The Hostage (Emerging Voices)
The cultural anachronism that was the Imamate of Yemen is artfully captured in The Hostage. Set in the 1940s, the novel depicts a brutal, closed society through the eyes of a boy taken hostage and held in the governor's palace to ensure his clan's loyalty. Employed as a duwaydar, or general servant, he observes the whole range of a social order hardly touched by modernity and falls in love with the governor's sister, the bewitching Sharifa Hafsa. As his friend, the "handsome duyaydar," is slowly dying of tuberculosis, he himself is infected with the corruption of the palace and is on the verge of being consumed. At times reminiscent of Abdelrahman Munif's "Cities of Salt" trilogy (e.g., Variations on Night and Day, LJ 6/1/93), which treats the fictional country of Mooran, Dammaj's work vibrantly portrays a real Yemen that is still unknown to many Westerners, even as it is once again torn by revolution. Recommended for international collections.Paul E. Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.