Book Review: Sharon and my Mother-in-Law by Suad Amiry | Suite101.com

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law Book Cover - Granta Books

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law is a moving and witty memoir of Suad Amiry, a Palestinian architect living in the occupied town of Ramallah.

Suad Amiry is an architect, and the founder and director of RIWAQ : the Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah. Her memoir is a collection of diaries and e-mail correspondences that span 1981-2004.

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law is divided into two chronologically organized parts that detail Amiry?s life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Part One is a vivid account of Amiry?s life since she left Amman, Jordan in 1981 heading towards the occupied town of Ramallah to work as a Professor at Beirzeit University. Part Two includes Amiry?s personal war diaries during the period from November 2001 to September 2002. Amiry considers writing the latter diaries as a ?form of therapy? she resorted to in order to express her feelings and to release the tension caused and intensified by Ariel Sharon and her mother-in-law. This part of the book is originally based on e-mails that Amiry used to send to her intimate friends who were anxious to know how she manages to run her day-to-day activities under the occupation and the suffocating curfews.

Lifetime Journey

Amiry?s trip to Ramallah, which was supposed to last for just six months, turned out to be a lifetime journey after she fell in love, married and created a successful social and professional life there.

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law is a wry account of her trials and tribulations of living in an occupied territory and having to come to terms with the never-ending curfews imposed by the Israeli forces on the Palestinians. Amiry candidly describes her agony and frustration for spending seven years to get her Hawiyyeh (identity card) in her own country, for having to pass through tens of checkpoints to get in or out of Ramallah using multiple kinds of permits, and for having to cope with the ongoing Israeli intimidation and aggression against Palestinians.

Humour in Insane Situations

In spite of the terrible circumstances in Ramallah, Amiry?s blackly funny stories will often make you laugh out loud. The absurdity of some situations that she - as well as other Palestinians - face on daily basis, and the way they deal with them is thought- provoking and sometimes extremely entertaining. An example of these stories is the one about her dog easily getting a Jerusalem passport while Amiry herself does not have one. She even once used her dog?s passport to get into Jerusalem by her car as a driver of a ?Jerusalem dog? who cannot get in and out of Jerusalem all by herself.

Another humorous story is that of a young Israeli soldier who became agitated just because Amiry was staring at him from the backseat of her husband?s car while he was searching the contents of the trunk in a checkpoint. He then asked Amiry?s husband to accompany him to the commander?s office. Surprised by such a trivial complaint by the soldier, the commander reprimanded him for his stupidity and ordered them both to get out of his office.

Scattered Family and Absence of Normal Life

None of Amiry?s family members lives in Ramallah. Throughout the book, she sadly describes how difficult it is to invite any of her family members living in Amman, Damascus or Beirut to visit her in Ramallah. Getting the visitor?s permit at the Israeli Civil Administration is not easy task. In addition, it is even harder to convince her relatives to overcome their fears and make such a trip.

Amiry?s Syrian mother, who lived in Jaffa in the past before the Israelis drove the family out of their home, strongly rejects the idea of requesting an Israeli permit to visit her daughter. She does believe that this is against her ?No to normalization with Israel? stance.

Amiry?s life in Ramallah has always been far from normal. What she enjoyed most in her ten-day relaxation trip to Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh in 2003 was something that almost all people take for granted: ?To be able to move freely and stay out late at night?.

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law is a must-read for anyone who wants to delve into the lives of people under occupation. Amiry is a spirited, inspiring and courageous woman who faces the most difficult circumstances with great hopes for a better future and a nice smile.

Suad Amiry. Sharon and my Mother-in-Law. London: Granta Books, 2005. ISBN: 9781862078116

Copyright Amira Abozeid. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Source: http://www.suite101.com/content/book-review-sharon-and-my-mother-in-law-by-suad-amiry-a376839

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