so much to Bookish First and HMH Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the advanced copy of The Arsonists City in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.
This is an extremely rich and nuanced look into family, life, heritage, and identity, but I struggled with whether or not to feature this one on the blog.
I try really hard to stick to cleaner content these days and there are more than a few mature sexual situations amp adultery in this one, but theres also a discourse on humanity, immigration, and reconciliation that as asomething, I could appreciate, and hey, we are all adults here.
I was originally interested in this book because allegedly my grandfather was a random Syrian exchange students brother, and I sometimes feel interested in Syrian books assuming he came from the actual motherland.
So lets just discuss content first because it s the first thing that anyone reading the book encounters, A man is murdered in the prologue, and it sets the whole book up to be super dramatic and interesting and I am thinking “oh boy this is going to be good!!” Then the next thing you know one of the characters is on her stomach thinking about a deflated condom, like, shit.
So now I have to remember her depressing sex life throughout the rest of the book, and its a theme through all the characters chapters, including a heavy discussion of the gay siblings sexuality, which is tied to Beiruts youth culture in general somehow.
Between that and pretty much everyone either contemplating or committing adultery at some point, I am like Well sex is not what I want to read, and its depressing.
But its part of life, which along with death, are major themes of the book, Idris and Mazna immigrated to America on asylum when he started his surgical residency, leaving his ancestral house behind, Years later once Idris father dies and the house is empty of family he decides to sell it which brings the scattered family all back together, In Beirut. For one very enlightening summer,
Each of the three siblings and Mazna the mother, were the chapter points of view, This sorted into the present the kids and past Mazna, It is always interesting to see people struggle bus through theirs in slice of life style, because thats me, but a big part of me just didnt care.
Maznas story was legitimately interesting with her life between Damascus and Beirut, and seeing the war, plus being brown in America once they immigrated, None of the characters were really likeable for me though, like I wanted to like Mazna but shes so stubborn and then hooked up with that film guy, plus she took Idris a heart surgeon for a total moron.
The book spent a LOT of time building each character, It is kind of the point of the book, but some parts involving the siblings were just boring to me, I didnt care about Marwans band or Avas cheating husband, or even Naj, even though she had the most interesting life by far it was all flings and drugs and music.
Once they got to Beirut and all the secrets started coming out, it got more interesting,
There were so many side characters mentioned too that I just couldnt keep track Many of them not horribly relevant but still,
I can relate a lot of the book to real life though for example being entitled to our secrets, and maybe not needing to know all of our parents secrets.
Also learning that we as adults are maybe a little bit more like them than we like to admit,
I know this is a book that a lot of people are loving for Alyans fantastic writing style and the story of love, loss, immigration, and familial reconciliation that she tells, and I dont blame them at all.
I think fans of the genre will love this, I just found it to be aday long snooze fest when the kids were featured and I was limited to one rather long chapter at a time.
sitelinkThe Arsonists' City by sitelinkHala Alyan is a multigenerational family saga about a Lebanese/Syrian family, The patriarch is Idris Nasr, a Lebanese, married to Mazna, a Syrian, Their three children are Ava, Mimi Marwan, and Naj Najla, Apart from Naj who lives in Beirut, the family all live in America, Set mostly against the backdrop of a Lebanon emerging from sectarian tensions and civil war, the novel covers a span of aboutyears, The focus is on Mazna and her adult children, Their challenges and personal demons are gradually revealed through temporal shifts and locations alternating between Damascus, America, and Beirut,
The novel opens inwhen Zakaria, a young Palestinian refugee, is murdered in Lebanon in an act of sectarian revenge, The novel goes back toto introduce a young Mazna in Damascus, an aspiring actress with dreams of becoming a Hollywood movie star, Through a mutual friend, she meets Idris inwho becomes totally besotted with her, And through Idris, she meets Zakaria, The three become involved in a love triangle when Mazna and Zakaria fall passionately in love and make plans for a future together, Their love affair comes to a screeching halt with Zakarias murder,
Shortly after Zakarias death, Idris is accepted in medical school in California, He proposes to Mazna with lures of Hollywood fame, A brokenhearted Mazna accepts his proposal, resigning herself to a marriage with a man she does not love, Forty years later when Idris decides to sell the Beirut ancestral home he inherited from his father, he causes a family uproar, The family converges in Beirut to hold a memorial for Idris father and to protest the sale of the home,
In this characterdriven novel, Alyan excels in creating authentic, believable, and multidimensional characters beset with sibling jealousies and rivalry, marital bickering, simmering resentments, petty squabbles, thwarted aspirations, and ongoing deceptions.
The ebb and flow of their relationships as they push away from one another or pull toward one another realistically capture the complexity of family dynamics, Each character is fully fleshed out, unique, flawed, and realistically drawn, The dialogue is natural with its pauses, hesitations, things said, and things left unsaid, Secrets buried for forty years bubble to the surface, Added to the mix are first and second generation struggles with issues of forced migration, displacement, fractured identity, questions of belonging, assimilation, and loss of homeland,
This complex, multilayered novel grips the reader from the first pages of its riveting prologue depicting a revenge murder to the last pages depicting the resiliency of the Nasr family bond.
Alyans finely drawn characters, intricate storytelling, masterful pacing, and sparkling prose attest to her skill as an accomplished writer welldeserving of the accolades she has received,
A compelling family saga, Highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at sitelinkwww, tamaraaghajaffar. com Throughout the novel, as I was reading, I kept hearing the Neko Case song, “Hold On, Hold On,” about how it is safer to be around strangers, as the familiar was too dangerous.
That sums up the Nasr familys approach, living apart from each other due to guilt, shame, and relationship issues, Mazna from Damascus and Idris from Beirut met in thes, while Mazna was doing local theater, dreaming of becoming a famous actress, and Idris was in medical school, pursuing a career as a surgeon.
They met through friends, and Idris fell instantly for Mazna when he saw her onstage, Now it is prepandemic contemporary times, and Mazna and Idris have lived in Blythe, California for nearly four decades, and their three children are scattered around the globe.
This is their story.
The Nasr family FaceTimes and Zooms, calls and texts each other, from a distance, but the secrets they carry erect an invisible wall that they hide behind, and from one another.
But now Idris father has died, and he wants to sell the ancestral home in Beirut, The urgency and the looming past create a reluctant gathering at the old house,
The prologue, as well as subsequent chapters, often gives away a climactic event, so it isnt about “What is going to happen” Rather, the intrigue lies in the reactions, conflicts, and fears when secrets are mounting to the surface.
Events are periodically predictable, but it doesnt diminish the tension, Its all about the characters and theme, Can you go home What is home How do shameful secrets destroy you, and when is it fitting to reveal these buried skeletons Who can you trust, and have you betrayed or been betrayed How does trauma affect the next generation The narrative alternates characters and time periods, gradually filling in everyones backstory.
Maznas story is the most blistering and dramatic,
ARSONISTS CITY is epic, emotional, tragic, and redemptive, Ava is the oldest child of Mazna and Idris, a mother of two little ones, struggling in her marriage, The middle child, Naj, left America for Beirut after graduating college, and became a celebrity rock star, But she knows the industry is fickle, whimsical, Moreover, she keeps secrets from her family, and sleeps around a lot, Mimi is the boy, the baby, but as an adult he is flailing in Austin, trying to make it as a musical artist, but jealously not up to his sisters talent.
His relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Harper, is stagnant,
Mazna, Idris, and their three kids and Avas two children and Harper meet in Beirut in the house that Idris grew up in and wants to sell.
However, the rest of the family conflicts with Idris, are horrified, and want the home to stay in the family, Throughout this summer of togetherness, the narrative reaches down deeper, and mines their lives, past and present, But it is Maznas story that gives the narrative its heft, And, even as she grew up during war between Syria and Lebanon, and the occupation of Beirut by Syria, Mazna experiences the war from a place of safety, as if she is witnessing a tencar pileup outside the window of her own intact vehicle.
This story isnt about war, but it is part of the landscape and affects all its citizens, Mazna dreams of a career in America, a place she can be a serious thespian and play any role,
“Films make people sad, Mazna is slowly understanding, They remind people of a time that is over or a time theyve never been part ofTheater is the same, Its heartbreaking because it will end, because people will become a part of the story and then be abandoned by
it, Shes aware of this during rehearsals as she repeats the same lineslearning to let her hands flutter naturally, playing with tone and volume, Shes lying to a roomful of people, She is going to break their hearts, ”
Read it and weep!,