A Woman Is No Man: A Novel Paperback – February 4, 2020

The book was really informative and eye opening. It really shows how hard it is for women to have a voice. I think it was important for this book to be written. It is a book of fiction, but it reads like a nonfiction book. You do begin to see how this book has needed to be written for all women that are silenced in all aspects of life.

“ A Woman is No Man” by Etaf Rum is one of those books that hits you like a tidal wave. It is a multilayered story that weaves between the past and present lives of two women, mother and daughter. This is their story, yet this is also the story of many women. I don’t know what I was expecting when I began reading this but as I finished, I was left with so many emotions. Anger due to the abuse and oppression that these women had to endure. Sadness. Hope. Happiness. So many emotions.It is gut-wrenching to think that there are women like Isra, like Deya, like Fareeda all over this Earth. This book was brutally honest and raw. There were times that I questioned if I could finish it because it featured topics that I don’t like to read about, domestic abuse and rape. But I kept reading instead of turning a blind eye to the issues. This book was not predictable. It featured a variety of characters who were all very well developed. The pacing was just right with the ending being just a touch rushed. It is full of culture and tradition. I found myself googling recipes just to see what they were eating and see if I could recreate the recipes ( spoiler alert: I can't lol).All in all, this was a heavy read, but it is much needed and beautifully told. It will definitely stick with me for some time if not forever. I love that this is an Own-Voice book ( a book written about diverse characters by an author of that same diverse group). I’ve added an interview that the author gave a few years back that gives her own personal insight into her experiences.https://www.npr.org/2019/03/02/699051...**TW: This book contains domestic violence/ abuse, rape**

Over all, 2020 has been a good year for reading. Everything else is pretty crappy but I have been introduced to a lot of new to me authors and have read some truly memorable books. This book is probably the best example of this. This book not only introduced me to a new author but it introduced me to a brand new culture that, to be honest, is severely under represented.Now, I am going to make a confession here. Sometimes (often) the best books I read are the hardest to write reviews for. When I write reviews I do try to review in a space away from the book so that I try not to let my emotions take over…usually taking a few days away from finishing the book is enough to disengage enough but with this book…I think the scars this left me will always be with me, just below the surface.This book was brutal and although I’d love to buy like 1000 copies of this and just hand them out to random women I see, I will be the first to say that this book is brutal. It does not shy away from the mistreatment that women in this culture are often subject to. Arranged marriages are the norm. Domestic violence is all to often ignored. It is not graphic, but I found myself having to take a palate cleanser (aka switch to another book) fairly often because it upset and angered me.It is also claustaphobic. A lot of this book takes place in an apartment in Brooklyn, and in so many ways, the apartment served as a prison, first for Isla and then for Isla’s oldest daughter, Deya. So when and if you choose to read this, make sure you do have something fun to do during breaks and try to get some sunshine. And the ending especially is brutal so definitely plan for that.I know based on this review it sounds like this is the most depressing misery porn you can read, but I promise you that it doesn’t seem that way when you are reading it. There is hope in this book. There’s characters that you will love and want to fight for and the writing is flawless.

A brilliant and powerful book, riveting, written with elegance, flowing style, superb observations, insight, and deep compassion for women, of course, and for immigrants, torn between their culture of origin and the demands and harsh judgment of their new environment. Compassion for men, too, for 'the suffering of women started in the suffering of men [and] the bondage of one became the bondage of the other'.The author offers and insider’s description of certain aspects of traditional culture, still present in the most conservative layers of Palestinian society. While this may be a shocker for some US readers, we must guard ourselves from seeing it as yet another proof of Middle-Eastern backwardness and remember that poverty, lack of education, and trauma always conspire against gender equality. And trauma is a commonality among all Palestinians, who share the tragic and experience of dispossession, ethnic cleansing, dehumanization, and a 52-year long occupation. Etaf Rum does not delve on comparisons, politics, or history. However, she alludes to the context in ways that should invite us to reflect on our own version of male chauvinism, enabled by social conservatism, and to take a critical look at Western culture generally. Let's not fool ourselves: a woman has never been a man either in this society, which has elevated locker-room language to presidential levels, thrives on women objectification, and protects with factual impunity the widespread sexual violence against women on our campuses at the hands of tomorrow's elites. Not to mention domestic violence, the role of our own Evangelical, Catholic, and other Pentecostal mullahs in making sure that women have no say over their own body, or, a few blocks away in Brooklyn, the comparable plight of women in the Hassidic community. Systemic oppression is effective, in which the victims become enforcers and enablers of their own misery.But more importantly, Etaf Rum's gem-of-a-novel also presents us with the complexity of making choices and the dilemmas it entails, particularly for the victims of oppression. A Woman is No Man is an ode to the power of literature, highlighting the many ways art and imagination can change our life, as if, deep within ourselves, lived a Sheherazade capable of taming our own sultan of despair and hopelessness. Indeed, change has its roots in the very imagination of its possibility. And, as the novel beautifully highlights, change is possible.Congratulations and many thanks, Etaf Rum. Your brilliant novel is a must-read and will make a perfect gifts to friends - of all genders.