Unnecessary Woman

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It's not often that a new year begins and I pick up a book that will not only start the new year off with a bang, but also catapult me into a mode of massive self-reflection and discovery. It was astonishing to me that a man was able to write a woman that not only completely captured the person that I am, but also that our very fundamental differences would be a reason that the similarities between our lives would become even more prominent. The author of An Unnecessary Woman, Rabih Alameddine, has reached a status never before attained by any author I've read. Quite simply, I would like to meet him and, through tears because I'm sure I would be weeping, thank him for understanding and for making me feel, for the first time ever, that all of the thoughts that go through my head are not unusual. In fact, they are usual enough for him to craft an entire woman around them in this book. So what am I talking about? Let's get into a bit of summary before I dive into some beautiful examples. In An Unnecessary Woman, the protagonist, Aaliya, starts the story off by dying her hair blue. She doesn't intend to, she just wants to get a bit of color into the otherwise white mess. Aaliya is a translator, she translates books of her own choosing through an intricate New Years ritual, into Arabic. She is fluent in English and French and Arabic (although there is a very lovely section in which she describes the complexity of the Arabic language that made the linguist in me swoon with delight). Yet her translations have never been read; she boxes them up with a copy of the book she has translated and puts them into a room for storage. You see, Aaliya has been stuck in the same routine for years now. She translates a translation, always, and always translates books that she has been considering for quite some time. She is content, though, surrounded by her book and her memories, and through her own words, as well as artful and meaningful quotes from other great works, she explains her life through her failed marriage, her work at a bookstore, and her friendship with a woman named Hannah. That is such an overly simple explanation of this book and, in no way, captures the beauty of Alameddine's writing, nor the nuances of the character of Aaliya. She recognizes that her life is not the norm and brings it out into the open with words like: "How does the old cliche go? When every Arab girl stood in line waiting for God to hand out the desperate-to-get-married gene, I must have been somewhere else, probably lost in a book." (All quotes are taken from an advanced copy and are subject to change with the final release.) As Anne with an E would say, I knew upon reading these words (and other beautiful passages contained within the book) that I had found my kindred spirit. To be honest, I could quote all day in this review and just marvel over the beauty of the writing, the perfect building of the character of Aaliya, and my desire to just shake the hand of Alameddine and thank him repeatedly for writing a book that spoke so deeply to my soul. Instead, I will end this review with an encouragement to make An Unnecessary Woman a necessary read of 2014. It's being released in February - pre-order it now and read it as soon as you get it. I hope it will speak to you as much as it has me.