The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

Booklist Review: A hakawati is a storyteller in the Arab world, and so opulent and picaresque is Alameddine's novel, it can serve as a great fake book for aspiring Scheherazades. In this grand saga of a Beirut family with Armenian, English, and Druze roots, Alameddine, the author of three previous works of fiction, constructs stories within stories that encompass the world of the jinni,àthe tales of Abraham and Hagar, the legendary pigeon wars of Urfa, Lebanon's brutal civil war, and post-9/11 Beirut and L.A. At the center of this matrix is Osama al-Kharrat (his last name means exaggerator), grandson of a hakawati and son of a wealthy car dealer and a glamorous, sharp-tongued mother, one of many resplendently witty and wily women characters. After living in L.A. for 26 years, Osama has finally returned to Beirut in 2003 because his father is dying. His arrival sets off a cascade of memories and launchesà1,001 stories. The most thrilling involve the legendary Fatima, the hero Baybars, Osama's bon vivant uncle Jihad, and the hakawati himself, not to neglect the many diverting parables. Alameddine, himself a brilliant hakawati, exuberantly reclaims and celebrates the art and wisdom of the war-torn Middle East in this stupendous, ameliorating, many-chambered palace of a novel. -- Seaman, Donna (Reviewed 03-15-2008) (Booklist, vol 104, number 14, p27)