Isra is the child of a Palestinian (Falasteen) father and an American (white) mother. When her mother dies young (when Isra is only 8), and her father seemingly deserts them, she is brought into Amu and Amtu’s household (literally, uncle and aunt, although Amu Nasser is her father’s cousin, not sibling). Brought up with their children, Rasheed and Hanan, Isra is hardly treated as a daughter. She is mildly abused and mildly exploited, but key to the damage done to her is the sense of not being wanted, of not belonging, and of being deemed spoilt goods because of her parentage.
Isra manages to have a childhood which is by no means all dire – she is bright, she is depicted as attractive and voluptuous, she is an efficient and capable housekeeper and much loved by Hanan. She is also defiant of mistreatment, mouthy and daring (she shouts back at her amtu and amu; she fights off a boy who is aggressive in Sunday school (where she is sent to learn Arabic) by grabbing his balls). She makes strong friendships, and she is wooed and then waited for, for 7 years from her early teens by her eventual husband, Yusef, whom she marries at 21. She is a woman who demands what she wants, and feels the system is stacked against women in her community.
Although Yusef seems a very loving and even doting husband, and made out to be a paragon – hunky, gorgeous, very smart, focused on work but also family oriented, devoted to her and loving to his family, relatively understanding, treats her well – she nevertheless seems to feel she has to fight with him for things she feels are important to her – such as having a baby later, holding a good job of her own, having some time to herself and privacy, etc. Isra comes across as always balking at being controlled by others – which she rails against – but she seems to carry a chip on her shoulder than is large enough to interfere with clear vision. It is unclear whether the author is making a comment about Isra’s prickliness or not – it seems the author is in sympathy with Isra’s sensitivities (or over-sensitivities) rather than critically analysing them and reading them as symptomatic of other insecurities or frustrations. (It is difficult to ascertain, because the writing style is somewhat lacking in deftness.)
From the way the narrative unfolds, it seems the author wants to convey that Isra is difficult because she had a difficult childhood. Her father is largely uncaring and unreliable, and her maternal grandmother cares little about her. Since her mother died, Isra seems to have felt unloved and unprotected, and apparently so much so that even when Yusuf loves her devotedly and committedly, she continues to rail against him and hold him responsible for all her ills. For no apparent reason, she runs away from him to hide in a motel room for 2 days eating junk food and doing little. He eventually finds her and they have a big fight – again – and reconcile – again. By this stage, this reader is wondering why Yusef even bothers. It is difficult to understand why Isra is depicted as such a prize.
As the novel progresses, Isra comes across as damaged, yes, but increasingly demanding, selfish, complaining, self-pitying, insistent on how she has been wronged, over and over. It gets rather wearisome, and perhaps there is nothing like self-pity to erode sympathy. It is not easy to identify with Isra — she seems high spirited and even willful, but lacks the charm which strong, feisty characters often have, possibly because she is quite obsessed with how she is put upon. No doubt she has been much put upon as a mixed race, mixed culture, and illegitimate child – but it is an unattractive quality when expressed with petulance as is Ira’s wont.
The novel is structured by oscillation into Isra’s childhood memories, and her present day existence as a woman about to be married, a newly wed, and a mother-to-be. Perhaps the idea is that by understanding Isra’s childhood trials as they are gradually drip fed to the reader, one would understand why she behaves as she does in her adult present. However, it is still largely incomprehensible; Isra makes little sense, and is hardly appealing enough for the reader to make strenuous efforts to make more sense of this character. There are also all too many episodes in the novel which depict foreplay and sex between Isra and Yusef; if these episodes contributed significantly to the narrative, or even if they were imaginatively or charmingly written, they would be more palatable.
The novel attempts to bring out some of the difficulties for mixed race Palestinian-American children, who feel neither white enough nor Arabic enough, even if sometimes they can pass for either. Those passages should be very interesting, but oddly, they fall a little flat instead. The writing is largely pedestrian, perhaps that is why the novel never really takes off. Or it may be that the cultural and societal insights are, well, rather prosaic, not particularly insightful. It would be doing the novel an injustice to say it was plodding, but it does seem to just keep trundling along, without much of a purpose. It rather assumes the reader will simply want to just chunter on because they are interested in Isra and her life – which is not necessarilly an accurate assumption. The writing is not skillful enough to build up tensions, there is a lot of telling and a lack of showing, which renders Isra less three dimensional and convincing to readers.
Amreekiya is easy reading, but lacks an edge, lacks an intelligence, lacks that analytical bent, which would have distinguished it and made it an important contribution on the hybridity discussion, or on 2nd-generation American migrant literary scene.
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