Sonallah IbrahimIce by Margaret Litvin

Abstract

Sonallah Ibrahim Ice Trans. Margaret Litvin. London. Seagull Books. 2019. 303 pages. IN 2016 I CHATTED with Sonallah Ibrahim about his then-new novel, Berlin 69. I asked him: “Did your experience in East Germany and Russia (1969–74) give you a useful perspective on Nasser’s version of socialism?” He replied: “The dream was fantastic, but it remains a dream.” His new novel, Ice, translated by Margaret Litvin, takes a scalpel to the “fantastic dream” of communism through the eagle eyes of a wry Egyptian narrator who has come to study in Russia. The novel echoes some of the themes of Berlin 69: coping with paranoia and the fear of intelligence services, nostalgia for Egypt, transient relationships with foreign women, the hunt for scarce commodities, and a corrupt party elite. Unlike Berlin 69, however, the structure of Ice mimics a diary—and depends on the writer’s telegraphic but carefully honed style, which gives the reader a sense of the chilling, grim texture of daily life in Soviet Russia in the 1970s. Ibrahim lived in Moscow during a crucial period in Egypt’s history , following the 1967 defeat and Egypt’s 1973 victory over Israel. Ice is an episodic novel rather than a plot-driven one, which quietly circles around the “fantastic dream” until it has been picked clean, like a carcass. The “dream” begins to curdle soon after the narrator’s arrival to the obshchezhitie, the student dorm. The officials in charge of the dorm want to place a Russian in with the foreigners so they can report on their activities . An inordinate number of foreigners are crammed in the same dorm room. The Egyptian narrator, presumably a younger version of Ibrahim, is awed by his roommate , Hans, a handsome East German and a Don Juan who attracts women and men. A constant parade of friends and acquaintances marches through the small room, along with plenty of uninhibited foreign and Russian girls, who are generous with their bodies. The reserved narrator tires of the bacchanalia and yearns for solitude and time to write, read, listen to classical music, or work his way through the Arabic newspapers about the disturbing news from Egypt. Desperate for a little privacy, he moves out of the broom closet to an even tinier abode with a cranky old Russian lady—only to jump from the frying pan into the fire. The landlady is nosy, lonely, and demanding and comments on his love life. Shortages of goods and commodities in a state-controlled economy lead to other absurd situations and behavior. When he is getting medical treatment, the doctor clearly states that he needs a new tire for his car. On SONALLAH IBRAHIM Books in Review for giving her a shiner. For her part, Serena equates the puppy with her abuser and instinctively unleashes her fury at her canine companion, perpetuating the cycle of violence and reconciliation: When he [Niko] picked Trouble out of the litter, I thought he’d stay that same size forever, the size of an organ, sticky-soft and warm. We took Trouble home. He trembled, then ripped up the sectional Niko had bought without insurance. “Cut it out, you fucking monster!” I screamed. In my spot, in the closet of the guest room, he fell asleep in my arms, where he had puppy dreams. His paws moved like levers in a field where he was free and unleashed. By tracing these interiorities, Driving in Cars with Homeless Men invites readers to face the underbelly of human nature, our precariousness, and intermittent despair with determination, grit, and hard-won humor. Kathleen A. Kelly Austin, Texas Ivana Dobrakovová Bellevue Trans. Julia & Peter Sherwood. London. Jantar. 2019. 219 pages. IN BELLEVUE, Ivana Dobrakovová, winner of the European Prize for Literature, pulls no punches for her readers or her protagonist, nineteen-year-old Slovak student Blanka, a volunteer at an international summer camp providing care for people with mental and physical disabilities. At the center in Marseille that gives the book its title, Blanka experiences disgust at the residents’ deformed limbs and uncontrolled bodily functions—as well as disgust at her own disgust. Faced with Laurence, a woman her own age with particularly severe...