Behind You Is The Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj, 2024
An exciting new voice, Darraj's collection of stories of three Arab American families in Baltimore make for compelling reading. I only wished that there were deeper dives into each of these character's stories.
The collection starts with Reema Baladi, a teen whose mom is catatonic after the death of her husband, Reema's husband. She finds love with a Mexican boy named Torrey.
Marcus Salameh is a family friend, who is a cop, and trying to bridge the gap between his sister Amal, who has a child out of wedlock, and father, who has cut his daughter out of his life after having an abortion.
Marcus's aunt is Nadya Ammar, who has married the wealthy Palestinian Walid Ammar. Ammar owns various properties in Baltimore and despite his weath, struggles with how spoiled and Americanized his children have become.
Rania Mahfouz struggles with her distant husband and raising an ADA child. Her husband returns from a trip home to the Palestines where he is embroiled in a #Justice4Rasha contraversy that has started spreading globally.
Rania engages the service of Samira Awadah, a stellar education attorney who is looked down upon by some in the Arab community because she is divorced. Even though her ex-husband was abusive, she still suffers from judgement (with her treatment justified by the fact that she did not become pregnant...) and is tolerated by her family because of her checkbook.
As Rania's father's health and memory disintegrates and he needs to be put in a home, Rania learns the truth of why even her mother criticizes her decision to divorce her husband.
Maysoon Baladi is Reema's little sister, who is a cleaner and ends up working with Dalia Ammar, married to the philandering Demetri, son of Walid. Dalia's three children are even more spoiled and despite their wealth, Reema's son Gabriel is the one who scores the perfect score on the AP exam.
Layla Marwan is cousins to Hiba Anway, one of Dalia's three children. Dedicated to the theater community and building sets for school plays, she struggles when her high school decides to put on Aladdin.
She attempts to discuss her unease with the stereotypes built into Aladdin with the theater director, who dismisses her concerns.
We then follow Hiba Ammar in college, where she takes a semester off to deal with her eating disorder. She lives with her loving and humble grandparents connecting to her heritage while her parents continue to live in their materialistic ways.
Samira and Marcus's story continue with Samira finding her voice and love with Logan; and Marcus returning to his father's village to bury his remains. In Palestine, Marcus discovers another side of the bitter man he knew growing up in Baltimore with his father.
Short-listed for the Pen-Faulkner Award, Behind You Is the Sea brings characters to life with its honesty and authenticity.
You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, And Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist by Kari Ferrell, 2024
Seeringly honest, Kari Farrell writes about her struggles growing up adopted from South Korea to white parents who become Mormoms and move to Utah.
Growing up in the 80s with limited understanding and dialogue about other cultures and sexual orientation, Ferrell used humor to deflect her pain.
She then started using lies and realized that her charisma was able to get people to trust her. She started scamming friends and then men she would meet out.
Eventually her infamy spread and she made the Salt Lake City Most Wanted List and fled to New York City after serving a brief stint in jail.
Farrell's deceit eventually caught up with her and she was outed as the Hipster Grifter. This led to her arrest again where she was incarcerated for almost a year before being released.
Criminals are charming. Despite her scams and lies, people stood by her. Her honesty and self-hatred are so raw. She starts therapy, visits Korea on a work trip and starts to piece her real self together.
Some of the truths are painful to read and I suppose that's the appeal of the book. The work it took for Farrell to get to a good place.
