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Poetic memoir of Palestinian woes

Chicago Sun-Times, Jun 29, 2003 by Dolores Flaherty

The subversive power of the poet should never be underestimated. The Soviets knew this and exiled many poets to Siberia. Such thoughts come to mind in reading I Saw Ramallah, by Mourid Barghouti, a Palestinian poet and official (Anchor, $12). His subversion is to put a human face on a suffering people.

Barghouti reflects poetically, sometimes excerpting his own poems, on his return to Palestine after 30 years in exile following the signing of the Oslo accords. A young man from Ramallah, a Palestinian suburb of Jerusalem, he was studying in Cairo when the 1967 war was lost and his land was occupied by Israel.

Later, he was banned for a time from Egypt--and from his wife and son in Cairo--for his pro-Palestinian activities. He spent many years in Budapest representing Palestinian interests. (Barghouti says he was never a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, although Columbia University professor Edward Said identifies him in a foreword to the book as the PLO representative in Hungary.)

As Barghouti crosses the bridge over the Jordan River, major themes emerge: the longing for a childhood long gone, memories of a brother who died a tragic death in exile, the bitter edge of daily life where appearances of Palestinian autonomy are erased by the reality of Israeli settlements and occupation.

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He visits his old village near Ramallah, one of seven populated with people named Barghouti, the largest clan name among Palestinians. There he sees a neighbor has cut down her fig tree because there is no one to collect the figs. Villagers make their living from olive oil pressed from the fruit of their orchards, but most are dependent on money sent from kin working in other Middle East countries or the West.

Barghouti's words evoke biblical images of the ancient Hebrews pining from cruel exile in Babylon.

And that of course is what makes this poetic work so political. Memory flows across these pages. But so does grievance, exemplified by the generous use of the word "martyr." In this book, no Palestinian simply dies--by accident, in war, in street violence, of disease, of heartbreak--without becoming a martyr, one whose life has been given for ultimate restoration of one's homeland. That is not the language of compromise, essential for a political settlement.

Still, Barghouti's poetic memoir is a humanizing rejoinder to those who would belittle the claims of an indigenous people to their homeland.

Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine, by Raja Shehadeh (Penguin, $14). The author's father, a lawyer, brought down the wrath of fellow Palestinians when he called for a separate state that would recognize and live in peace with Israel. So Shehadeh came of age full of contradiction, feeling the oppression of the occupation and struggling against his father's political stance.

The Summer of My Greek Taverna, by Tom Stone (Simon & Schuster, $12). Here's a bit of wistful vacation reading. The author went to Greece to write a novel, fell in love and stayed several years more, including one in which he ran an ill-ventured taverna on the isle of Patmos.

A Whole New Life, by Reynolds Price (Scribner, $13). Price, a distinguished novelist, poet, professor and essayist, tells how pain and healing changed his life after cancer was discovered in his spinal cord in 1984. He was left paralyzed from the chest down.

MASS MARKETS: The Courier, by Jay MacLarty (Pocket, $6.99), a thriller about an airline pilot whose moonlighting as a courier suddenly becomes dangerous; The Importance of Being Ernestine, by Dorothy Cannell (Penguin, $6.99), a mystery featuring two women who undertake a murder investigation when their boss's client mistakes them for PIs; Slightly Scandalous, by Mary Balogh (Dell, $5.99), a historical romance with a feisty young lady falling for a hellraising marquess; Critical Space, by Greg Rucka (Bantam, $6.99), a thriller in which a private security agent rescues a professional killer who once stalked him as her prey.