The Mehlis Report (book)

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The Mehlis Report
The Mehlis Report (book).jpg
First edition (Arabic)
Author Rabee Jaber
Translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Cover artistPaul Sahre
CountryLebanon
LanguageArabic
Genre
Publisher New Directions Publishing
Publication date
2005 (2013 in English)
Pages202
ISBN 978-0-8112-2064-4
892.7'37-dc23
LC Class PJ7840.A289T3513 2013

The Mehlis Report is a book by Lebanese author Rabee Jaber. Published in 2005 in Arabic by Jaber, it tells the story of an architect, Saman Yarid, who is waiting for the United Nations' Mehlis Report to be released in late 2005. [1] The Mehlis Report takes the reader on a journey through Lebanese history regarding the lead up to the release of German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis’ report to the United Nations on October 21, 2005 regarding the February 14, 2005, car bombing assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

Plot

The protagonist of Rabee Jaber’s novel is Saman Yarid, a 40-year-old architect living in East Beirut in late 2005, who, like many of his fellow Lebanese citizens, is greatly anticipating the release of the Mehlis Report on October 21, 2005. The narrator of the book is Josephine Yarid, Saman’s sister who was kidnapped in 1983 and is now watching over Saman from the afterlife as he walks around Beirut. For a few chapters, Josephine takes the reader away from Saman and focuses on what the afterworld is like. Although the Mehlis Report is all that anyone talks about, Saman never learns who Detlev Mehlis blames for the assassination of Hariri because Saman has a heart attack on October 20, 2005. Throughout the book, Saman reminisces about Beirut before warfare and explosions devastated the city, when his family and friends still lived there. Throughout the book, Saman and his girlfriend, Cecilia, discuss how different aspects of society have transformed. [1]

The book is structured so that the reader constantly wonders what is going on, while slowly revealing information. The reader finds out who the narrator is on page 131, when she says her name is Josephine, Saman’s sister. The reader also does not know who Mehlis is until page 24 in the book, when Saman tells Mary that “there’s an international commission investigating things […with…] German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis […] presenting his report to the UN in just a few days.” [1] The reader learns later in the book that Mehlis is conducting the UN's second investigation into the Hariri assassination because the first was led by Irish UN delegate Peter FitzGerald, Irish commissioner and author of the FitzGerald Report on assassination of Rafic Hariri]]. [1]

Characters

Publication

Development

Rabee Jaber is a Lebanese novelist whose 18 books have made him distinguished in the Arabic speaking world. He was born in Beirut in 1972 and has been the editor of the Al-Hayat newspaper's weekly cultural supplement since 2001. Three of his books have been nominated for and another has been awarded the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which was created in 2008 – three years after The Mehlis Report was first published in Arabic. [3] Jaber's writings, similar to the writings of many modern Lebanese authors, draw a lot of influence from Lebanon's civil war and the recent history of violence that has stuck with the Lebanese people. [4]

Translation

Egyptian-American translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid translated The Mehlis Report from Arabic into English. An award-winning translator, Abu-Zeid also translated Jaber's Confessions, Najwan Darwish's Nothing More to Lose, and Dunya Mikhail’s The Iraqi Nights from Arabic into English. [5]

Historical Context

The United Nations' Mehlis Report

Detlev Mehlis was the head German prosecutor in the United Nation's investigation of the February 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The Mehlis Report was released on October 21, 2005, and found that high-ranking members of the Syrian & Lebanese governments were involved in the assassination. [2]

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War, from 1975 to 1990, involved multiple groups fighting against one another and multiple foreign powers, such as Israel and Syria, invading Lebanon. [6] An estimated 120,000 people died as a result of the Civil War. [7] Following the Civil War, all militias were ordered to disband, but a few refused to do so and fought with the Lebanese Army over the next few years. [6] Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon in 2000. [6] While the book takes place in 2005, the history of Lebanon's Civil War still has a big impact on the way Lebanese society functions and on the way the main character, Saman Yarid, sees his city. [1]

Themes

Some themes in the book are death, family, and the afterlife. The narrator for the majority of the book, Josephine, is dead and discusses how her death and the deaths of other people have helped defined the Lebanon Saman knows so well. The family of Saman is an important aspect of the book because he is always thinking about them and they keep begging him to leave Lebanon and join them. Similar to death, talk of the afterlife is featured extensively when Josephine describes her situation and what it is like to be dead. [1]

Critical reception

Originally, few critics outside of Lebanon reviewed The Mehlis Report. However spreading abroad it picked up positive reviews. The New York Review of Books' Robyn Creswell, generally liked the book, saying that the book "is held together less by its plot or characters than by its uncanny way of capturing the zeitgeist." [8]

The Nation reviewed the book positively, stating it "creates a foil in death to a governing culture", excellently considering the issues of Lebanon, its intelligence services and Lebanon society's inability to come to terms with its actions. [9]

NPR also rated the book positively, praising its ability to draw in readers into a different world while inspiring mourning for "this elegy for a lost Beirut". [10]

See also

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The Mehlis Report may refer to:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jaber, Rabee (2013). The Mehlis Report . New York: New Directions Publishing. ISBN   978-0-8112-2064-4.
  2. 1 2 Mehlis, Detlev (19 October 2005). "Report of the International Independent Investigation Commission Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1595". The United Nations.
  3. ↑ "Rabee Jaber / International Prize for Arabic Fiction". www.arabicfiction.org. The International Prize for Arabic Fiction. 14 October 2018.
  4. ↑ Lynx-Qualey, M. (28 March 2016). "Rabee Jaber's novel 'Confessions' explores notions of identity, Lebanese Civil War". The Chicago Tribune.
  5. ↑ "Kareem James Abu-Zeid". Words Without Borders.
  6. 1 2 3 "Lebanon Profile". BBC News. BBC News. 25 April 2018.
  7. ↑ UN Human Rights Council. "Implementation of General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 Entitled Human Rights Council," 23 November 2006, p.18.
  8. ↑ Creswell, Robyn (20 July 2013). "Chasing Beirut's Ghosts". The New York Review of Books. The New York Review of Books.
  9. ↑ Frederick Deknatel. "Book review: Rabee Jaber's The Mehlis Report describes life, death and loss in Lebanon". The Nation . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  10. ↑ Alan Cheuse (1 July 2013). "Book Review: 'The Mehlis Report'". NPR . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
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