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The Corpse Washer (2010)

von Sinan Antoon

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954283,304 (3.78)23
Young Jawad, born to a traditional Shi'ite family of corpse washers and shrouders in Baghdad, decides to abandon the family tradition, choosing instead to become a sculptor, to celebrate life rather than tend to death. He enters Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1980s, in defiance of his father's wishes and determined to forge his own path. But the circumstances of history dictate otherwise. Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and the economic sanctions of the 1990s destroy the socioeconomic fabric of society. The 2003 invasion and military occupation unleash sectarian violence. Corpses pile up, and Jawad returns to the inevitable washing and shrouding. Trained as an artist to shape materials to represent life aesthetically, he now must contemplate how death shapes daily life and the bodies of Baghdad's inhabitants.Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoon's novel shows us the heart of Iraq's complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where the borders between life and death are blurred and where there is no refuge from unending nightmares, Antoon limns a world of great sorrows, a world where the winds wail.… (mehr)
Kürzlich hinzugefügt vonroombythesea, arwa-fm, amandaquick, LaTrese, rdey, ngeleid, Nina_P, Mouks
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Brilliant. Written in 2013 about a young man coming of age in wartime Iraq. His father, like generations before him, washes corpses so that they may be buried in accordance with the precepts of their Shi’ite faith. It is a lengthy, time-consuming process and Antoon does a great job explaining and showing both the process and its deep meaning. The protagonist, Jawad, wants none of this; he wants to become a sculptor and the book is his story. Not a lot “happens,” but the characters are indelible, the story, heart-breaking. I thought the ending a bit weak, but the writing is excellent and I highly recommend it. ( )
  Gypsy_Boy | Aug 24, 2023 |
Jawad remembers clearly the first time his mother took him to his father's workplace. It was the first time he had seen a man cry, and he assumed that his father hurt the man. His mother had to explain that his father is a mghassilchi, or body washer and shrouder. It's a respected, although not well-paid, profession in his traditional Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad, and his father inherited the business from his father and his father before that.

Although Jawad learns the art of preparing a body for burial, and it is an art, full of ritual and significance, he wants instead to be an artist. But as the social and economic fabric of Iraqi society is torn apart by war, sanctions, and sectarian violence, Jawad finds himself once again facing death in the intimacy of the washhouse.

The Corpse Washer is a poetic novel that shifts between the past and present, dreams and reality with a fluid grace. Each chapter is short, between a paragraph and a few pages long at most; a series of vignettes that provide glimpses of Jawad's life and dreams. Although terribly sad and sometimes violent, it's a beautifully written book. I'm glad I purchased a copy as I can see myself reading it again. Highly recommended. ( )
  labfs39 | May 8, 2022 |
Ce livre m’a prise par surprise. Je n’arrive plus à me rappeler dans quelles conditions j’en ai entendu parler et pourquoi je l’ai acheté, mais il dort sur mes étagères depuis un petit bout de temps et il m’a fallu cette participation à un défi de lecture balayant le continent asiatique et s’arrêtant pour un temps en Irak pour que je me décide enfin à l’ouvrir. Un livre qui se passe pendant la guerre en Irak (et pendant celles qui l’ont précédée, en Irak aussi) ne peut pas être un livre gai, et celui-là ne fait pas exception. Il est d’un immense tristesse et, probablement encore plus difficile, d’une immense résignation.
Ecrit à la première personne par Jawad, fils cadet d’une famille chiite de Bagdad, il raconte les espoirs de cet adolescent puis jeune homme. Son combat personnel d’abord pour tenter de devenir lui-même, refusant d’exercer le métier de son père, qui lave les corps et les prépare avant qu’ils soient enterrés, et se rêvant sculpteur, à l’image de Giacometti, qu’il admire. Mais la vie tout court et la vie en période de guerre n’est pas tendre avec les rêves, et Jawad conte les déboires qui s’enchaînent, les renoncements qui viennent les uns après les autres.
Il y a peu à dire car il se passe peu, mais le livre m’a emportée, j’ai eu la sensation de voir ma vie m’échapper peu à peu comme Jawad, de voir les perspectives d’avenir se fermer après les autres, de voir mes options se réduire à peau de chagrin. C’est un livre sans lumière (malgré ce que pourrait laisser croire les couleurs saturées de la couverture choisie par Actes Sud), qui absorbe toute étincelle, qui éteint le moindre brasier. La guerre et ses horreurs sont là, en arrière-plan, mais elle n’a pas besoin d’être sur le devant de la scène. Le propos de Sinan Antoon n’est pas la guerre mais comment la guerre touche tous ceux qui vivent dans son voisinage immédiat. Bien que n’étant pas directement concerné par les conflits et les horreurs, la vie de Jawad se rétrécit jusqu’à n’être plus qu’un ersatz de vie.
Ce n’est pas un livre à lire pour se remonter le moral, je ne le conseillerais pas à n’importe qui n’importe quand, surtout en ce moment où beaucoup de lecteurs semblent rechercher des livres qui les sortent d’un quotidien pesant. Pourtant c’est un livre passionnant, dont la lecture secoue, happe, dont on ne sort pas indemne parce que l’on comprend mieux ce qu’est une vie gâchée par la guerre. Un livre qui ne méritait pas de dormir aussi longtemps sur mes étagères, mais dont la lecture au moment où les images de guerre sont omniprésentes dans notre quotidien prend un relief particulier. Un livre dont je vais garder le souvenir longtemps et que je recommanderai pour les lecteurs qui sont prêts à affronter de tels sujets.
  raton-liseur | Apr 4, 2022 |
This book was originally written in Arabic, but then translated by the author, into English. According to members of our book group who speak both languages, the content was slightly adjusted to accommodate the different audience.

A hard life in Iraq.

Most of my book group enjoyed this more than I did, but then, one of my pet hates is recollection of dreams in novels, and there is a lot of that here. My other quibble was that I found the narrative a bit stilted in places.

On the plus side, this book provides an insider's view into life in Iraq from the relative peace of the 1960s until current times. Jawad is attending university in the late 1980s, training to become an artist, against his father's wishes. He has considerable talent, but has to abandon his dreams when he needs to take over his father's business, washing the dead of the Sunni religion. As the Iraqi wars intensify and the bodies start building up he becomes more and more depressed by his situation.

This is not a cheerful novel, but it is an excellent insight into life in Iraq and is a easier to read than a lot of Arabic novels in translation. ( )
  DubaiReader | Oct 2, 2015 |
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Young Jawad, born to a traditional Shi'ite family of corpse washers and shrouders in Baghdad, decides to abandon the family tradition, choosing instead to become a sculptor, to celebrate life rather than tend to death. He enters Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1980s, in defiance of his father's wishes and determined to forge his own path. But the circumstances of history dictate otherwise. Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and the economic sanctions of the 1990s destroy the socioeconomic fabric of society. The 2003 invasion and military occupation unleash sectarian violence. Corpses pile up, and Jawad returns to the inevitable washing and shrouding. Trained as an artist to shape materials to represent life aesthetically, he now must contemplate how death shapes daily life and the bodies of Baghdad's inhabitants.Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoon's novel shows us the heart of Iraq's complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where the borders between life and death are blurred and where there is no refuge from unending nightmares, Antoon limns a world of great sorrows, a world where the winds wail.

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