Enter ghost

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Alva Dahl: Enter ghost (Hardcover, 2024, Vintage)

323 sivua ; 20 cm, 323 sidor

På English

Publicerades 2024 av Vintage.

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After years away from her family's homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. While Haneen made a life here commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her acting and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds that her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new. When Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, she joins a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing Gertrude's lines in classical Arabic with a dedicated group of men who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, all want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer and the warring intensifies, it becomes clear just how many obstacles stand before the troupe. Amidst it all, the life …

3 utgåvor

None

4.5. OK, I'm a sucker for a good meta-Hamlet. And Enter Ghost is often a brilliant novel, hitting that sweet spot of good character work and exploring wider identities - what is a Palestinian, what is an actor, the way oppression forces everyone to perform at all times; the roles are already written, the question is just who the circumstances will force into which role. Nay, I know not "seems". All while the pressure keeps building outside the safety that the castle or the stage offers.

So for long stretches, this is a pure 5-star for me. Two things bring it down ever so slightly; the ending, which feels both perfect and incredibly frustrating; and the feeling that this 2023 novel is already outdated, its questions made obsolete by a real world that is content to let not just Rosencrantz & Guildenstern die offstage. It can't help the …

Ämnen

  • Nasir, Sonia (fiktiivinen hahmo)
  • Shakespeare, William. Hamlet
  • naiset
  • teatteri
  • siskot
  • tyytymättömyys
  • kotiinpaluu
  • Lähi-idän kriisi
  • elämäntilanne
  • näytelmät
  • näyttelijät
  • elämänodotukset
  • poliittinen epävakaisuus
  • tulevaisuudenodotukset
  • palestiinalaiset
  • Lontoo
  • Iso-Britannia
  • Palestiina
  • Israel
  • Haifa