When you were writing the diaries, did you have a Western audience in mind?
A: No, not at all! I was writing emails to my friends to tell them I was fed up of looking after my mother-in-law and being under siege. I didn”t try and depict a heroic Palestinian society because in reality, I felt scared, and so did my friends and neighbors. The book doesn”t feature any political clichés.
Q: Do you think Arab readers will receive the book with the same enthusiasm shown by readers in the West?
A: You wouldn”t believe the number of responses I received from readers after the diaries were published in English and distributed across the Arab World. I was truly astonished! I had calls from readers of all generations, some as young as fourteen! In Palestine, readers knew firsthand the situation I was depicting. Yet, even here, there”s still a strong demand for the book. One explanation for the diaries popularity is the black humor and the cynicism they feature which make the reader laugh and cry at the same time.
Q: From where does an architect and an academic get all the humor to depict a painful reality?
A: I was born with a good sense of humor. It”s something you are born with, I believe. I”ve always made fun of myself, others around me, and the political situation Palestinians find themselves in. When you live under occupation, you have to laugh at the checkpoints, the curfews, and other daily problems. During the second Intifada, people developed a newfound sense of humor. When I wrote to my friends, I made fun of the situation. I believe this touches the readers and appeals to their human instincts.
Our problem as Palestinians is that, whenever we write about ourselves, we mention the big issues that blight our existence and pretend to speak on behalf of everyone. In my diaries, on the other hand, I only talk about myself, my struggle to get an identity card, and my seven-year wait to return. I wrote about my dog that I took to Jerusalem for medical treatment and managed to smuggle through Israeli checkpoints. I approached the soldier and bluntly informed him I didn”t have the required permit to enter the city, neither did my car but he should let us go through regardless. He did, probably thinking I was crazy.
The story of us Palestinians under occupation is, indeed, tragic. But people hate constantly listening to tragedy. It”s best, therefore, to write stories that illustrate the situation and make the reader laugh or cry, without discussing politics.
Q: You”ve written books on specialist subjects before. Did you ever imagine you were going to be a writer?
A: I”m not really a write, but an engineer! I am concerned with traditional Palestinian architecture and have written several books on Palestinian villages, which I”ve enjoyed writing. I like writing, but I still can”t see myself as one. To become a writer means that one assumes the personality of one and lives in a world particular for writers. I wish I belonged to this world. The truth, however, is that I”ve written one book that, by chance, became successful. I find it difficult to describe myself or be addressed as a writer. The label also scares me!
Q: You were brought up by a prominent writer and educator?
A: Yes, that”s true. My father was the President of the Writers”
Association. He was also a historian and a professional writer. However, I studied engineering and I love it; I enjoy restoration work. I feel free amongst other engineers. With respect to the world of writing, however, I am unsure of myself and nervous, because it really isn”t my world.
Q: Why was your book published in Italian before it as printed in Arabic?
A: As I mentioned, the diaries came about in a Kafkaesque situation when I wrote describing what was happening to my friends. Amongst them I emailed my friend Luisa Margontini, a Member of the European Parliament and well known in Palestine. She read my letters enthusiastically and replied that she would stay up at night reading them, wither laughing or crying. She also believed that the diaries should get a wider audience and asked my permission to forward the emails to Filtmere, an Italian publishing house I hadn”t herd of. I agreed.
A week later, I received a phone call from them asking me not to sell the copyright of the book in any other language because they wanted to be the exclusive holders of these rights. They also said that the book would become a global bestseller. I was very surprised and agreed to sell them the copyrights, in all languages except Arabic. The diaries were published soon after; within a month, the publisher informed me that the rights had already been sold in French and German! Until now, the diaries have been published in sixteen languages.
I am very grateful to the Italian publisher who took care of my book, until the prominent British publishing house, Granta, published the diaries in English earlier this year. Granta also requested I write another book, which I have now written and is entitled "Shun hal eishah?" (What kind of life is this?) The new book has also been critically acclaimed. I”ve been interviewed by many journalists about my life and my mother-in-law; some British journalists even wrote about me in their national press! I have also been invited to the UK and gave several interviews for television and radio stations and the press. In total, twenty two thousand copies of the book have been sold since its publication in English in January of this year.
Q: What about the Arabic edition?
A: I have to admit that, for a long time, I”ve neglected the Arabic edition. The publication of foreign language editions took up a lot of my time and energy. I”ve been invited to several countries and soon, I am flying to Sydney for the launch of the Australian edition. In the beginning, I thought the Arab World might not appreciate the diaries. But after the English language version was distributed in Palestine and successfully received, I changed my mind.
I”m very lucky because the prominent Lebanese writer, Elias Khoury was very excited about the diaries and expressed his desire to translate them into Arabic. Only a week ago, I spoke to Khoury and thanked him for his interest. I also told him I was ready to cooperate with him to publish the book in Arabic. He is now reading it as a prelude to the translation.
Q: Why not translate the book yourself?
A: As I”ve mentioned before, I kept a daily dairy of events during the siege of Ramallah in the form of email messages. I know there are others, whose Arabic is better than mine, who are more able to translate them. I”ve translated a chapter of my book "An Earthquake in Nissan" (An earthquake in April) about the destruction of the Old Town in Nablus by the Israeli Army and found the task very hard. I am optimistic about the reactions of Arab readers. I already receive daily emails from Beirut, Dubai, Manama, and Muscat, and other Arab capitals from people who”ve read the English edition. I now realize that I was wrong in feeling apprehensive toward Arab readers.
Q: Do think Israeli Prime Minister has read the diaries?
A: I think so. If we believe that his advisors follow the news closely, they would”ve told him about the book. It was translated into Hebrew and published in Israel under the title of "Cappuccino in Ramallah" with both the English and Hebrew editions being old. I expect that, if Sharon came across a book entitled "Sharon and my mother-in-law" he would be curious enough to read it!
Q: What”s the story behind the peculiar title?
A: I think it”s appropriate. In fact, it might even be one of the reasons the book has been so successful. The title has more than one meaning. It indicates the discrepancy in power between Israel, of which Sharon, the leader of the strongest Army in the region, is the perfect symbol and the Palestinian people, represented by an old and peaceful mother-in-law who tries to keep to her daily routine even under duress. The occupation makes her unsafe in her own home and forbids her from getting the food and medicine she needs.
Personally, I consider the title to be a perfect representation of the brutality of Israeli injustice which touches every Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza. The occupation represses, by military might, an unarmed people who are prevented from working, going to school, and obtaining their basic needs.
The second meaning of the title alludes to the unbearable psychological pressure the Israeli Army exerts on a daily basis on Palestinian families.
Some time ago, I visited a pharmacy to obtain some medicine to cure my chronic fatigue. The pharmacist, after hearing my request, laughed nervously and said "half of those who come here ask for vitamins, the other half for antidepressants." The occupation does, indeed, cause depression.