An Emotional yet Captivating Journey into the Lives of Palestinian Americans
An Emotional yet Captivating Journey into the Lives of Palestinian Americans
Susan Muaddi Darraj’s poignant novel “Behind You is the Sea” is a compilation of intertwined short stories about several families in distinct facets of assimilation into American life. It’s a profound exploration of everyday Palestinians’ harrowing familial issues, including teenage pregnancy, family planning, abortion, infertility, and marriage, as they relate to Arab cultural traditions in keeping to the old ways. The intricate portrayal of Arab family dynamics intrigued me and by and large introduced me to a culture I only saw through mainstream media.
Every immigrant community has a timeline or leeway allowing one generation to meld into modern American life. In my Cuban community, the generational shift into Americanization started with my mother, a pre-teenager, when her parents emigrated to the US. But this book goes beyond depicting the caustic effects of holding on to old traditions, namely a woman’s place in society vis à vis her place in her family.
The narrative primarily focuses on Palestinian women’s struggle against strict norms and their delicate integration into American society. The author creates a world with startling contrasts between Arab tradition and Western culture for her characters, leading older generations, in some cases, to reject their children and the younger generation to move past familial pain to make a life on their terms.
With engaging prose, Muaddi Darraj unlocks the nuance of Palestinian culture, heritage, and family pull. But her themes are universal—especially within immigrant communities. As a child of Cuban immigrants, I sympathize with these stories. They touch a nerve; the rigorous rules our older generations thrust upon us, their guilt, and their expectations of us are cumbersome in a place where Americans stigmatize tradition in preference for convenience and instant gratification.
Our language, for example, is tied to our traditions, heritage, and identity. In the novel, a scene with Marcas speaking and understanding his language yet unable to read and write is, in many ways, reminiscent of many Hispanic Americans’ deficiency with the Spanish language and the older generations’ plight to keep its essence alive.
This novel was outstanding and enthralling, capturing the spirit of family expectations.
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Susan Muaddi Darraj, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, is deeply connected to the community she writes about. She is an award-winning writer of adult and children’s novels, having won an American Book Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. In 2018, she was named a 2018 USA Artists Ford Fellow, a testament to her exceptional talent and dedication to her craft. Her previous novel, A Curious Land: Stories from Home, won the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. She has written numerous YA biographies and the Farah Rocks chapter book series for children, the first to feature an Arab American protagonist. Susan also teaches English and creative writing at Harford Community College and Johns Hopkins University.
