The Art of Arab-American Literature Week 8

     Randa Jarrar’s novel A map of home is quite a well put together story and overall book in the genre of those that deal with coming of age. We see Nidalee live a full life from her adolescence all the way to her late teenage years. The other convenient thing is that the chapters follow Nidali’s life chapter by chapter so each year of her life takes up about one chapter each. This provides a much more comprehensive read that many novels may struggle to achieve.  



One of my favorite factors of this reading is how Nidali is used as the centerpiece to the story but we also get to see different characters and places age just as Nidali does in the book. This leaves a great chance to learn the history of lesser-known places such as that of Kuwait.

For instance, the reader gets to learn about a lesser-known conflict outside of the Middle East between Iran and Iraq in the 1970s which ultimately can be boiled down to Iraq trying to gain regional superiority over a nation they perceived as weak. Also there is a more first hand account of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in the 1990s. 



As the other characters age the greatest example would have to be Nidali’s father. 

He goes from being the leader in controlling Nidali’s fate and ultimately becoming a more obsolete figure in Nidali’s future life. Nidali’s father was holding her back from some major milestones in life that the story goes to show many people must deal with regardless of nationality. Nidalis life takes a course that leads her through many different countries and more importantly many different social environments. In the end Nidali stays strong and turns out as a rather humble person despite the majority of her story painting Nidali as very rebellious.


Kuwait: Class of 1990 in pictures | | Al JazeeraImage result for cairo 1990

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