The Divine Sarah (Nour El-Din)

Rating: ☆☆☆

Title: I, the Divine (A Novel in First Chapters)

Author: Rabih Alameddine

Genre: Fiction / Miscellaneous

Read: 20th June 2005



Comments: I wish I remembered this book better. I thoroughly enjoyed it while reading it, and was amazed at the ability of a male author to portray a female narrator so spot-on and convincingly, but most of the novel's plot has escaped me now (almost exactly one year after finishing it). From what I do remember, I found the author's conceit of beginning the story afresh from a different starting point in each 'first chapter' to be extremely well-deployed, and not at all gimmicky as it well could have been. I also enjoyed the glimpse into another culture (the narrator is a Lebanese-American woman) and reading this inspired me to pick up other novels by Middle-eastern authors. I recommend it to anyone who's looking for something a little different to read that may give them a fresh perspective on the world.

Quote: "My grandfather named me for the great Sarah Bernhardt. He considered having met her in person the most important event of his life. He talked about her constantly. By the age of ten I was able to repeat each of his stories verbatim. And I did."

I, the Divine