• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt Let's read. Two very different women form a friendship via e-mail, a young British journalist, mother of three little girls and a middle-aged Iraqi woman who is desperately trying to leave her country during the war. Our book club thought that both title and the cover picture were misleading, we had expected something different. They didn't talk about Jane Austen much and we imagined May, the woman from Iraq, very different than the lady in the cover. Bee, the British woman, was hard to warm up to, we felt a disconnection between her and May to whom she talked like to a child. Everything seemed to be a lot about appearance, Bee wasn't realistic, it seemed a like a game to her. We felt she only got the book deal because of May who is a much better writer. The second half was definitely better when she seemed to realize a little more what this was all about. We were glad that May was able to get out. On the other hand, you also have to admire Bee's action. Eve though there's really nothing remarkable about her, she used her connections to make a huge difference in someone's life, for their benefit. She could have just been sympathetic and gone on with all her work, charity meetings, etc. and never really given May's situation more thought. Do hungry people get fed from rhetoric? We talked about asylum seekers, how being in an endless situation can lead to depression. We asked ourselves whether Bee redeemed herself by writing about her personal problems. We also wondered whether May and Ali are still together as we couldn't see Ali coping with life in Britain. Another subject that came up was the war and why are we there and why not. We also talked about democracy and whether you can really bring it to a country. I found a few good links with democracy quotes, if you'd like to check them out, there are hundreds on each one of them: The Quote Garden and Better World Quotes. My favourite: " You cannot bring democracy to a country by attacking it ." Akbar Ganji. Although, I also really love the one my son told me when he saw me looking for them: " Fighting for peace is like screaming for silence! " (N.N.) We discussed this in our book club in September 2011. From the back cover: " A London mum and Iraqi teacher should have nothing in common. Yet now, despite their differences, they're the firmest of friends . Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit is a touching and poignant portrait of an unlikely friendship. Would you brave gun-toting militias for a cut and blow dry? May's a tough-talking, hard-smoking, lecturer in English. She's also an Iraqi from a Sunni-Shi'ite background living in Baghdad, dodging bullets before breakfast, bargaining for high heels in bombed-out bazaars and battling through blockades to reach her class of Jane Austen-studying girls. Bee, on the other hand, is a London mum of three, busy fighting off PTA meetings and chicken pox, dealing with dead cats and generally juggling work and family while squabbling with her globe-trotting husband over the socks he leaves lying around the house. They should have nothing in common. But when a simple email brings them together, they discover a friendship that overcomes all their differences of culture, religion and age. Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is the story of two women who share laughter and tears, and swap their confidences, dreams and fears. And, between the grenades, the gossip, the jokes and the secrets, they also hatch an ingenious plan to help May escape the bombings of Baghdad . Bee Rowlatt is a former show-girl turned BBC World Service journalist. A mother of three and would-be do-gooder, she can find keeping her career going while caring for her three daughters (and husband) pretty tough, even in leafy North London. May Witwit is an Iraqi expert in Chaucer and sender of emails depicting kittens in fancy dress. She is prepared to face every hazard imaginable to make that all-important hairdresser's appointment. " Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit. In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives. I picked up this book because of the title but should say it turned out not really to be about Jane Austen. May is an academic who teaches English literature at a women's college in Baghdad, and explains: I think it helps my students because it transports them to another culture, another life, and another world. The world of Jane Austen is so far removed from our daily terror of bombs and violence. There are more brief references to literature that May is teaching or writing papers on herself, but most of the emails are about the two women's day to day lives, and about the difficulties of daily life in Baghdad that May and her husband face. The conversation shifts frequently from light, funny and frivolous things to serious, sad and scary subjects. I really appreciated feeling that I was being offered an insight into life in Baghdad after the invasion and war, and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. May is very open and honest about her views – life wasn't great before, but in her first email she says it is a mini hell , and it becomes more difficult, as there is an ongoing civil war, and she has very real fears that she or her husband Ali will be killed by a bomb, or that someone will try and kill him. I was against the war and our government's policy on Iraq, and I found reading this individual human story about how it has affected one woman very compelling (of course, it confirmed my own biased opinion that Britain and the US have not exactly improved lives for ordinary Iraqis – maybe someone with a different view would hate the book). While May is unusual in some ways for an Iraqi – she comes from quite a privileged background and her parents were educated in Britain and in fact the whole family lived here for some years when she was a child – I also thought the content of her emails really offered a counter to Western stereotypes of women's oppression in Muslim countries. She has what I would consider to be quite a feminist outlook on things, but doesn't see Islam as especially oppressive. I also found Bee's emails about her life as a working mother interesting. She has three daughters and considers whether to have a fourth, but she also has an interesting and enjoyable job and has no desire to be a stay at home mum. There is a story to unfold from this correspondence too – May decides that life in Iraq is too unhappy and dangerous to stay there, and asks Bee for help to leave. Bee finds out that seeking asylum in Britain will be very difficult, but eventually she find people who can help find a way forward. The email correspondence turns out to be key to this – its publication in book form is a way to raise funds so May could come to study in Britain and prove that she has funds to support her and her husband. This book offers an insight into the life of one individual in post-war Baghdad and a chance to eavesdrop on a developing friendship. It also turns out to be a story of how an email/online friendship changes someone's life (hopefully for the better). I would like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of this to The Bookbag, and would definitely recommend buying or borrowing it. There are various suggestions for further reading, depending on what interests you. The book title reminded me of Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. Some modern novels for Jane Austen fans are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, Acting Up by Melissa Nathan or The Importance of Being Emma by Juliet Archer. If you like reading letters and diaries, Nella Last's Peace is based on the post-war diaries of an ordinary woman in England. Mary Dora Russell's Dreamers of the Day is a historical novel set in the Middle East in the 1920s which offers an insight into the background of the present day's politics. You can read more book reviews or buy Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free. You can read more book reviews or buy Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit at Amazon.com . Comments. Like to comment on this review? Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.

Load more

  5

Copy Link