I Saw Ramallah [Paperback]

Now with this very valuable book, the reader comes to feel that he/she has been banned from their own home, and the desolation of the spirit at such a horrifying turn of events is sooooo painful.

I wish more people were reading this book. It's a beauty, written by a poet with enormous talent. It makes me wish more than ever that those who have lost their homes, could all return to the days once lived, and that peace would finally come to the land of Israel.

This is not a book that can be slotted with the usual political commentaries that line the shelves. Mourid is first a poet and everything else comes next and this book confirms that. What you will find is a poignant and lyrical description of life as a displaced Palestinian and Barghouti's first hand account, tells of the struggle with a clarity of experience that is sure to shake the most cynical of readers. For, displacement is a journey that threatens with a new reality every day; an insecurity that forces frequent adaptation to its ever-changing circumstances. Situational adjustments are forced out of people for sheer survival and come with potent mixtures of confusion, shame, anger, grief and loneliness. Mourid's journey describes all this and more, compelling a new understanding that is heavy on the soul.

The text is interlaced with his translated poetry and in every instance where a poem is used to accentuate sensibilities, the blend with prose is seamless, fluid and successful. Aside from the overall impact of the book, two things that I would like to single out: the powerful metaphorical symbols of the bridge and the swing and the little anecdotes of growing up in Ramallah, the fig tree, Big Uncle Fakhri, Sanduqa bookshop. They left me marveling at the remarkable ability of the people to effect some small stab at normalcy and innocence and Mourid's dogged resolve to document that. Despite the knowledge that every attempt at resurrecting a life out of the debris, every effort at adaptation, will open itself up to a trivialising of the problem and demand a further stretching of the limits of tolerance.

There is politics here of course, but it is only directly addressed in the last few pages; everywhere else you will read and see the enormous damage the conflict has wreaked upon an unsuspecting people in daily terms. Buy the book and read it and then, read it again.