Synopses & Reviews
“One of the most daring female writers of the Middle East” (San Francisco Chronicle) gives us an extraordinary work of nonfiction: an account of her mothers remarkable life, at the core of which is a tale of undying love. In a masterly act of literary transformation, Hanan al-Shaykh re-creates the dramatic life of her mother, Kamila, in Kamilas own voice. We enter 1930s Beirut through the eyes of the unschooled but irrepressibly spirited nine-year-old child who arrives there from a small village in southern Lebanon. We see her drawn to the excitements of the city, to the thrill of the cinema, and, most powerfully, to Mohammed, the young man who will be the love of her life.
Despite a forced marriage at the age of thirteen to a much older man, despite the two daughters she bears him (one of them the author), despite the scandal and embarrassment she brings to her family, Kamila continues to see Mohammed. Finally, after nearly a decade, her husband gives her a divorce, but she must leave her children behind
The Locust and the Bird is both a tribute to a strong-willed and independent woman and a heartfelt critique of a mother whose decision were unorthodox and often controversial. As the narrative unfolds through the years (Kamila died in 2001) we follow this passionate, strong, demanding, and captivating woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.
About the Author
HANAN AL-SHAYKH was born and raised in Lebanon. Her novels include
Women of Sand and Myrrh, The Story of Zahra, Beirut Blues, and Only in London, as well as a collection of short stories, I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops. She lives in London.
Reading Group Guide
1. Movies play a key role in Kamilas life and in this book. What did movies, especially
The White Rose, represent for Kamila? Were they just a source of pleasure and escapism, or something more? Like books, movies are a powerful form of storytelling. What does
The Locust and the Bird suggest about how stories shape and give meaning to Kamilas and to our lives?
2. Have you read anything else by Hanan al-Shaykh? She is a novelist, primarily. What fictional elements do you think she brings to this book? Why did she decide to tell her mothers story as a memoir, as truth, rather than fictionalize it?
3. The author was abandoned by her mother when Kamila left her husband for her lover. Do you think telling this story was a way for the author to forgive her mother for that betrayal? In writing her mothers story, was the author finally able to understand her mother, and thus forgive her?
4. Why does Hanan finally decide to tell the story of her mother? Why does she use the voice of her mother, in the first person? How does this affect the reader?
5. Why are there two voices-Hanans in the beginning and ending and Kamilas in the body of the book? Why does the author bookend the book in her own voice rather than her mothers?
6. Though The Locust and the Bird is set in Lebanon in the mid-twentieth century, how is this a universal tale?
7. There is a line in the book that Kamila “transformed her lies into a lifetime of naked honesty.” What does this mean and what does it say about Kamila?
8. Is Kamila an appealing, likable character? Which aspects of her character do you identify with or like the most and which do you like the least? Did your reaction to her as a little girl affect your reading experience later in the book? Would you have liked to have known her? Do you trust her, as a person and as the narrator?
9. What are the roles of women in the story? Compare and contrast the various women: Kamila, her mother, her daughter Hanan.
10. How do the portrayals of Abu-Hussein, Kamilas first husband, differ in the prologue (in Hanans voice) and the rest of the book (in Kamilas voice)? Why?
11. Describe how Mohammad and Kamila court each other and fall in love, despite the difficulties presented by the Muslim community in 1930s Lebanon.
12. How does Kamila resist and fight the rules and traditions of the religion and the socioeconomic class into which she is born?
13. Why does Kamila choose romantic love over all else? Do you find her courageous or crazy to have given up so much for love?
14. Describe the family and society Kamila was born into and grew up in. Why does her mother (who is herself fairly brave in the beginning of the book) force Kamila to marry her own brother-in-law at age thirteen?
15. What does the author suggest about the relationship between past and present, and between national and personal history? What role does Kamilas family history, and the stories of her childhood, play in shaping the adult Kamila? What is the influence of Lebanons political and historical events of the twentieth century?
16. What does the title mean? Who do you think is the locust, and who the bird? How do the title and the story of the locust and the bird connect with Kamilas drawings, in particular the use of the rose and the dove at the end? What do Kamilas drawings represent?