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336 pages, Hardcover
First published April 4, 2023
“Something about him triggered a pulse of recognition; not that he was someone in particular, but that he was like me, blended and uncertain.”
"I was professionally skilled at holding two things in my mind at once and choosing which to look at as felt convenient. And not only which to look at, but which to actually believe."
"My whole life I'd been aware of Haneen's stronger moral compass; it made me afraid to confide in her until the very last moment, until I absolutely needed to. I also wanted to resist her, the way a child resists a parent and at the same time absorbs their wisdom; I wanted to sulk in her second bedroom and feel better with the secret muffled gladness that someone was holding me to account."
"Nothing is more flattering to an artist than the illusion that he is a secret revolutionary. These public developments created a feeling among the cast that we were, in fact, preparing ourselves on a training base for an operation with a transcendental goal, that in combing our translated lines for subtext we were fighting the odds in the name of Palestinian freedom."
MARIAM So. What do we think the play is about?
AMIN: (Tentatively.) War.
MARIAM: Good.
Pause.
MARIAM: What else?
MAJED: Families, family drama.
IBRAHIM: Free will.
MARIAM: Very good.
AMIN: Revenge.
MARIAM: Yes, that’s a big one.
[...]
IBRAHIM: Martyrdom. Hamlet is a martyr.
MARIAM: That’s great. Martyrdom. (Pause.) Anything else?
WAEL: (Speaking for the first time.) National liberation.
Everyone looks at WAEL
MARIAM: In what way, national liberation?
Pause.
WAEL: If Hamlet is a martyr . . . (Leaves off.)
MARIAM: You mean Hamlet is a martyr like a Palestinian martyr.
WAEL: (Shrugging.) Yeah.
[...]
IBRAHIM: It’s not a very optimistic vision of national liberation, if everyone dies in the end.
WAEL: If Hamlet is a martyr . . . (Leaves off.)Most rehearsals in Enter Ghost were presented as scripts. The language and ideas were as lively in this form as more typical dialogue. And then there are the kinds of language and observations that make any novel interesting: "'The time for fighting with guns is over.’ // ‘Right. It’s the time for acting.’ // ‘Acting, yes,’ he said. ‘In English it is a nice play on words’" (p. 187). Or, "And I noted, listening to her read, how often English-language sources leaned on passive verbs for Arab fatalities, as though fearful of pointing the finger" (p. 315).
MARIAM: You mean Hamlet is a martyr like a Palestinian martyr.
WAEL: (Shrugging.) Yeah.
MARIAM: Okay. Let’s discuss that a bit.
WAEL: I’m just saying that because Ibrahim—
MARIAM: Nothing you said was wrong, I think it’s actually very interesting.
IBRAHIM: It’s not a very optimistic vision of national liberation, if everyone dies in the end.
AMIN: True. (p. 97)