The Situe stories / Frances Khirallah Noble.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noble, Frances Khirallah.

Series:

Arab American writing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arab Americans.

United States--Social life and customs--20th century--Fiction.

United States.

Manners and customs.

Arab Americans--Fiction.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

xi, 182 pages ; 19 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[Syracuse, N.Y.] : Syracuse University Press, 2000.

Summary:

The Situe, or Arab grandmother, moves in and out of this collection of eleven short stories, forming an irresistible drama of an extended Arab family in twentieth-century America. Frances Khirallah Noble's deft and accomplished tales draw on her experiences and the stories told by grandmothers, aunts, and other female relatives. Each story is complete in itself, but read together they fuse to form a powerful whole.

Khirallah Noble writes of immigrants torn between two cultures, the lure of capitalist success versus the cost of assimilation, marital and parental tensions, youth and age, innovation and tradition. Chronologically arranged and covering much of the twentieth century, the book begins with Hasna Elias's immigration to America from what is now Syria and Lebanon, and ends in the present, where the situe lives in a Southern California home for the elderly.

Contents:

Situe

Albert and Esene

Genevieve

The war

The table

The American way

The hike to Heart Rock

Sustenance

Dry goods

Kahlil Gibran

The honor of her presence.

ISBN:

0815606575

OCLC:

43903541