From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

An Unnecessary Woman

Rabih Alameddine

Start date: April 15, 2016

Finish date: May 1, 2016

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Tonya Presley

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Dec 04, 2013 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it liked it

Shelves: books-on-books, read2014, around-the-world, location-lebanon

This book is a finalist for the (USA) National Book Award in 2014, and that is probably the only reason I finished it. The second half went better for me than the first half.

I cringe to say it, because many readers I respect very much loved this book. And I think I understand why - it is a book about books, as the main character has translated a great work of literature into Arabic every year for at least thirty years. I could create a booklist from the book, and still might.

It takes place in Le This book is a finalist for the (USA) National Book Award in 2014, and that is probably the only reason I finished it. The second half went better for me than the first half.

I cringe to say it, because many readers I respect very much loved this book. And I think I understand why - it is a book about books, as the main character has translated a great work of literature into Arabic every year for at least thirty years. I could create a booklist from the book, and still might.

It takes place in Lebanon, and while war is in the background, it is not the focus of the novel. I appreciated this because it is hard sometimes to read novels about this area of the world and have them be about anything but war. Also to its benefit is the main character - Aaliya, who became an "unnecessary woman" very early in life.

I like the shifting-yet-eternal city of Beirut, practically a character in Aaliya's life.

"Beirut is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, tacky, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She'll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life more comfortable, no matter how inappropriate he is."

The problems I have with the book have to do with the main character and how the story is told. Something about the narrator is unbelievable and I feel the author too much with me as I read. Almost the entire novel is told in the past tense, with generous doses of nostalgia from blue-haired Aaliya, and you know that whole adage, "Show, don't tell?" Most of this novel is a big heap of tell. I would have been much more entranced to experience the story along with Aaliya, to be surprised and upset, to be stubborn and brave, rather than to be told about how she was those things decades ago. I slogged through the first half and seriously considered putting it aside. I took a break and came back and was ultimately glad I finished it, but I'm not sure it will be on the top of my list of recommendations!

Books mentioned by the main character: (view spoiler) ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2016 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: recentfiction, fiction, historical-fiction

A very interesting book about a Lebanese woman who has an arranged marriage that ends after a very short time, no children, and a passion for literature. She works in a book store, loses the only woman she considers a friend, and translates her favorite authors into Arabic. She never sells these translations, she does them purely for love, and begins to translate a new book every year on the first of January. The book details Beirut during the war, the misogynist culture, the loneliness and bril ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2016 Lee rated it it was amazing

If you are looking for action or adventure, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for literary leads, meditation, humour, sorrow, and recent history of Lebanon, you will find all and more in this wonderful intellectually challenging novel. I have added hugely to my list of books to read.
I would have finished it the same day I started it, but I had to slow down and savour, even though I did read all into the wee hours.

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Dec 24, 2014 Joyce rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club-choice

Delightful and one of the rare instances where a man writing as a woman nails it. Taking place over 2 days in Beirut, it tells the story of a 72-year-old woman who translates one book a year into Arabic. But it is about so much more than that.

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Nov 22, 2017 Sara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audios-owned

It took me a long time to get into and finish this--I listened to it, and I suspect that is not the right format for this book. I think I will probably reread it in print in order to pick up all that I missed.

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