Review of Light of My Eye

HISTORICAL FICTION IN DE-NILE

Paula Jacques’ first novel to appear in English throws readers into the hot, dusty, haunted world of Egyptian Jews in the 1950s. After the war in Europe, racial tensions were brewing in Cairo, still under British rule. Between the collapse of the Egyptian monarchy and Gamal Abdul Nasser’s rise to power, Egypt’s Jews were viewed as invaders by many barely literate Arabs, who were forced into crippling poverty, often having to pray in run down mosques.

The riots and socio-political shifts of the time are captured through the eyes of pre-teen Mona Castro. Her large, eccentric family and their struggle to maintain their Jewish and Egyptian identities are wrapped up in her own coming of age. Though her family is steeped more in superstitious tradition than religion, they turn to the synagogue instead of fighting back, sparking Mona’s rebellion. She flees an affair with an Eastern European Jewish refugee and the crowded bazaars with her over bearing relatives, in search of other adventures.

Jacques’ tone leaps between playful and somber, laced with colorful language that belongs to a lost world. Mona’smother, who plies her with stuffed zucchini, and father, who feverishly smokes opium and argues the fate of Egyptian Jews, are vital and at times violent characters who embody the desperation around them. Seeing all this through the eyes of a wise child, often bitterly angry, at the seemingly senseless adults around her, provides a vivid insight into a dying world.

                                                ROYAL YOUNG
                                                The Forward, June 11, 2010
                                                          

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