Specters by Radwa Ashour, translated by Barbara Romaine (Interlink Books 2010)

Reviewed by Rebecca Dill

Though the recent events in Tahrir Square are fresh in the minds of Americans, Egyptians have long fought for their rights in and around Cairo. Radwa Ashour explores the Egyptian political movements of her generation as well as the Palestinian fight for a homeland in her unconventional novel, Specters.

Known in the Arab world as both a radical and a contemplative figure, Radwa Ashour has been an important public intellectual and artist in Egypt since participating in the founding of the Higher National Committee for Writers and Artists in Cairo in 1973.

Radwa Ashour's novel "Specters"The novel is described as "part fiction, part autobiography, part oral history, [and] part documentary" as it tells the stories of Radwa Ashour and Shagar Abdel Ghaffar as they live in and out of Cairo. The story of Shagar is written in the third-person while Ashour transitions back to herself, through the autobiographical character of Radwa, in the first-person. Ashour parallels Shagar to the story of her own life, using her as a sort of qareen, (Arabic for companion), to herself. Ashour's style of writing takes a bit to get used to, as Shagar's narrative is, at times, abruptly interrupted by Radwa's story or the author's ideas as to what should happen next.

Ashour begins her novel with the story of Shagar's namesake, her great-grandmother. The elder Shagar, meaning "tree" in Arabic, is an independent woman who starts to see ghosts as old age sets in. The narrative progresses to the childhood of the younger Shagar, just as headstrong as her grandmother, then quickly transitions to her adulthood. These ghosts, or specters, reappear in her life through the voices of the Deir Yassin massacre, the subject of Shagar's research. Soon the reader moves inside the mind of Ashour as she contemplates the next chapter for Shagar, as Ashour jumps from her own story to Shagar's through days and years and back again, defying the traditional narrative structure.

Shagar is the woman Radwa might have been. The women's lives are similar on the surface, but diverge at the important details that lie at the core of the women. Both study at Cairo University. Radwa earns her doctorate in literature while Shagar, drawing from the inspiration of her grandfather, receives her Ph.D. in history. Shagar receives an invitation to teach at Cairo University, while Radwa is appointed to Ain Shams University at the request of a professor who dislikes her. Both women are politically active, yet Ashour loses her job (to be later reinstated) while Shagar is sent to prison. Radwa is afflicted with medical ailments that require multiple surgeries while Shagar is injured in an attack related to her stance on Zionism.

At times, it seems Ashour would have liked to have been more like Shagar; to have a grandfather who left her his autobiography; to have the courage to yell at the dean; to be in the hospital once for an attack instead of her persistent health problems. They watch their friends ending up in prison and Shagar ends up there as well, perhaps as a result of the guilt Ashour feels for being one of the lucky ones to escape such a fate. Shagar is the more controversial figure while Radwa stands up for what she believes in without stirring up too much trouble. The reader is left to contemplate how our actions and the actions of others shape our lives.

Author Radwa AshourAn important part to Ashour's book is the history of Palestine that she intertwines with her characters.

Ashour writes of Palestine in the manner in which we see Radwa live her life. Ashour does not directly confront the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but instead uses her relationship with her husband, and the character of Shagar to deal with the subject. Radwa's (and Ashour's) husband is Palestinian and was exiled from Egypt. The reader follows Radwa through her struggle to carry on a relationship with a man who is left without a homeland. Shagar takes the subject matter head-on through her research on Deir Yassin. Shagar's work allows Ashour to include testimonials from Palestinians from the Deir Yassin massacre without having to directly confront her own opinion on the subject matter. In this manner, Shagar gives a voice to Radwa that she did not have in her own life.

Unfortunately, some of the historical elements in Specters are less effective when told through Shagar's character. Her participation in political activities is realistic, but her research caught me off guard. The Deir Yassin massacre testimonials are presented through Shagar's fictional research. I paused while reading the testimonials, wondering if they were made for Shagar. The testimonials are in fact true, but I did not find that out until after reading them, reducing their emotional impact.

In her translation from Arabic to English, Barbara Romaine effectively conveys the Ashour's message, but the novel loses some of its lyrical value in the process. In all honesty, Specters was not a book that consumed me until I finished it. In fact, I put it down many times as my frustration grew from a lack of continuality in the story. Every time I was getting into a narrative, the voice changed, a character was written out of the book, or time skipped ahead. Her need to detail her thought process while writing the novel is reminiscent of an interview with the author rather than a part of the narrative. I almost felt cheated that Ashour starts narratives that fade away without conclusions and features characters that she never fully develops. But this makes the novel more real. There are people in our lives we wish to have a relationship with, like Shagar's teacher, Fawzi, but we lose touch for various reasons and the relationship abruptly ends. Life cannot be tied up neatly in a bow where every situation finds a resolution. It just does not work like that.

Specters is not a novel for someone looking for a breezy summer read, but works if you're interested in an intellectual look into how complicated life really is. Ashour's style does not always transition smoothly from page to page, but effectively challenges the traditional style of narrative. Overall, it leaves the reader with a unique and thought-provoking perspective on life. While the book was first published in Arabic in 1999, it would be interesting to see a chapter added with Radwa's and Shagar's take on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Perhaps the ongoing events will inspire Ashour to write a new book, as a new generation fights for their rights.

Rebecca Dill is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and serves as assistant to the director at the Levantine Cultural Center in Los Angeles. This is her first contribution to the Levantine Review.