I just finished reading this remarkable novel and I'm filled with that ecstatic, airy joy that comes once in a great while, at the end of a perfect read. Maybe not perfect for you. I can't say. It's a very different story. It's not even supposed to be Salih's 'masterpiece;' [b:Season of Migration to the North|669780|Season of Migration to the North|Tayeb Salih|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387663113s/669780.jpg|382533] is that. All I can say for sure is that I felt the presence of an author who was in complete command of the story he wanted to tell, and that it's like no other story I've read before.

Zein, the titular character, is the village idiot, more a tolerated outsider than a fully integrated member of the village. The story is as much about community as it is the story of Zein and his upcoming, surprising marriage. The community can't believe that any woman would want to marry this odd character--that any woman would consider it. Their bafflement and their ultimate acceptance of this outcome is the narrative that drives the story. Each person in the village, one by one, and finally the group as a whole must come to terms with Zein's humanity. At the wedding feast itself the people finally allow Zein to enter fully into a community of his peers; indeed he becomes the focal point of their shared humanity.

This is a story about acceptance of others. Its theme is that no matter how unusual or impaired a person is, he has a place where he belongs. While I know that Salih spent most of his life as an expatriate in London, this novel feels full of his love for his home country, and full of nostalgia for a way of living where communities are more like extended families, instead of the Western model of communities being more like groups of individuals who happen to live in anonymous proximity to one another.
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Dello stesso autore, sudanese (1928-2009), abbiamo salutato l’anno scorso la riedizione di La stagione della migrazione a Nord, un capolavoro della letteratura araba. Arriva adesso in italiano questa gustosa novella (del 1969), che su un tono di commedia diverte e coinvolge il lettore, offrendo uno spaccato di umanità varia, quella che ruota attorno ad al-Zain. Questi è uno sgorbio d’uomo, ma che pare avere un penchant mistico e che fa innamorare di sé una ragazza dopo l’altra, salvo poi cedere il passo ad altri pretendenti. Per questo, l’annuncio che infine al-Zain davvero convola a nozze è una notizia di prim’ordine per tutto il villaggio.
Da non sottovalutare i due racconti in appendice, specialmente quello sullo “sviluppo” e la storia politica nazionale visti da un villaggio sul fiume. ( )

Collection of one novella, The Wedding of Zein, and two short stories, The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid and A Handful of Dates.

While at the PEN festival in NYC in April, I attended the "Global Book Swap" panel discussion where authors recommended books to the audience. This book was Leila Aboulela's choice.

The Wedding of Zein is a novella, set in a town in the Sudan, and tells the story of how the "village idiot"got to marry the most eligible young woman in the town (and she agrees to marry him!). Immediately upon being born, it is said, the infant Zein did not cry but burst out laughing. He was deformed, mostly toothless, but was remarkably strong and had a notorious appetite. He always made the women laugh, and often fell in love with one of the local girls, who would then promptly marry a suitable groom. In this way he became a predictor of who would marry next.

As the story opens a rumor is going around the village that Zein is going to be married. It is met with much incredulity. And thus the story of how Zein comes to marry the most beautiful girl in the village begins.

Told with a style with oral story-telling rhythms, this is a delightful folk tale. Zein is irresistible, and the village - well, a small town is a small town anywhere in the world! Readers of Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov and Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst, two other "folk tale" books I've recommended, will also enjoy this.

I should mention that there were two short stories included in this book with the novella, both of which were very good. ( )

Earlier this year I attended a lecture where the author Leila Aboulelah (The Translator) described this story as quintessentially Sudanese. That, alone, was intriguing enough to make me want to find a copy. However, she went on to say that she had read it more times than she could remember and loved it equally well in Arabic and in English. With that kind of recommendation, how could I resist?

This volume comprises three tales: two short stories and the title novella. "The Doum Tree of Wad Hamid" is a colorful tale about a self-deprecating little village. In the center stands a doum tree which is the heart and soul of the town. The tree is constantly threatened by the forces of progress and development, though the town folk always manage to save it in the end. It's a story that, behind its humor, has something to say about this apparent conflict. In the words of the old sheikh who is telling the story, "What all these people have overlooked is that there's plenty of room for all these things."

"A Handful of Dates" has a different tone. It is an angry and slightly bitter story about greed and the loss of innocence as a young boy opens his eyes about his grandfather. It's quite short and has a bit of punch. The notes in the book say that it has become one of the most anthologized stories in Arabic literature.

The title novella is simply fun. Zein is not quite the village idiot, but he is certainly the village buffoon. Though usually good-natured, he is a bit simple-minded and decidedly odd-looking and the townspeople generally look upon him with amusement. He is also prone to falling completely in love with a new girl at regular intervals. When he does, he wanders the town, crying her virtues at the top of his lungs. What the mothers soon notice, however, is that Zein really does have an eye for what makes each woman beautiful, and his pronouncements open the eyes of the other (more eligible) young men, resulting in quite a few advantageous marriages. Soon, every mother is thrusting her young daughter in front of him, hoping to catch his eye. And then, one day, one of the richer, more intelligent and beautiful young women in the village says, "Yes, I will marry you," to Zein. Salih's rendition of the town and its inhabitants is lively and rich. The story of Zein's life up until his engagement, the shock to the town as the news runs like wildfire through it, the details of the actual wedding bring the small town alive in the reader's mind. You cannot help but find Zein, himself, lovable. It was a joy to read.

Salih's language in translation is light and quick with just enough hint of traditional phrasing to give you that feel of the exotic…a hint of Arabian Nights. And, if the story truly is quintessentially Sudanese, it is also quintessentially human—you don't need Koz bedouins living next door or a doum tree in the town square to understand or feel the stories you are hearing. ( )