Book review - Celestial Bodies

Title of book: Celestial Bodies

Author: Jokha Alharthi

Date of Review: November 17, 2019

I got this book second hand from the ‘Bookworm’, a book store on Church Street in Bangalore. When I was picking out the books, another customer (probably American judging from his accent and openness) said to me, "This is a great book. I just read it.” He repeated it a couple of times. I said thanks. I do want to read this one.

This was originally written in Arabic and translated by Marilyn Booth. They won the Booker prize together for this work. It is believed to be the first book from an Omani author that has gained recognition around the world. I got to know several things about Oman’s history and culture. As has been often mentioned with respect to this book, slavery was prevalent there till the 1970s and several characters in this book are slaves or closely related to them. The book revolves around three families and their family tree is given at the start of the book. I had to keep referring to this family tree repeatedly to make sense of the relations. The chapters are short but still encapsulate the context and feelings quite intensely. I found the writing very skillful and concise.

One of the main families in this book has three daughters- Mayya, Asma, and Khawla. My favorite chapters are the one written by Abdallah, who is the husband of Mayya. He describes his father (Sulayman the merchant who kept a lot of slaves), who has terrorized him in his childhood, hanging him upside down in a well once when he disobeyed him, his foster mother (Zarifa, the slave), and his wife, Mayya. There is perennial longing in his voice. He is intensely attached to his father and lives in terror of the latter’s demise for six years when he falls ill and finds no relief when he passes away even as he expected to. He longs intensely for the love of his wife, who is indifferent to him. Some of Abdallah’s observations are astute. He describes beautifully the laughter of his wife when he asks her if she loves him. “Loud enough to shatter every wall in the new house.  Her laughter..the children fled from it” (p. 12). In another chapter, he says that the intelligence of a person can be guessed from the type of their smile. “His blue eyes gave nothing away but his smile seemed promising. Before getting to know him I would never have imagined that a person’s smile could reveal his intelligence but Bill’s smile gave form to a shrewd mind” (p. 153). I never thought of this before. I could just read Abdallah’s chapters again. His inner life is provided with a lot of detail especially since he is the only one narrating it. Others are in third person and therefore always a bit distant. Mayya’s father Azzan is a romantic figure who recites poetry and is intensely involved with an independent Bedouin woman called Qamar (the moon in Arabic/Urdu- reminded me of the Rahat Fateh Ali Khan…mere rashke qamar).

Mayya is initially shown intensely (and quietly) longing for just the sight of a man she has met briefly. Soon after, a proposal of marriage comes from Abdallah. There is no overt force but she agrees to marry him. She seems to have suppressed her feelings after her marriage. She is extremely quiet. Prefers silences to conversations. She also loves sleeping most of the time. I sense that she may be depressed. One of their sons has autism, which is devastating for her. There are several characters in this book who are suffering from mental health issues, including psychosis, depression, and kleptomania.

One of the major themes of this book is the suppression of women and the timid men (mainly Abdallah). They have practically no agency most of the time, though Khawla refuses to marry one of the guys and is not forced by her father, Azzan. The women slaves are especially treated abominably by their owners and their sons. One of these women gives birth to a girl and does not know who the father is since there are three men in that household who have been abusing her. She says it could be either one of them. She is the one who is given the lashings, according to the sharia. Mayya’s mother Salima and her siblings are forced to live with her wealthy and influential paternal uncle and not her mother and maternal uncle, when she loses her father because they are considered the father’s side property. Salima remembers her childhood with intense hunger, since she is always aware of her aunt’s eyes on her and cannot dare to eat to her heart’s content. She is better off than the slaves in their households but she even envies them with their free laughter and movement.

There are several memorable parts of this book which leave an impression. Ultimately it is mix of the cultural and historical influences (slavery and the changing times) and universal themes of patriarchy, love, loss and longing.

Recommended? I highly recommend this book. I continue to think about the characters and they evoked sympathy. It is a short book but Jokha Alharthi managed to convey a lot of emotions (love, hate, jealousy, pride and more), history, and subtle interactions in few words which are insightful and evocative.