Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Begin discussion here for The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon.

Summary from StarTribune

Sinan Antoon’s self-translated (from Arabic) novel, “The Corpse Washer,” is a book that comes bearing bittersweet gifts. The story can only be described as a tragedy of accumulated loss, but the language Antoon employs — simple, direct, fiercely poetic — is an affirmation of life and culture. The narrator, Jawad, is next in line in an Iraqi family of corpse washers — people who clean the bodies of the dead according to religious custom and ritual. As a young man, he rejects this profession in favor of art, entering the Baghdad Academy to try to sculpt stone into life — the opposite of his father’s profession.

But death is nothing if not patient.

In the idiom of the poetry Jahad uses to express his deepest feelings, his heart is like a bird struggling in a net whose invisible ropes are made of war, religion and custom. His artistic aspirations come to a halt when the academy closes due to the war. The corpse-washing hut — the mghaysil — becomes his prison after his father’s death, temporary employment becoming permanent. His city, the women he loves, his brother — death, in one form or another, eventually comes for all of them. The embargo has left Iraq impoverished and dusty, with no place for a young artist, whose salary as an art teacher is “barely enough to cover one week’s transportation.” He spends the 1990s painting houses, rather than canvasses. “I found myself for years on end reduced to using no more than three colors … on cold and monotonous surfaces.” The mghaysil waits patiently for Jahad’s return.

“We thought that the value of life had reached rock bottom under the dictatorship … but the opposite happened. Corpses piled up like goals scored by death of behalf of rabid teams in a never-ending game.”

Antoon makes this tale compelling, rather than a drone of despair, with the language he uses to tell it. Jawad the artist is a deft witness, describing Baghdad with simple, vivid details: At one outdoor magazine shop, two new postwar phenomena vie for attention: Sirens with tempting eyes stare from the glossy covers on one side, while angry, charismatic looking men glare at them from the other. Absent the unified horror of Saddam, once banned sectarianism has come out in full force — the men on the covers are its new leaders.

Finally, what the reader is left with is not death and oppression, but how our way of describing even these horrors is an act of resistance. By giving voice to sorrow in a traditionally “Persian” style, both Jahad and his creator, Antoon, rise above it; there is a pomegranate tree outside Jahad’s mghaysil, nourished by the water sloshed on it after washing the dead: corpse water.

I just finished reading this book - it's very short - but WOW, I'm still stunned after reading it.
Once again, if it weren't for this book club, I wouldn't have found out about this book.

As mentioned in the post above, the story revolves around Jawad (the protagonist), who is torn between continuing his family's tradition of washing corpses (extremely important for Muslim burials) and pursuing his love for sculpture and art.

Even though the story is very tragic and it deals with the harsh realities war disrupting your daily life, but the author's writing is so elegant and poetic that I wasn't left depressed after reading this. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of art. You can read my complete review here.

I just finished this today and I also think this novel was pretty great. Jawad and his family struggle so much through the years of America's occupation of Iraq. But the tragedy of Jawad's stifling life begins many years before American soldiers arrived. It is tough to be the least favored son, to be the son who ultimately disappoints his father by refusing to stay in the family business. But through all of the terribly sad things that happen in this novel, it doesn't weigh the reader down with unremitting unhappiness. Jawad kept looking for ways to move forward and escape to a life that didn't harden his heart.

I think this novel is a real eye opener for those of us in the West who saw news reports frequently during the American - Iraq war and for years afterward of the bombings in public places to get a glimpse of a typical family's struggles. This was not a family of extremists who wanted to kill people of other religious sects or kill the occupiers. They just wanted to live their lives in peace. But there was peace for no one and bloodshed was a daily and inceasing occurrence as time went on.

Very good choice for a novel in Iraq. I gave it 4 stars.

I just started this book today. I am enjoying it so far.

Really nice book, I loved travelling deeper into Iraqi society, how it was with Saddam and how the US invasion affected it. Very interesting to see how people have to cope and, even if alive, how they might lose themselves.
Thank you to the group for bringing my attention to it!

Sounds like a great book. I will read this in 2017.