Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad (Women Writing the Middle East) Summary and Reviews

Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad (Women Writing the Middle East)
by Alia Mamdouh

Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad (Women Writing the Middle East)
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $8.50
You Save: $7.45 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.92 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Alia Mamdouh
Translator: Peter Theroux
Afterword: F. A. Haidar
Foreword: Helene Cixous
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-01
ISBN: 1558614931
Number of pages: 214
Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY

Book Reviews of Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad (Women Writing the Middle East)

Book Review: Memoir of a Baghdad childhood . . .
Summary: 4 Stars

Published in another edition as "Mothballs," this is a coming of age story set in Baghdad during the 1950s. The author reveals the experience of growing up female in impressionistic vignettes, sometimes soaring into sequences of magical realism. She opens a window for western readers into a Muslim world where women band together in their often sequestered lives, surviving in an alien patriarchy that both limits and emboldens them.

Huda, the young girl at the center of this story, is not easily intimidated by the circumstances of her world, growing up female, her mother dying of tuberculosis and her father a police officer whose moods swing wildly between sentimentality and violence, taking a second wife and deserting his family, sending his first wife away and leaving sister, son and daughter in the care of his mother. Huda's younger brother Adil, a sensitive soul, is lovingly drawn, and her young aunt waits for a proposal of marriage that comes from a man who also, it turns out, is given to desertion. There are portraits of Huda's friends, including a lame girl and a boy who wins her heart, only to be drawn into perilous political unrest.

The most memorable scene for me is her reunion with her father, an officer at the prison in Karbala, and then his coming undone as others are promoted before him. You get a sense of the mystery of men, who are driven in this culture by social forces that both elevate them above women and destroy them. Vivid in its descriptions of scenes and people, the book represents an attempt to capture memories, fixing them in the naphtalene (mothballs) of the title, as time and circumstances move on, changing everything forever.

World Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in World Books
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War ImageBlack Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by Mark Bowden
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2000-03-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.18
Price in other shops: $13.95
Denying the Holocaust ImageDenying the Holocaust
by Deborah Lipstadt
Penguin Books; Published: 1995-03-02; Paperback; Book
Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475 ImageWestern Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475
by Brian Tierney, Sidney Painter
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 1998-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $106.52
Corrections in the 21st Century ImageCorrections in the 21st Century
by Frank Schmalleger, John Ortiz Smykla
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2006-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.70
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters ImageHighest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters
by Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow
William Morrow; Published: 2009-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $25.99
Modern Times  Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics) ImageModern Times Revised Edition: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties (Perennial Classics)
by Paul Johnson
Harper Collins Publishers; Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2001-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.11
Price in other shops: $21.99
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide ImageA Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
by Samantha Power
Harper Perennial; Published: 2003-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.97
Price in other shops: $17.95
1421: The Year China Discovered America Image1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $15.95
"The Good Old Days" Image"The Good Old Days"
by Willi Dressen, Volker Riess
Free Press; Published: 1991-10-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops: $27.95
Wild Swans ImageWild Swans
by Jung Chang
Harpercollins Audio; Published: 2004-06-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.90
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran ImageWomen Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran
by Shahrnush Parsipur
The Feminist Press at CUNY; Published: 2004-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.46
Price in other shops: $15.95
The Journal of Hélène Berr ImageThe Journal of Hélène Berr
by Hélène Berr
Weinstein Books; Published: 2009-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops: $15.95
Women on War: An International Anthology of Writings from Antiquity to the Present ImageWomen on War: An International Anthology of Writings from Antiquity to the Present
by Daniela Gioseffi
The Feminist Press at CUNY; Published: 2003-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Price in other shops: $22.95
A SON AT THE FRONT ImageA SON AT THE FRONT
by EDITH WHARTON
Northern Illinois University Press; Published: 1995-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Road (Oprah's Book Club) ImageThe Road (Oprah's Book Club)
by Cormac McCarthy
Vintage Books; Published: 2007-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Man from Saigon: A Novel ImageThe Man from Saigon: A Novel
by Marti Leimbach
Nan A. Talese; Published: 2010-02-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.38
Price in other shops: $25.95
Chronicle of a Death Foretold ImageChronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vintage; Published: 2003-10-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.63
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Assault ImageThe Assault
by Harry Mulisch
Pantheon; Published: 1986-03-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.48
Price in other shops: $15.00
Of Love and Shadows: A Novel ImageOf Love and Shadows: A Novel
by Isabel Allende
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.27
Price in other shops: $15.00
Half of a Yellow Sun ImageHalf of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Anchor; Published: 2007-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops: $15.95