Saeed Teebi

Palestinian Diaspora Shorts
Review of the Astoria (House of Anansi Press) paperback (August 22, 2022)

This was an excellent collection of short stories, each of which approached the Palestinian immigrant experience from very disparate views and situations. I had expected that there would be more about activism and politics, but these stories were much more universal. You can relate to many of them simply based on the immigrant experience. They are stories of people and families displaced from their homelands.

My story summaries are setups only, and hopefully won’t be considered spoilers. The book’s own synopsis also describes several of these as well. None of these were lower than 4s and several were strong 5s, making for a 5 rating overall.

1. Her First Palestinian **** A Palestinian Canadian doctor teaches his Canadian lawyer girlfriend about Palestinians and then finds he is losing her to her activism. You can read this story online at the CBC.
2. Do Not Write About the King ***** The head of a Palestinian family, who immigrated to Canada via Saudi Arabia, tries to discourage his son from writing disparaging comments about ‘The Kingdom’ on his online blog.
3. Cynthia ***** An otherwise shy of relationships Palestinian-Canadian student (immigrated to Canada via Amman) at the University of Toronto invents a fictitious Canadian girlfriend named Cynthia in an attempt to better fit in with his housemates.
4. The Body ***** Sam, an articling student at a Toronto lawyer is assigned a seemingly impossible task to facilitate the return the body of the deceased son of a high-profile client to Toronto from Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario overnight, against all coroner’s rules.
5. Ushanka ***** An old Palestinian man travels to Moscow in search of the Russian starlet which he met in his youth, many years previously when she visited Yafa in Palestine. He gave her oranges (a reference to the book cover photo) and she gifted him a ushanka (Russian: a winter cap with ear flaps, usually lined with fur or faux fur)
6. At the Benefit **** Kasir, a Palestinian refugee, bristles at being used as a spectacle for donors at fundraising events held by his immigration sponsor.
7. Woodland **** Shareef (whose family is in Abu Dhabi) and Noor (whose family is in Algeria) travel around Southern Ontario looking for antiques and art at various small town auctions.
8. The Reflected Sky ***** The funniest story. A house-sitter leaves dozens of sticky post-it-notes (which are what we read as the story) around an apartment which he lived in, that are meant to welcome back its actual tenant upon her return. The notes make commentary about the articles in the apartment. Then there is a double-twist ending.
9. Enjoy Your Life, Capo ***** Romero and Capo (the nickname given by Romero to his Palestinian-Canadian partner) are building a breathing recognition app for medical purposes, but which may have intelligence / military uses. Capo's activist daughter is unaware of the implications.

*Thank* you to my non-GR friend Tony for this most excellent book!

Other Reviews
A review and interview at Saeed Teebi Celebrates Palestinian Identity and Community in New Story Collection, by Eva Zhu, October 5, 2022.

A Palestinian-Canadian review at MontrealSerai, by Zachary Couture, January 11, 2023.

Trivia and Links
A book launch was hosted on September 21, 2022 at the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival and you can read an article and watch a video about the launch here.… (més)