The second book was one I read for book club: The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine. I kinda underestimated how long it would take me to read it and in fact did not finish in time. I still went and talked and listened and such. But I did finish it after, the only time I ever finished a book club book after the club took place. Usually I realize that I never wanted to read it anyway so why bother. But this I wanted to finish. This book was really different from other things I've read. As background, a Hakawati is a storyteller in Arabic language; a professional storytellerp who weaves stories that mesmerize and can take from six months to a year to tell. In the book and in present day, the main character Osama is returning to Beirut to sit at his father's deathbed. His family all gathers in the hospital. Within this setting stories begin - of grandfathers and relatives and hakawatis and Fatima, who appears to be a goddess, Baybar, the slave king, imps, djinns, witches and horses with magical powers. And these characters, these stories become the atmosphere of the book. The real people in the book become more like mere mortals walking around in the fairytale. They stand out as the different, as opposed to all of the mythical creatures and people. It really brings you into what used to be a society of storytelling passed down through generations and it made me want to find that - in my family - in our society. Without stories, there can be no magic. And stories told out loud carry a different resonance and involve a different type of relationship to the story. I loved this book (even if it did take me forever to finish).
