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A review By Mohammed Alloutt
When over a year and half ago we presented novelist Adel Bishtawi as
a distinguished writer our judgment stemmed from a solid conviction,
especially following the publication of his fourth literary
accomplishment, "Traces of a Tattoo" (1988). The novel has since
been celebrated by the Arab critics in magazine and newspaper
articles and has become, in record time, a subject of literary
criticism studies at the English University.
The publication (1999) of his second recent novel, "Times of Death
and Roses," is no surprise to us. Nor is it a surprise that the
second should surpass the first in its length (553 pages), the
beauty of writing as a craft and a creation, or the choice of
subject which is human by excellence as it investigates the
possibility or otherwise of the existence of love in times of war,
horror and death.
It is a novel that, like its precedent, searches for the glowing
pulse of life in a macabre atmosphere of despair and senseless
killing; the dramatization of suffering at a time when the betting
on the future seeks fulfilment and a way out of the circle of
dreams; the dramatization of human beings whose memories are
heavily-cracked and whose souls are inhabited by fear and the ghosts
of death.
We have to presume that it is an entertaining novel. But the
entertainment therein does not render itself completely to the
reader until the latter has exercised patience over a narrative
whose basic foundation is not a simple, superficial device of
straightforwardly narrating events but two distinctive literary
techniques. These are: the interior monologue and the dialogue. The
former, whose single exercise may stretch over an entire chapter,
invokes the style of Marcel Brust in "In Search of the Lost Time,"
or the unique literary device of "stream of consciousness" whose
proponents include Virginia Wolf, William Faulkner and Thomas Mann.
Furthermore, the reader finds himself drawn into realms of stylistic
and eloquent exercises where the metaphor is a basic element. The
reader has no choice, at times, except to venture into interpreting
such metaphors by relying on the general meaning of the text. Some
examples that need metaphorical interpretation are the "Sea," the
"Goblin," the "Demon."
"Times of Death and Roses" is a complex literary work entertaining a
simple plot that may be well served by a short story of several
pages. But the writer is more interested in the inner lives of his
characters than in the intricacies of the plot (we are coming to
that shortly). There is no need to sum up the modern plot. It would
suffice to note that the novel as a whole is built on two events,
namely, war and love. In the course of action, the original duality
of war and love begets a series of antitheses: existence vs.
non-existence; life vs. death; the possible vs. the impossible;
affirmation vs. negation; past vs. present; presence vs. absence.
A passionate, extremely romatic love story evolving on the backdrop
of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the novel poses problematic
questions: can love and life exist in times of destruction and
death? Could a rose blossom in a soil infected by mines? Could the
angels spread their white wings in an age of air bombing, demons,
and senseless killing?
Rana, Ali and Elie
The chief characters of Times of Death and Roses are: "Rana," "Ali,"
and "Elie" - a trio joined together by a single love story. Rana is
infatuated with love for her angle, Ali. But she is also attached to
Elie who victimizes her and, consequently, becomes a demon. At a
personal level, Rana suffers the dilemma of being forced to choose
between an angel and a demon. Her personal conflict, which has many
overtones - psychological, spiritual, religious, social and
political - reduces the novel into a dramatization of the
ever-lasting, mythical struggle between good and evil.
But although Rana's internal conflict is a focal point, the novel's
actual boundaries extend limitlessly as it reads into the current
Arab reality. Firstly, the novel depicts the horrible, disgusting
acts of aggression and cases of rape committed by the Israelis
against the Palestinians. It moves on to depict life in the
Palestinian military bases and the refugee camps. Thirdly, it
comments on the Palestinian resistance movement as it becomes an
institution and loses its human connotation.
The full weight of the events with their bloody ugliness is
reflected in the personal fate of Ali's close friend, Maher, before
it turns into fits of despair which attack Ali whenever he
remembered his days at the military base, the death of his friend,
Maher, the death of his brother and baby-sister in one of the many
massacres committed by the Israeli soldiers and, finally, the heavy
loss of his beloved, Fatina- his childhood friend and future dream-
in the madness of hostilities.
The overall tragedy is also personalized in Rana herself. She comes
to Beirut to pursue her university studies but the hostilities steal
the dreams and roses she has spent a life watering in the secret
gardens of her heart. The cost she has to pay is her first love,
Ali. She also finds herself entangled by the demonic web of Elie,
the head of a private gang of outlaws which reduces human values
into a criminal wave of killings and torture, individual and
collective. As the writer carries the repercussions of the events on
the inner lives of his characters, thus Rana is shown torn between a
desire to turn Elie into an angel so that life could become possible
for everybody and a conflicting desire to win the heart of the angel
Ali so that they could join forces in the fight against crime.
Apart from the three principal characters, the novel's fabric does
not become complete except with the necessary presence of the
secondary characters. These act as assistants or, (according to Mr.
Probe in his study of folk tales) obstructive factors, for or
against the universal desire in seeing good win over evil, or vice
versa. Of the secondary characters we may mention Maher, Katia, Rama,
Fatina, Rana's parents, Fatina's husband (Ahmed,) Rasha the child
and Omar. However, the question of the secondary characters is
important in as much as the affirmation of their presence bring us
closer to the principal characters, not farther.
The Individual and the Cause
The writer is profoundly keen to underline the difference between
the Palestinian as an individual and as a Cause. He wants to show
how political commitment may turn into a heavy and destructive human
burden. Ali says of his niece Fatinah," It is true that Fatinah is a
Palestinian but she is in the end a woman and needs to marry the man
not the Cause. She wants to have children, her own, not the orphans
of the Cause." (P 21) But drawing the line between the individual
and the Cause does not amount to a declaration of "escape" from the
inevitable confrontation. Hence the angry, defiant and painful note
the writer uses in speaking of the Palestinian people: "How many
massacres are we to endure, ' Ali shouted at the top of his mouth as
he ran by the fence, 'How many massacres are we to endure before
this nation raises hands trembling with anger, despair and the
desire for revenge and shouts: Now, I want blood, now. How many
times are we to hear: This is the last massacre but always turns out
to the one before the last? How many massacres the homeland of
massacres is going to endure? How many female babies are you going
to rape? How many kids are you going to butcher? How many pregnant
bellies are you going to open? How many boys are you going to force
in line before you point your guns at their foreheads one after the
other? How many bombs are going to explode and how many bullets to
be fired before the nation raises her hands and shouts: Damn you
all, you bastards! From now on I no longer need any of you." (P 49)
In times of Palestinian despair, when the executed becomes the
executioner, we find the novelist asserting that victory lies in
survival, in betting on the future, on continuing the struggle. One
of the secondary characters, "Boubou", says to Ali," You're a friend
so I'll tell you. But I'll whisper it into your ear lest somebody
hears us. My gun of last resort is not here (the military base). My
final gun is at home. It is my wife. In circumstances such as these
it is not possible to fight death with death. We wont succeed.
Instead, I'll fight death with life. I've four children. I want six
more, half for me and half for them and we shall see who survives in
the end. (P 63)
In times of death and internal conflict in Lebanon, non-existence
becomes existence; life becomes impossible and man dies standing;
dies from despair and loneliness. Lost at sea, having fled the hell
of the military base, Ali cries out," Why are we here? Why are we
alone in a lonely planet, in a lonely space, why?" (P85). But the
novel's characters remain alive. In an interior monologue, Ali
says," The time of death has gone but it still hangs there in the
horizon. This I know because I sometimes hear it calling out in the
darkness. I do not want it. I want someone to pull me away from
it...The time of roses has not started yet. I know that its breeze
floats nearby. I raise my nose in its direction and empty my lungs.
I search for it at night, at dawn and at sea and in the faces of all
those I see, but I still can't find it. I want someone to keep
reminding me of it, to drag me, push me towards it. If this someone
does not succeed in the beginning, I will not complain because I
know I'm being pulled away from the time of death. And this is good
enough." (P 272)
Rana and Ali are a common fate; two faces of a coin, a love story
which bets on life and the future. In the end, each comes out having
achieved victory over a broken, horribly damaged self. They both
emerge from the darkness of despair and death, each carrying a rose
for those to come. They have together achieved victory. The novel
concludes with their passionate love tying them together for
eternity. It is a happy ending which seeks to demonstrate that there
is something in life worth struggling for. But victory comes when
the characters bet on what is eternal and ultimate: love, humanity
and goodness. Likewise, defeat and humiliation come when we engage
in futile battles whose sole objective is to win selfish gains,
negate the other, or collaborate with the demon for a trivial
benefit.
Although "Times of Death and Roses" focuses on the tragedy of the
current Palestinian reality in particular, yet the writer has
succeeded in making us feel that what he meant by his novel is
humanity at large. He is helped in that by his acute observation and
preference for the universal. Everything in the book is singular in
the plural tense. We may say that it is a book on Palestine. So
what? It is a novel about man everywhere and at all times. The
writer targets us all.
The last page is an ending and a beginning at the same time because
the novel bets on renewed birth only to tell us that love is the
beginning and end of any human relationship. It is love that gives
life and negates death. It is love that makes us utter the cry of
joy the baby utters as he emerges from the darkness of the womb. It
is love which makes us hold the roses but not feel the pain of the
thorns cutting into our hand and veins that pulsate with a deep love
of life, a hand of good luck extending into eternity.
Published by Sahra Newspaper (Casablanca, Moroccan) on 01 June
1999, and translated by Mohamed Khaled.
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