In Praise of hatred is a foresighted book set in the Syrian city of Aleppo, in the 80’s. Narrated through the life of an unknown ultraconservative Sunni Muslim girl, in an attempt to explore fanaticism from a feminine perspective.
Coming from a well off Sunni family the book follows the girls indoctrination from childhood living a closeted life, as she shares her late fathers home with three aunts,who couldn’t be more different and a blind male servant perfumer, Radwan.
Terrified of the outside world but longing for it, her hatred is born in part from self-loathing, unfulfilled puberty lust as she curbs are girl crashes at school (“desire rose in me like sap through a tree”).
On the other hand she gets swayed by uncles versed in political Islam, one of her favorite uncles, she joins her uncle who is a leader in the violent fundamentalist resistance,.
The hatred was born in part through self hatred the novel hints at a tolerance that flows from self-acceptance and questioning ( ” My life was a collection of allegories that belonged to others”).
Though not openly apparent to a new reader, Khaled Khalifa explores the toxic political fundamentalism of two groups hunkered on religious ideology, and the seeds of the Muslim Brotherhood, with chilling scenes so identical to what is happening in Syria today, even though the book was first published 1 year after the uprising.
I struggled to keep up with all the characters in the book and their relationship to the narrator. Being “unknown” without a name, it was also hard to connect and step into the narrators reality. Highly informative for a newbie like me and gives good context in understanding the Syrian conflict beyond the news headlines.
amarragroup.com 