Beyond Love%E2%80%A8

Iraqi author Hussein%E2%80%99s elegiac novel of home, exile, and life in Iraq during and after the Gulf War begins with a simple act of protest: Huda, a young woman employed in a men%E2%80%99s underwear workshop known as al-Amal (the Factory of Hope), votes against Saddam Hussein in a presidential election. Compelled to flee Iraq as a result of voicing her opinion, she crosses into Jordan in order to seek asylum. Though the novel begins by jarringly dancing through its own chronology, it soon resolves into a meditative melancholy as Huda settles in Amman and awaits her fate, one among a crowd of Iraqi refugees she describes as "eager to torture ourselves and whip our souls for reasons we don%E2%80%99t understand. Tragedy wears us like clothing." Journal entries from Nadia, Huda%E2%80%99s friend from the factory; and Moosa, a participant in the Iraqi uprising; prove compelling divergences from Huda%E2%80%99s story and offer further brutal but necessary perspectives on life under Saddam Hussein%E2%80%99s despotic regime. Though the pacing occasionally stagnates%E2%80%94Huda, rather than taking action, spends large portions of her time in the seemingly never-ending ritual of remembrance%E2%80%94the novel still offers valuable insight into the plight and mindset of the poor and oppressed yearning to be free. (Aug.)