This read frustrated the hell out of me.
It’s about Yara, a young Palestinian American wife and mother struggling to reconcile her responsibilities with her personal and professional goals.
The story oscillates between Yara trying to connect with her husband and flashbacks to the tension between her parents and visits with her grandmother in the camps in Palestine when she was a child, during which her Teta would tell her about the forced evacuations from their beautiful homes.
Rum does a great job tackling how trauma is passed down through generations. Yara is miserable and her mood is volatile but journaling takes her on a journey of self-discovery that helps her to empathize with her mother and understand the choices she made but also helps Yara go easy on herself for the resentment she feels towards her mother for searching for happiness outside the home.
Yara must resist the societal expectations placed on her and do what makes her happy so that she does not pass this trauma (curse) of putting other people’s needs above her own onto her own daughters.
Even though it annoyed me how long it takes Yara to realize Fadi has no intention of understanding her plight, I championed her all the way, because she has to wade through a lot of irrational guilt and shame in order to feel empowered. I just needed her to cuss Fadi’s passive-aggressive, gaslighting ass out just one time 😩
TW: domestic violence, depression, suicidal ideation.
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