The Parisian, Hammad - C

                                  This grand, sweeping novel is, in a very roundabout way, about Palestinian nationalism. Midhat Kamal, a young man from Nablus, arrives in Montpelier, France to study medicine and reside at the home of Frederic Molineau, an anthropology professor. He came to France after years of preparatory study in Constantinople.  He obviously identifies as an Arab Muslim, but his focus is on his studies and improving his French language skills. The First World War breaks out and his foray on the continent becomes uneasy, but never uncomfortable. He slowly falls for the professor's daughter, Jeanette,  but he never has to face his probable rejection by her father. Midhat learns that the professor is studying and writing about him. His language skills, as a 'primitive', are to be the foundation of a doctoral thesis. He parties through the remainder of the war in Paris and heads back to Nablus to apprentice in his father's business. The goal is for him to join his father in Cairo in a year. His dad learns of Midhat's fascination and love for Jeanette by reading a letter addressed to Midhat from Jeanette. His dad harshly demands a local marriage to an appropriate girl. Midhat obtains the hand of Fatima Hammad , the beautiful daughter of a successful local merchant. Just before the wedding, his father dies in Cairo. Midhat soon learns that the business is in the hands of his step-mother and he no longer has a job.                                                       The years marking his return to Nablus coincide with the establishment of the French Mandate over Syria and the British one over Palestine. In Palestine, there is ongoing violence between the local Arabs and the recently arrived Zionists. He and Fatima eventually have five children and raise them in the house he purchased with his cash inheritance from his father. His station in the world is considerably diminished as he has to start a new business. Fatima slowly realizes that she is not married to the man she had hoped for. Midhat carefully avoids the political issues all around him, yet somehow they effect him. His business is burned down in the middle of the 1936 general strike.  He then discovers under the floor in his father's house the letter from Jeannette that he has never seen. Realizing that he has spent his life doing his father's bidding, he goes into a tailspin and is hospitalized.  His family helps him escape from the hospital and he returns to Nablus, where he realizes that he has had a good life and likely will continue to.                                                                                                                                              The NYTimes review of this book was very enthusiastic. I concede that it is very well written. I've gained a few insights into life behind the veil in the Muslim world, and I've learned a bit about Palestine of the era, including the fact that the British were not benign occupiers. But, the most compelling source of information is in the historical addendum. I never realized how many Jews were in the Holy Land that early. There were seventy-five thousand European Zionist immigrants in Palestine before World War I.  Over three hundred thousand came between the wars. At the end of the day,  there just isn't enough meat on the bones of this story. And the life of Midhat Kamal cannot sustain a book this long.