A manuscript found in Baghdad's Directorate of General Security
recalls life under Saddam Hussein's regime.I'jaam, explains Iraqi
expatriate Antoon in a prefatory note, is the Arabic word used to
describe the diacritical dots added to the basic alphabet to
represent different phonetic characters. Since these dots can also
clarify a word's meaning, I'jaam has come to mean "elucidating" or
"clarifying." A manuscript written entirely without diacritics is
clearly intended to be unintelligible, and that's the premise of
Antoon's novel. It's 1989; a manuscript without diacritics is
unearthed in the dreaded security headquarters, where a request is
made for "qualified personnel to insert the diacritics and write a
brief report of the manuscript's contents." The resulting document
unfolds a series of vignettes of a government-regulated life.
Furat, the manuscript's author, is a poet and student of literature
in Baghdad. A limp makes him unfit for service in the army, but he
feels the restraints of Hussein's oppressive dictatorship in
countless other ways. His grandmother, who raised him after his
parents were killed, and his girlfriend Areej plead with him to be
compliant, but Furat finds it difficult to live and study under
such conditions. Though his protests are minor - trying to write
his senior thesis on 1984 (banned by the state) and using
newspapers with pictures of the Leader as toilet paper - he is
nonetheless carted off to prison by guards posing as students.
Furat's manuscript swings among an account of his past, flashes of
life in prison and hopeful hallucinations envisioning reunions with
his grandmother and Areej. His rantings become increasingly
incomprehensible and end just as suddenly as they began. Marginal
notes and an addendum by the state translator nervously cavil at
Furat's consistent disparagement of the government, dismissing the
text as a "disgraceful transgression." Antoon's frenetic tone is
very effective, and Furat's unraveling feels heartbreakingly
familiar. But the novel is choppy and unfinished, ending far too
soon. What could have been well-developed, timely fiction reads
like a character sketch. Evocative but incomplete. (Kirkus Reviews)
An inventory of the General Security headquarters in central
Baghdad reveals an obscure manuscript. Written by a young man in
detention, the prose moves from prison life, to adolescent
memories, to frightening hallucinations, and what emerges is a
portrait of life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
In the tradition of Kafka's "The Trial" or Orwell's "1984,
I'jaam" offers insight into life under an oppressive political
regime and how that oppression works. This is a stunning debut by a
major young Iraqi writer-in-exile.
Sinan Antoon has been published in leading international
journals and has co-directed "About Baghdad, " an acclaimed
documentary about Iraq under US occupation.
General
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