Just Like a River (Interlink World Fiction) Review

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Just Like a River (Interlink World Fiction) ReviewOriginally published some twenty years ago, this touchstone of modern Syrian literature became popular for its articulation of frustrations in Syrian society. The author is a member of the so-called "Sixties Generation", whose attitudes were formed during the rise of Arab nationalism and socialism, and twenty years later found most of their heady idealism unrealized. The novella's themes are applicable to many Third World countries where traditional values are in transition, and the optimism of the post-colonial era has given way to resignation to the stifling rule of military autocrats. Migration is one such theme, as those of the '60s generation moved from the village to the city in search of opportunity. This echoed more problematically in the '80s, as the next generation looks to move overseas for opportunity. This is linked to another theme, the increase in education coupled with the lack of opportunities for the newly educated.
Set in the early 1980sówhen threat of war with Israel loomed large in day-to-day lifeóthe story is told in a social-realist style, in which a different character is followed in each chapter. The core of the book is Chief Sergeant Yunis, a father of four whose family becomes emblematic of Syrian society. His career in the army has created a fairly comfortable middle-class life for his children. The eldest son has been studying medicine in Russia for years, and Yunis longs for him to return to the family's bosom. As in many traditional societies, the parents' most fervent hopes are lodged in the eldest son, who is expected to provide comfort and support in the parents' old age. But since this son is absent, Yunis projects some of these hopes onto his daughter Dallal and the dream of living as a large family back in his ancestral village. However, Dallal has been raised to be a modern, progressive, college-educated woman, and is struggling with what that means in terms of sexuality and personal freedom. She is at college, and is ostensibly being raised as a progressive woman, and yet when push comes to shove, her parents revert to traditional paradigms of the role of a daughter. The middle son is an aimless youth who dropped out of school and joined the army, and the youngest is still a child.
Next to Yunis, the most important character is Yusef, a respectable teacher in a small town who is courting Dallal. He is who visits Damascus frequently and stays with his friend Zuhayr, an activist turned journalist. The two of them are well-educated semi-intellectuals who feel trapped in the provincialism of life in Asad's Syria. Their cafÈ conversations and late-night ambling around to movie houses and bookstores reflect this alienation while bringing the city to life. Yusef's ambivalence with life is reflected in his awkward courtship of Dallal, which lurches fitfully along to its inevitable end. These are modern people, but they're not sure how to become modern lovers. Ultimately, the book is about them, and seems to be foretell another lost generation.Just Like a River (Interlink World Fiction) Overviewhought by many Syrians to be the most influential novel of its time, this first novel of Muhammad Kamil al-Khatib is a riveting examination of Syrian political and social life during the 1980s. With a multi-voiced narration carried, like a river, from one voice to another, al-Khatib paints concise, vivid portraits of a disparate group of people in Damascus, ranging from an older officer in the Syrian army, to a university student coming to terms with her sexuality in a traditional context, to a British Orientalist on sabbatical, to a disillusioned activist who must reconcile his ideals with the realities of war and city life. Though the particularities of the explored lives may be quintessentially Syrian, the struggle between the generations, between men and women, between country and city, and between victor and vanquished are international in scope.

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