Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

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Summary:

Meet “darling” Liyana in this poetic, although a bit naïve, novel. Written as a diary, through its pages you can walk the narrow streets and alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City quarters and listen to a Babel of sounds while smelling the spicy food flavours from a myriad different cultures and cuisines. But in this “cake made of layers of time” not all is as peaceful as Liyana’s family thought when they first moved from America. In Israel/Palestine (or “Is-Pal” or “Pal-Is” as Liyana and her brother innocently call it to try to solve the dichotomy) “old anger floated around”; soon all of them would have to face different grades of violence and learn how to deal with it.

LRB

About the author:

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas.

Nye’s experience of both cultural difference and different cultures has influenced much of her work. Known for poetry that lends a fresh perspective to ordinary events, people, and objects, Nye has said that, for her, “the primary source of poetry has always been local life, random characters met on the streets, our own ancestry sifting down to us through small essential daily tasks.” In her work, according to Jane Tanner in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, “Nye observes the business of living and the continuity among all the world’s inhabitants … She is international in scope and internal in focus.” Nye is also considered one of the leading female poets of the American Southwest. A contributor to Contemporary Poets wrote that she “brings attention to the female as a humorous, wry creature with brisk, hard intelligence and a sense of personal freedom unheard of” in the history of pioneer women.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/naomi-shihab-nye

Critical perspective:

Through imagery, poetry, character development, and a strong story line contrasting conflict and peace, anger and friendship, Naomi Shihab Nye’s character Liyana Abboud welcomes you into her life and her Arab American family in Habibi. Each chapter starts with a line written by Liyana, setting up the theme of the chapter… Through her move to Jerusalem, Liyana finds herself, her place in the world.

Liyana enjoys exploring Jerusalem. “The city was a cake made of layers of time.” Yet Liyana notices that anger pours from the cracks between the stones. “With so much holiness bumping up against other holiness, doesn’t it seem strange Jerusalem would have had so much fighting?”

https://multiculturallitchild.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-habibi-by-naomi-shihab-nye.html

Review excerpts:

School Library Journal (1997) “Though the story begins at a leisurely pace, readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger. Poetically imaged and leavened with humor, the story renders layered and complex history understandable through character and incident. Habibi succeeds in making the hope for peace compellingly personal and concrete...as long as individual citizens like Liyana’s grandmother Sitti can say, “I never lost my peace inside.”

Book Report (1998) “This book is an outstanding look at what it is like to be a young person in Palestine today. It is rich in detail, personalizes the complex tensions of the Middle East, and leaves the reader with a sense of hope for peaceful resolutions.” 

Horn Book Magazine (1997) “The leisurely progression of the narrative matches the slow and stately pace of daily life in this ancient land, and the text’s poetic turns of phrase accurately reflect Liyana’s passion for words and language.”

Publishers Weekly (September 8, 1997) “This soul-stirring novel about the Abbouds, an Arab American family, puts faces and names to the victims of violence and persecution in Jerusalem today.... Nye’s climactic ending will leave readers pondering, long after the last page is turned, why Arabs, Jews, Greeks and Armenians can no longer live in harmony the way they once did.” 

Kirkus Reviews comments, “In her first novel, Nye (…) shows all of the charms and flaws of the old city through unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language. The sights, sounds, and smells of Jerusalem drift through the pages and readers glean a sense of current Palestinian-Israeli relations and the region's troubled history. In the process, some of the passages become quite ponderous while the human story- -Liyana's emotional adjustments in the later chapters and her American mother's reactions overall--fall away from the plot. However, Liyana's romance with an Israeli boy develops warmly, and readers are left with hope for change and peace as Liyana makes the city her very own.”

https://multiculturallitchild.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-habibi-by-naomi-shihab-nye.html

Awards:

  • American Library Association Notable Books for Children 1998
  • ALA Best Book for Young Adults 1998
  • MEOC’s Middle East Book Award 2000
  • New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
  • American Bookseller “Pick of the Lists”

https://multiculturallitchild.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-habibi-by-naomi-shihab-nye.html

Our club members’reviews:

“Habibi, is a fresh and youthful novel.  The living history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  Alive because it is told from the author's autobiographical perspective: her ancestry, real characters like Sitti, her grandmother, her relatives.  Built in the streets and alleys of old Jerusalem, where violence has not been abated, where anger, resentment, and the desire for revenge are perpetuated.  Nye makes us see the abyss between the two cultures, American and Arab.  The nonsense of the lack of understanding between Arabs and Jews.  From his hand we can smell the sweets, the vegetables in the streets of Jerusalem, we hear the voices of Jews and Palestinians, the extreme noises of its streets, we see its street stalls and it makes us feel the terror of daily violence in the streets, in the houses, with the children.  It could not be more current, despite referring to the 70s and being published in 1997. Nye is an active voice of Arab Americans and brings before our faces the effects of daily terror in the Middle East.  The ending of the novel is happy, seeking peace among “normal” people above prejudice, terrorism, and leaders.  Something stirs inside one reading this book, how is it possible that they cannot live in peace?”

PRR

“Liyana, 14, and her family leave St. Louis, Missouri, for Jerusalem, her father’s -Poppy- land. All of them notice the cultural and religious clash but, after some time, she is the one that feels more alone, even though she has met a friend -Omer- who is Jewish.

Step by step they live hard experiences, problems with soldiers, contact with refugees, going to jail, and they will start a moral fight for freedom and equality.

 So, we have a group of children and teenagers who feel “the need to write a better story” and, in spite of the fact that the book may seem too simple and idealistic, we should not forget the readers for whom it was written and it could help youngsters nowadays to understand the present situation in Gaza/Israel.”

CJ

“"Habibi" tells the story of 14-year-old Liyana Abboud and her family, her Arab father, American mother, and brother Rafik, who move from their home in St. Louis (UA) to Mr. Abboud´s native home in Palestine in the 1970s.

Although the novel is a bit insipid due to the lack of a well-structured plot, the author manages to effectively introduce the Arab-Israeli conflict to young readers. So, the book can be used as a powerful teaching resource in classrooms in the hands of teachers.

It´s a shame that the author hasn't brought out more potential in the character´s profiles and their interactions. However, there is a masterful use of the descriptions of places, smells and sounds that transport and permit us to recreate the area where the plot takes place.

In short, it is an appropriate book for teenagers that facilitates them to reflect on this conflict and its dramatic impact on Palestinians and Israeli lives.”

JLJG

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