Elle habitait à Sandwich
Author: MOUHANNA KARROUM PAULINE
Publisher: PANTHÉON
ISBN: 9782221250693
Publication Date: May 25, 2022
Description:
Thérèse, Franco-Libanaise vivant à Sandwich, Midwest, a claqué la porte sans se retourner. À trente-sept ans, elle se questionne sur les raisons de son émigration et se demande si elle a fait les bons choix en suivant son mari aux États-Unis, dix ans auparavant. Cet exil, la fondation de sa famille et l’établissement de la réussite de son époux ont longtemps occupé son esprit... Aujourd’hui étreinte par une indicible nostalgie, elle remet tout en question, pour le meilleur ou pour le pire.
Pauline Mouhanna Karroum, née au Liban et vivant aux États-Unis, revendique le français et la francophonie comme identités linguistiques. Écrire dans la langue de Molière son premier roman est donc une volonté, assumée, de réintégrer cet univers qu’elle a quitté.
United StatesBeirut is a Woman
This beautiful novel gives us an intimate portrait of Therese, a French-Lebanese mother of four who has been living in the United States with her husband for 10 years. In a sort of existential crisis, she escapes to a hotel where she spends one night questioning herself deeply about her life and her identity, that of a mother, a wife, and above all, a migrant. As Therese explores these feelings for the first time, her thoughts and memories take us on a journey through time and space, between the Lebanon of her youth and friendships and family ties so far away, the France of her father which is an integral part of her history. The most powerful chapter in this book is about Beirut, Therese's native city she hasn't returned to in 10 years. Therese engages in a the 20-page dialogue with a her (yes, Beirut is a woman), pointing out all her flaws (political schizophrenia, repeated wars and destruction) and the legions of Lebanese who have left because of this, justifying her own emigration. Beirut, defensive but unfazed, points out how inevitably her hold is too strong and inevitably they come back. This personification of the city so brilliantly conveys this connection of the Lebanese to their capital, wherever they may be. And re-reading this last night as the bombs fell, demonstrate how they must be suffering with her.