The Last Of The Angels (Modern Arabic Literature) Review

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The Last Of The Angels (Modern Arabic Literature) ReviewWonderful novel (meaning both an object of wonder and full of wonders) by Iraqi poet Fadhil al-Azzawi, about a poor-but-proud, mostly Kurdish community in the city of Kirkuk. The time is the 1950s, as hope of a post-war spring enlivens the aspirations of a ragtag cast of characters. Hopes, however, are dashed over and again despite the occasional triumph against all odds, like the retrieval by zeppelin of two long lost brothers who never returned from WWI. Magical realism is an overused word and doesn't do justice to the flights of perfectly plausible fantasy that propel the narrative forward. Meanwhile, the readiness to suspend disbelief among the inhabitants of the neighborhood makes them susceptible to any far-fetched possibility - like the ascension into heaven of a barber after being shot during an attempt to prevent a road being built through a cemetery by a British-owned petroleum company. Or the appearance of Death as a character, or of angels, both full-size and small.
Politics informs much of the story, as one character instigates a people's revolution (modeled after Mao's), which embarrasses the local do-nothing communists. The young monarch Faisal II makes an appearance, before he is assassinated, and the Ba'ath party dictatorship begins to assume prominence. The latent bloodthirstiness of the mob, as it emerges at times, is countered with increasingly brutal force by those in power, and we read accounts of torture in prisons, drawn from al-Azzawi's own experience as a political prisoner of Saddam Hussein before the author's eventual exile in the 1970s.
The final chapters flash forward to the 1990s, which are represented in an apocalyptic vision reminiscent of Revelations. Hope struggles in mortal combat with despair, and it is not until the last sentence that we fully appreciate the book's title. The story, as it is told, ranges from playfulness and comedy to scenes of utter horror. That it embraces so much without losing its coherence is a considerable achievement, and a generously rich translation has been provided by William Hutchins. The Free Press edition includes a brief glossary, a study guide for group discussion, and an interview with the author.
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