The secret life of Saeed the pessoptimist
By: by Emile Habiby ; translated from the Arabic by Salma Khadra Jayyusi and Trevor LeGassick
Contributors: Jayyusi, Salma Khadra; Le Gassick, Trevor
Publisher: Zed; Zed Books; Brand: Zed Books
Published: 1985
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 169
Subjects: Jewish-Arab relations -- Fiction
Description: This contemporary classic, the story of a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, combines fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty, the qualities that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian-no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.
Notes: Originally published: New York : Vantage, 1982