Dancing Arabs

There is something poignant and painful about Sayed Kashua's excellent book, "Dancing Arabs." This short novel/fictional autobiography of a young Palestinian Israeli, who has lived in both of the two strongly competing cultures of Israel--Arab and Jewish--pulls no punches when it comes to presenting the day-to-day dilemmas faced by the flawed anti-hero of the story. There is no personal reconciliation and comfort for him, and we see him for the most part as a grossly self-centered and self-absorbed social misfit. Author Kashua makes it clear how the character's daily tightrope act has shaped his character and behavior, but understanding those factors makes it only a shade easier to be at all sympathetic to his situation. Growing up as a Palestinian child in a household embittered by the Palestinian and Arab defeats in 1948 and subsequent conflicts with the Israelis, where ancestral lands and homes were lost and forceable relocation was the norm, the novel's unnamed main character is nonetheless pushed by his parents toward the educational opportunities that only the Israeli state can provide. By dint of his intelligence and with some luck, he is sent to an Israeli boarding school where he quickly learns that he belongs to a lower rung of Israeli society but is still greatly privileged compared to others in the Arab community that he comes from. He gradually becomes more Israeli in his behavior and outlook and increasingly shuns contact with his family and other Arabs although he is fully aware that he is irrevocably tied to that community and that he will never be fully accepted socially by Jewish Israelis. This short story takes him through his student years when he enjoyed a limited kind of special status and a comfortable alienation from his roots and then into a difficult return to the Arab community through an early marriage to a Palestinian woman after rejection by the family of his Jewish girlfriend's family. "Dancing Arabs" is an insightful look into the complexities of living in a society divided by sectarianism and historic resentments. It is not without some hope as it takes its anti-hero to a certain level of maturity through fatherhood and coming to terms with the responsibilities of being a husband. But this very much a "warts and all" story that is purposely left without a definitive ending. Good writing and well-worth the reading time.

Gives a clear picture of life and the world of an Arab in Israel. It's nicely written, easy to read, and makes the reader think. It also gives a good picture of a boy growing up, going through the issues of every day life, dealing with failure, school, money, friends and family, etc.

A young boy, growing up in the Arab village of Tira in Israel's Galilee region, describes life within his family and how it feels to be an Arab living in the overwhelmingly Jewish country of Israel. He gains entrance to a Jewish boarding school and finds it difficult to fit in. I was afraid to begin this story because I didn't want to read a book filled with Arab hatred for Jews. My hope in choosing this book was to get beyond the tragedy of the current political and socioeconomic situation in Israel and truly see an Arab as he lives in Israel. I was soon captured by this young boy's story. It was so interesting and full of such vivid detail that I felt as if I were reading an autobiography rather than a novel, much in the same vein as I felt reading Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. The story is sad because it reveals grimmer aspects of Arab-Jewish relations, but it also offers a glimmer of hope (much in the way that the Seeds of Peace did), that an important way to peace is through being open to learn about someone different. The words of this novel are simple, but the emotions behind the narrative are far more complex. In conveying those feelings to his readers, the author does a stunning job. The plight and confusion of a man caught between two cultures is so clearly shown. In a way, it is a depressing story. Nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that the author has provided this insight into the Israeli-Arab culture for the wider world to share. It shows just how difficult it is for an Arab to find a place as a valued member of the country in which the majority of the population is Jewish, and, once he finds a way to co-exist comfortably among Jews, how he finds that he has alienated himself from his own culture.

I found this book extremely well-written and a good examination of the clash of cultures that occurs for young people growing up in the Palestinian areas of Israel. The book examines the life of an anonymous boy/man throughout his life in short sketches describing events that occur to him. The only problem I had with the book is the main character eventually degenerates into a whiny, unmotivated blob that wishes for great things but never takes the initiative to make them happen. Overall, I would recommend this book.

I really enjoyed this quick read. Engrossing honest depiction of life for Arabs in Israel- not what you would expect.