He took me to 1949 with a novel named "a spit in the face of life" and it was about incest. A father whose desire for his daughter is confusing, while the daughter is not innocent. A mixture that was not easy to read. The deep psychological insight is annoying. Fwad Al Tikarli had made me feel surprised for the existence of such a frankness in Iraqi literature. A thing that I didn't know is existing. "a spit in the face of life" is a short novel with easy language.
"the sand ring" was written in 1990s talking about a young man who decided to make his choice in spite of the traditions of the Iraqi society of marriage. He was threatened to be killed but he was stubborn. Actually he was stupid. Some say that Fwad Al Tikarli is among the first who were affected by the "existentialism" movement in Baghdad and that this novel talks about the choice of the protagonist to "exist". Anyway it left me with some anxiety.
"the no question and the no answer" is another novel written between 2005 and 2006 by Al Tikarli. It is about an Iraqi father living in the 1990s and suffering from poverty. He is a teacher but works in the evening as a taxi driver. He started to have sleepwalking at night with nightmares. He also got some sexual lust to one of his daughters. Actually she is the daughter of his wife from another wife. Another novel that made me anxious when I was reading it.
I cannot say that I don't like Al Tikarli, because it seems that I may read another novel for him to see to where he would take me, but his novels are not novels that made you smile, they are novels that made you frown.
2 comments:
Sami
The novels sound disturbing, and made me wonder about the author, why this pre-occupation?
I don't know really. His narration is professionl and deep. But it seems he is not stable. He is a lawye, a famous one. He was known for being very calm and laconic. He is regarded as one of the pioneer Iraqi novelists. And he was affected by the movement of existentialism.
I always wonder is it healthy to read such novels. Many writers have psychic problems which they may (they will) reflect in their writtings.
Is it worth to read?
Anyway, for me, it was worth to read Fwad Al Tikarli but it was not making me feel at ease. It was like looking into the diary of a mentally disturbed.
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