The Parisian by Isabella Hammad

 Monday, Apr. 26, 2021--San Antonio

The Parisian by Isabella Hammad was named on a number of lists of the best books of 2019.  It is the story of one man from Palestine who was sent to a boarding school in Constantinople in the time of the Ottoman Empire for his secondary education and was sent to France where he studied medicine in Montpelier and other subjects at the Sorbonne through the period of WWI.  But it is also the story of the whole of the Middle East and, in particular, Palestine, from the time of the Ottoman Empire when Palestine was a part of Greater Syria through WWI, the partitioning of the region by France and England, and the increasing immigration of Jews into the area after WWI and as WWII approached.  There is a emphasis on the efforts to establish a Palestinian State throughout that time period that has failed due to harsh rule by the Ottomans and the British during the period of the novel (and has continued to be thwarted long after the novel ends as the country of Israel was eventually took control of the rest of the land area of Palestine after fighting wars with its neighbors).  It's a complex story dealing not only with the history of this man and his home region, but with the young man's appreciation of French culture, his love of a French woman while living in France,  the customs and expectations for a young man from the Middle East, and the extent to which a family will go to enforce the young to comply with those customs and expectations.  The history of the area is such a big part of the story that at times I felt it strayed the story of the central character for period of time that were too long.  But overall, both stories make compelling reading.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.