TWO BLANKETS, THREE SHEETS

Name: TWO BLANKETS, THREE SHEETS
Author: Rodaan Al Galidi
ISBN: 978-1-64286-045-0

by Rodaan Al Galidi ; translated by Jonathan Reeder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2020

A blunt and surprisingly humorous peek at an aspect of global displacement that remains largely hidden from public view.

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Fleeing conscription in Saddam Hussein’s army, an Iraqi refugee finds himself in a different kind of hell after he applies for asylum in the Netherlands.

By the time Samir Karim lands in Schiphol airport in 1998, he has already spent seven years trying to set down anchor somewhere in the world. The Dutch, he has heard, are lenient with asylum. Coming from war-torn Iraq, Karim has a powerful case. The problem is the Dutch have heard it all before, and Karim’s application soon gets snared in bureaucratic procedures. He whiles away years, waiting with his assigned two blankets, three sheets, a towel, a pillow, and a pillowcase, to obtain an official residence permit. Karim meets close to 500 fellow refugees at the asylum seekers’ center. Waiting in the center, not knowing when the all-important letter from immigration will arrive, is modern-day purgatory. Al Galidi, himself an Iraqi refugee in the Netherlands, leans on his experiences to describe the cacophony that’s the ASC. A parade of colorful refugee seekers fills in a striking picture of what life’s like on the inside. Does conversion to Christianity help? Rumor has it that it might. “Whoever goes to the mosque gets sent to the jihad, and whoever goes to the church gets a residence permit. I think the church is better,” says Fatima, with a sardonic sense of humor. Karim is an entertaining—if occasionally coarse—protagonist who expertly dissects the statelessness that plagues today’s refugees. In one of the more touching moments, a 7-year-old born at the center claims it as his country—he has seen nothing else. The nuanced narrative does not hide darker currents of depression or loss of personhood.

A blunt and surprisingly humorous peek at an aspect of global displacement that remains largely hidden from public view.

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-64286-045-0

Page Count: 400

Publisher: World Editions

Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.