Darina Al Joundi brief memoir of growing up in Lebanon in the time of war and sectarian dissent, with a anti-religious father moving on in the intellectual and ´revolutionary´ circles of the Middle East of the 1980s is unsettling and brutal for more than one reason. Not because as a little girl she was charmed by Carlos ´The Jackal´ who taught her how to use a weapon. Or for her impulsive sexual explorations.
The memoir was played by Al Joundi - who experienced with theatre while in Lebanon - at the Avignon Theatre Festival and I can perfectly imagine what an emotionally direct way it is to communicate such a packed amount of feelings. But there is no flow of emotions taking over the discourse. Instead it is the reader him- or herself being trapped in a story which is individual yet sharing the never ending drama of Lebanon.
I will not get stuck making detailed political comments about the facts mentioned, including the context of ´The Jackal´ story because it is less relevant, but the succesion of events helped me more than any book of political science to improve my comprehension of intellectual mindsets faster and deeper than if I would have spend months reading the news. Memorialistic writings do help more in this respect.
But history is more than a succession of facts chronologically shared. When the will of the individual meets the official history, the individual, particularly women, are strongly hit against the wall of indifference. A woman is never safe in the wake of history.
Rating: 4.5 stars
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