¶ … BALCONY OVER THE FAKIHANI
The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the book "A Balcony over the Fakihani," by Liyana Badr. Specifically, it will discuss the author's writing style.
BALCONY OVER THE FAKIHANI
Badr's writing style is somewhat fragmented and "stream of consciousness, especially when the narrator's are remembering details of something that happened previously. Most of her writing is sharp and quick, and reminiscent of what the characters live through each day. They can be dead in a moment - killed by the bombs that fall continually, or by the shrapnel from the bombs, and many characters in the novel meet this fate.
The writing style of short, staccato sentences is like the machine gun fire that residents of Palestine hear all the time, and she uses it very effectively to draw the reader into the book. Her descriptions of the neighborhoods, the people, and their constant movement from town to town are beautiful and haunting at the same time. She is at her best when she talks of the good that she thinks will come to the people, like there "will be times of beauty and light," and describing the scenes in the towns when there is no bombing.
She also uses short paragraphs to introduce characters that disappear in the same paragraph, just as people live and die so quickly in the area. It is disturbing, but it is supposed to be, and the style works in this book, and makes it more unforgettable.
Her dialogue is very realistic, and it helps bring the characters to life, so you understand their pain and their experiences. "It was like a dream. You'd talk to someone and an hour or two later you'd hear they were dead," and the agonized cry of "Don't talk to me about forgetting" both tell us about the agonies of the characters, and how their memories haunt them.
