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Leila Marshy

BOOKS

In the Absence of Guilt and Guile

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Salvation Army, Abdellah Taïa, Semiotext(e)

by Leila Marshy
01.02.2010

Memoirs are the new black. Like most trends, they are associated with the young and bankrolled by the old. Bypassing decades of wisdom and experience (boring!), we are guaranteed a raw slice of a trembling life. France’s current celebrity memoirist is Abdellah Taïa. Author of five books variously described as autobiographies, memoirs, autobiographical novels, etc., [...]

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BOOKS

More Than a Single Story — But One at a Time

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The Thing Around Your Neck, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Vintage Canada

by Leila Marshy
18.01.2010

African author. Something around the neck. Surely there is a reference here to the South African “necklacing” of the 1980s? Horrific summary executions carried out by “people’s courts,” necklacing consisted of filling a tire with gasoline, securing it around the neck of the victim (collaborators, business rivals, political enemies), and setting it on fire. This [...]

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BOOKS

Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle

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The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine, Anchor Canada

by Leila Marshy
23.11.2009

Instead of Once upon a time, Arabic stories begin with Kan ya makan (there was and there was not). The experience of the story is more important than its veracity because, as all good listeners know, the storyteller is a trickster. “Never trust the teller,” advises a character in The Hakawati, “trust the tale.”

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BOOKS

This is the Book that Never Ends

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This One’s Going to Last Forever, Nairne Holtz, Insomniac Press

by Leila Marshy
24.05.2009

There was a kids’ show years ago that had a puppet who sang This is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends… That singing lamb never shut up. I sing it to myself sometimes, like halfway through Nairne Holtz’s second book, This One’s Going to Last Forever. Maybe because the [...]

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EVENTS

Impenetrable Maverick in Translation

Blue Met Blog

by Leila Marshy
26.04.2009

Nicole Brossard and Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood are conferring with one of the festival organizers. It’s already past the hour and there’s a trickle of people still coming in. They are wondering about what language to use to present the duo. The presenter, it seems, is an anglophone. But Brossard shrugs it off, saying ”tout le monde parle [...]

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EVENTS

Poet and Prophet

Blue Met Blog

by Leila Marshy
25.04.2009

Tears were shed last year when Mahmoud Darwish died. By those who had only read hundreds of his poems, and by those who had only read one or two. The worst criers were those who’d read none at all but knew he was a great Palestinian poet, a poet of the struggle – a description he [...]

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EVENTS

Big Ideas, Small Confusions

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BLUE MET BLOG

by Leila Marshy
24.04.2009

The lobby, hallways and mezzanine are empty when I get to the Delta Hotel. Airplanes could take off here. An old gentleman wanders by, unsure. I recognize him as Zakaria Tamer, the Syrian author of Breaking Knees, and hold out my hand, mention I reviewed his book for the Rover, and loved it. My bad [...]

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BOOKS

Keep Smiling While I Break Your Knees

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Breaking Knees, by Zakaria Tamer, Garnet Publishing

by Leila Marshy
19.04.2009

I’ve been to Syria only once and what I discovered was this: no one talks. They move their lips and you hear about the latest fashions from Europe or the goings-on of the next-door neighbour. But try to engage someone in a conversation about politics, religion or sex, and the talking stops. They look around [...]

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BOOKS

Whoever Wins, Loses. Whoever Loses, Writes.

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The Siege, by Ismail Kadare, Random House Canada

by Leila Marshy
12.04.2009

Ismail Kadare’s The Siege can read like a present-day morality tale: embattled America fighting the war on terror, or paranoid America storming the borders of weaker nations.  With its vivid plot and cast of generals, lobbyists and sycophants, you expect Cheney, Bernie Madoff or bin Laden to show up at any moment.  Not bad for [...]

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