When I found out that my brother’s best friend’s sister had published a book, I had to get my hands on it, albeit a year late. Since, this novel has received the Betty Trask Award. The Watermelon Boys by Ruqaya Izzidien is a 349-page novel (or 352 with the Author’s Note) published in 2018 by Hoopoe, Cairo. It comprises of 57 chapters divided into three parts. I’ll firstly note the details of her award and include the book’s description (or blurb) before going into my review. Note, I read this novel in April 2019 and just gotten round to publishing my thoughts now.
Izzidien’s novel is one of the six winners of the 2019 Betty Trask Awards, bestowed annually by the prestigious Society of Authors’ Awards in recognition of the best and most promising first novels written by authors under the age of 35 in a traditional or romantic, but not experimental, style. (Source below)
Book description:
It is the winter of 1915 and Iraq has been engulfed by the First World War. Hungry for independence from Ottoman rule, Ahmad leaves his peaceful family life on the banks of the Tigris to join the British-led revolt. Thousands of miles away, Welsh teenager Carwyn reluctantly enlists and is sent, via Gallipoli and Egypt, to the Mesopotamia campaign. Carwyn’s and Ahmad’s paths cross, and their fates are bound together. Both are forever changed, not only by their experience of war, but also by the parallel discrimination and betrayal they face.
The narrator powerfully begins the novel in the first-person plural (we), implicating each of us into history before switching to a third-person voice, focalising into Ahmad’s experience, but then later also that of Carwyn, To a lesser degree the narrator focalises into other characters’ experiences too. Izzidien chooses an effective writing style for the story she has crafted. She skilfully recounts several tender scenes and also succeeds in creating tension and expressing passion, thus taking the reader through an emotional journey as well as a historical one. The narrator offers deep words of truth and contemplation on several occasions in the novel, which call out the ongoing state of the world and contemporary human relations. Bringing in these reflections and connecting history to the present day serves to spark reflection in terms of what we can learn from history and how much of it we allow to be repeated. It also prevents us from disassociating ourselves from people of the past as mere characters.
While this novel focuses largely on Ahmed and his sons in the light of historic events, as they are the titled watermelon boys who sell the fruits along the Tigris, we also meet strong female characters. They are gracious and admirable without being clichés or cringingly naive. Izzidien creates a warmth in her female characters, who are both pleasant and powerful in their own ways. I would have loved to delve deeper into their lives, but for that to be satisfied, the novel would have had to be much longer. Thankfully she gives us just enough though more wouldn’t have gone amiss.
In terms of the historical period, I found that I was reading about a part of British colonisation that I had never known or heard about (having been more exposed to Indian and African narratives). Izzidien proposes a provocative depiction of historical events, which I doubt would be typically read in a British classroom. Izzidien is not afraid to take the British to account in this piece and it is rather refreshing to say the least. This critical exploration makes this novel, in my opinion, a valuable and arguably necessary read for anyone who does not know about British involvement in the region as early as WWI.
As Izzidien describes a time gone by and a city (Baghdad) that no longer exists as it used to, I could not help but to feel remorse and grief at the architecture, life and how this city, as many others in the world, mark history in the absence of monuments and relics rather that in the solid walls of historic architecture and museums. Thankfully history is also contained in people’s hearts, memories and in literature. Izzidien's descriptions of the city are vibrant and create a longing for a place that unfortunately no longer exits in its fully glory.
Overall, I found the novel to be both historically informative and emotionally nuanced. I enjoyed reading Izzidien's writing and felt it was a brave piece of work. My biggest criticism would be that I would have liked to read even more about some of the other characters and sub-plots but also recognise that it would have been beyond the scope for a first novel.
Have you read this novel? What did you think of it? Comment your thoughts below, I'd love to hear what you thought.
***
Follow me on instagram @nafisasiddique for updates on my latest posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment