Stevie‘s review of The Parisian by Isabella Hammad
Historical Literary Fiction published by Grove Press 09 Apr 19
I’m always keen to read history told from different points of view, particularly those we don’t often get to hear in the mainstream history books, and so this book about a Palestinian in Paris during the First World War definitely appealed. Midhat Kamal grew up in the town of Nablus, under the Ottoman occupation, the son of a successful textile merchant, who was rarely at home, preferring to travel on business or to spend time with his second wife and their children. Midhat’s mother died when he was young, and so he has been mostly brought up by his grandmother. Following the outbreak of war in Europe, Midhat leaves his family and travels across the Mediterranean to France, in order to study medicine in Montpelier.
On arrival at Montpelier Station, Midhat is met by Jeanette Molineu, the daughter of the academic with whom he will be staying. The Molineu family were previously well to do, but have now fallen on hard times, with many of the rooms in their large house closed off, and their staff consisting of only a housekeeper. Doctor Molineu’s career is also struggling; he longs to produce an outstanding piece of research, but is hampered by the unpopularity of his German-influenced philosophical interests.
During the first year of his studies, Midhat makes friends with fellow students and with the regular visitors to the Molineu house. He also falls in love with Jeanette. His life changes suddenly, however, when he realises that Doctor Molineu regards him as closer to an experimental subject to a fellow human being. Midhat argues with the Doctor and uproots to Paris, where he switches his studies to the humanities and enjoys a pleasant few years of philosophical and sexual exploration despite the continuing war.
I enjoyed the first part of the book very much as Midhat made his way in the world and matured into an educated and sophisticated young man. By contrast, I found that the continuation of the story after the war’s end, when Midhat returns to his home town and begins work in his father’s business, attempted to shoehorn too many years of history into too few pages. The book encompasses almost the whole of Midhat’s life and charts the changes occurring in Palestine and the surrounding nations under European – mostly British – occupation, and the effects of the various waves of Jewish immigration. There was a lot happening that caught my interest; I just wish these stories could have been told across two or three separate books to do full justice to all of them. Likewise, I found the changing roles of the women in the story to be particularly fascinating. However, at times their stories were drowned out by the angst of the men.
All in all this wasn’t quite the book I expected from the early chapters. Its title comes from the nickname given to Midhat in the years following his return from Paris. I’ll be interested to see how the author’s writing develops in future novels, in spite of my disappointment with this first one.
Grade: C
Summary:
Midhat Kamal is the son of a wealthy textile merchant from Nablus, a town in Ottoman Palestine. A dreamer, a romantic, an aesthete, in 1914 he leaves to study medicine in France, and falls in love. When Midhat returns to Nablus to find it under British rule, and the entire region erupting with nationalist fervor, he must find a way to cope with his conflicting loyalties and the expectations of his community. The story of Midhat’s life develops alongside the idea of a nation, as he and those close to him confront what it means to strive for independence in a world that seems on the verge of falling apart.
Against a landscape of political change that continues to define the Middle East, The Parisian explores questions of power and identity, enduring love, and the uncanny ability of the past to disrupt the present. Lush and immersive, and devastating in its power, The Parisian is an elegant, richly-imagined debut from a dazzling new voice in fiction.
No excerpt available.
