Author: Siobahn Fallon
Edition: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 2017
Setting: Jordan
Genre: Contemporary Literature
Blurb: "A searing debut novel ... about jealousy, the unpredictable path of friendship, and the secrets kept in marriage, all set within the U.S. expat community of the Middle East during the rise of the Arab Spring."
Cassie, married to a soldier working at the US Embassy in Jordan has signed on to be a mentor to a new arrival, Margaret. Also married to a soldier working at the Embassy, Margaret is a free-spirited young mother who doesn't doesn't seem to feel that the rules that Cassie tries to teach her, the rules that govern the lives of embassy employees and staff, apply to her.
The novel begins with the husbands out of town and Cassie, Margaret, and her baby involved in a fender-bender on the streets of Amman. Margaret is required to go to the police station to attend to paperwork (and a small bribe, says Cassie), while Cassie returns to Margaret's home to watch the baby. When Margaret doesn't return, Cassie searches Margaret's home and finds her journal, and from there the story unfolds in flashback.
This is a very interesting story about intentions, aspirations, struggles, friendships, marriage, cultural differences and the difficulty of communicating about all of those things. That difficulty is the "confusion of languages" the title alludes to. And there are so many languages! Military jargon, the language of diplomacy and custom, body language, subtext, and literally the different languages spoken by the American and Jordanian characters.
I liked the excellent writing, the very human characters with their questionable decisions, the theme of the difficult of comprehending and communicating with others, and the originality of the story. This would be an excellent book club choice as there is much to debate and discuss in the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment