Author
Estephan, Roukoz
Author Original
اسطفان، روكز
Publication Date
1435
Publication Place
Beirut, Lebanon -
Beirut, Lebanon: Arab House of Science - Publishers
Subject
History, Influence, Social conditions, Social history
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
No
Manuscript
No
Pages Count
254
Physical Dimensions
254 صفحة
Library
University of Minnesota Libraries
Library Asset ID
ISBN: 9786140112742, ISBN: 6140112745
Record ID
cdi_globaltitleindex_catalog_137670332
Library Location
Request
Date
1435
Notes
From the balcony of the present, Roukoz Estefan retells the modern history of Lebanon in his new novel, “The Corner of Forgetting.” Between the absurdity of fate and the absurdity of life, the novel constitutes a testimony to the era of the Lebanese civil war, and it exercises its testimony by monitoring the movement of life in a region of northern Lebanon, and it bears witness to it through the eyes of an old man, the narrator of the novel, its hero, and his relationship with the other characters. By entering the novel from the title, the novelist wanders into the inner worlds of his characters and their personal memories. The hero of the novel, who seemed to be one of the victims of the war and who was transformed by a shell into a half-living human being, was left with nothing but the memory: “I was no longer a human being. I became a human being in name, a half-paralyzed man, disfigured, almost a monster, half of his face was consumed by fire... On that day the countdown to my normal life began, and I officially entered a state of slow death...” Thus, the war transformed the man’s life into a state of waiting for death, observing closely people’s apparent and hidden behavior. Death began to visit him in his dreams and haunt his sleep, and what he hid most of all was his son’s marriage to a woman who did not have good family morals. He chose her from a social environment that did not befit the family’s status, which later made him obsessed with his son turning against him and abandoning him, especially after his illness became severe and he became unaware of his actions and needed special care. In the novel, the novelist moves from the private to the general, and dips his pen into the symbols of the Lebanese war, its demons, and the countries near and far that helped fan the fire of sectarianism and give priority to political interests and the interests of individuals over the interests of the nation. He symbolizes the first leader as “Hazelnut,” the second leader as “Pistachio,” and the Syrian intervention as the “Occupation Army.” Legitimacy is lost here and there, says Abu Youssef. Hazelnut says that he represents legitimacy, and Pistachio, on the other hand, says the same thing. The problem is that legitimacy in this country has always been divided equally between the two sects that make up the country. Hazelnuts have half the legitimacy, and pistachios have the other half. If legitimacy does not include both parties, this means that there is no legitimacy for anyone. Any decision taken in its name is an incomplete, truncated, and contested decision, and here lies the problem with the decision taken by Nuduq.” From this scene, the novelist passes over the general scene in the country: “bombing,” “displacement,” and “death”: the occupation army’s aircraft flies over the presidential palace for the first time. This means that the international green light has been given to it to implement the international resolution. The war to shoot down Nuduq breaks out. Shells are falling again everywhere...” --
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