Faith – Finding My Wings

‘The Fox Hunt’: Encounters with the “other”

The Fox Hunt by Mohammed Al Samawi (William Morrow) 2018
In 40 words or less: Mohammed Al Samawi’s curiosity and drive to create his own life brings him to question traditional Islamic teachings and work for NGOs in Yemen. His exploration brings international contacts in the interfaith and peace communities and endangers his life.
Genre: Memoir
Locale: Primarily Yemen
Time: 21st century
This memoir tells the story of meeting and learning about “the other,” those supposed enemies who may be far more like you than you’d imagine. It is a story of being open to learn about mistaken prejudices, and being willing to trust the good in others.

Mohammed Al Samawi was born in 1986 into a prominent Zaidi Shia family in Sana’a, Yemen, in the northern area of the country. His parents, both doctors, expected much from their children, including adherence to traditional Islamic law. A stroke left young Mohammed with lingering weakness on one side of his body. Kept from the games of the other children, Mohammed focused his attention on learning English and reading everything he could.

Through much of his teen years, Mohammed had little reason to question the Islamic teachings of his Shia community. Christians, Jews, and particularly Israel, were enemies of Islam. Southern Yemen, including the port of Aden, was dominated by the Sunnis, aligned with Saudi Arabia and the militant Muslim Brotherhood. The differences between the sects paled when dealing with infidels.

As a more modern, affluent and educated household, there was a computer and internet access in the Al Samawi home. Mohammed used this to explore the larger world, beyond his economics classes and became curious whether the teachings about Jews and Christians were really true. Mohammed sought out a job with an NGO rather than remaining a clerk in his father’s medical practice. This position provided his first opportunity to meet a Christian westerner on an ongoing basis. Wanting to learn more about both Christians and Jews, he went to the experts he could find – Google and Facebook.

The balance of the book is about the blossoming of Mohammed as a social activist, connecting to a network of people worldwide interested in Middle East understanding. Through his connections, he was invited to and attended conferences outside of Yemen, the only representative of his country. As civil war brewed within Yemen, these efforts endangered Mohammed’s life and threatened his family. In the hope of escaping before things worsened, he was sent to Aden, a city crumbling under lawlessness.

From the start, it is known that Mohammed made it to the U.S. But it is how he got to the U.S., who helped him and the lengths to which virtual strangers went to make it happen that is extraordinary. This is a book about the power individuals and social media can have to do good if so motivated. It also speaks to diplomats at all levels, in many countries, that go above and beyond to make things happen. There are many bad actors as well, thieves and partisans who act solely on ethnicity or family ties.

Mohammed names names in this book, from friends of friends to US senators and Indian diplomats. In the acknowledgments, he also mentions the person that assisted him in organizing this memoir and putting it to paper. At a time when selfishness and isolationism seem to be at a multi-decade height, this story is a reminder of what can happen when people are asked to do the impossible and get it done.

Be transported with ‘Gateway to the Moon’

Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday) April 2018
In 40 words or less: Brilliant storytelling and character development propel the reader from the Spanish Inquisition/Expulsion and Columbus’s exploration to the desert of New Mexico five centuries later. Morris weaves together history, astronomy, human frailty, and the strength of family bonds across generations.
Genre: Literary fiction/Historical fiction
Locale: Spain, Portugal, New World, and New Mexico
Time: 1492-1500 and 1992
A rare novel combining two periods of discovery. Historical figures are carefully researched and noted as such in the listing of characters and families. Gateway to the Moon is also a coming of age story for a teen whose connection to the stars is his solace and path to the future.

As long as I’ve been in book groups I’ve searched for an engrossing novel that brings to life the conflicted period of Spain’s ascendancy as a world power and the injustices and horrors of the Inquisition and the Jews expulsion from Spain. Even less common are writings about those along on Columbus’s first expedition and what may have transpired with those left behind as the ships returned to Spain. Finally, there is a book that fills this void.

Mary Morris has the special hand required to mix history and historical figures with fictional characters with due respect to both. Even before Chapter 1 begins, Morris provides a framework for navigating the pathway from fact to fiction and back.

Miguel Torres has his feet in the dust of Entrada de la Luna and his eyes in the stars. A loner, he is fascinated by space and his thirst is recognized by his science teacher who works to keep him on the straight and narrow. Poverty and boredom are often the ticket to “juvie”, a brief trip Miguel has already taken. A chance sighting of an ad for someone to help with two small boys after school may be the way for Miguel to afford a better telescope and car money. Respectful of his elders, but in large measure raising himself, he’s dutiful about heading home Friday nights where his mother prepares the trailer for candle lighting.

The story shifts 500 years to 1492. Among those on Columbus’s ships as they left Spain in 1492 were linguists, navigators, and cartographers from the crypto-Jewish community who lives would have been at risk as the Inquisition and Expulsion pressures increased. Separated from their families, these men and boys held out hope they’d find a new home for themselves and their families at the end of their voyage. Through Luis de Torres, Columbus’s scribe, others on the ships and those left behind, Morris richly describes the fragmenting of families even as Columbus anticipates riches and glory.

This is a book filled with beautiful language. Descriptions provide just enough detail to conjure up pictures without detracting from the characters or plot. While Columbus and Miguel look to the stars for orientation, each of the other characters must adapt to the unexpected and does so in a fitting and natural way which isn’t easy to pull off. Chapter titles provide orientation in time and place, and the character lists and genealogy at the front of the book are there in the event the reader is momentarily distracted from the story’s flow.

The Jazz Palace, Mary Morris’s previous book set in Chicago during the early years of the 20th century, took on history, the development of jazz, discrimination, and families. While that was a big undertaking, Gateway to the Moon takes on a bigger challenge and brings it home. Whether your taste runs to coming of age stories, hidden communities or history brought to life, you will find it in Gateway to the Moon. This is an ideal book for book groups and will quickly push its way to the top of your to-be-read pile.

SaveSave

Emma Donoghue has a thing for mothers

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown and Company, September 2016)
In 40 words or less: A nurse trained by Florence Nightingale travels to rural Ireland to confirm/refute that a young girl is surviving on faith and water alone.
Genre: Fiction
Locale: Rural Ireland
Time: 19th century
In both her earlier novel, Room, and here, Emma Donaghue creates women characters desperate to protect children in their care. The Wonder juxtaposes faith and science, the authority of men versus women, and the power and damage of keeping secrets.

Many readers shied away from Donoghue’s Room. Most of that story took place out of sight, in a bunker where a young boy was raised by his mother, both captive to her rapist. In The Wonder, Lib, a Nightingale-trained nurse travels from London to the Irish countryside to observe a phenomenon -a young girl, Anna, seemingly surviving for months without consuming any food. Visitors have been flocking in search of blessings. The church and local leaders are concerned about the spectacle and the possibility of a hoax.

Lib and a Sister nurse are charged with observing Anna round the clock, documenting her physiological status and any possibility of food being provided. The nurses are charged to observe and record, not consult. Any judgments are to be left to the community leaders.

Lib is a fish out of water. A Londoner through and through, it is unclear why she would take this position. She has little good to say about the community or its people. And there is no evidence of contact with family or friends, seemingly both physically and emotionally alone. Only with the arrival of a journalist does she appear to have a connection in the community, though with risk.

In many ways, this is a novel of silence and secrets. The question of Anna’s family’s honesty is at the crux of the plot. The family had recently experienced the death of Anna’s brother, to whom she was devoted but it is barely noted. As the narrator and a main figure in the novel, it might be expected to learn about Lib but she is a closed book in public and in private. It is only by coming to grips with their secrets that each can be saved.

Emma Donoghue is very skilled in building tension in her stories. In Lib she has created a watchful and intelligent protector who sees her responsibility as much to Anna as to those who hired her. Anna is at the same time angelic and strong as steel, unwavering and faith-filled. Neither friends nor adversaries, each holds her own as the novel unfolds.

The Wonder was chosen by many critics as a top book of 2016. It is impossible to separate the essence of spirituality from the plot of the narrative. As a reader, one’s individual connection with the spiritual likely will have an impact on the appreciation for the book.

SaveSave

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: