No Knives in the Kitchens of This City by Khaled Khalifa is published by American University in Cairo Press.
No Knives in the Kitchens of This City by Khaled Khalifa is published by American University in Cairo Press.
No Knives in the Kitchens of This City by Khaled Khalifa is published by American University in Cairo Press.
No Knives in the Kitchens of This City by Khaled Khalifa is published by American University in Cairo Press.

Book review: Khaled Khalifa’s No Knives in the Kitchens of this City tells tale of a proud Aleppo family consumed by shame


  • English
  • Arabic

Khaled Khalifa's No Knives in the Kitchens of This City, like his acclaimed novel In Praise of Hatred (2013), is guided by a single powerful emotion. While In Praise tracks hatred as it seethes in and around Aleppo, No Knives, also translated by Leri Price, quickens around shame.

But Khalifa’s fourth novel, shortlisted for the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, doesn’t judge its characters. It simply follows its destructive path as it spreads, like a blight, through Aleppo. One character even writes a short book, “On Shame and its By-Products in Syrian Life”.

The shambling, multigenerational narrative resembles the city itself; the plot builds and tears down around one larger-than-life family.

In the 1960s, the central family are proudly middle-class: Ibtihal is buoyed by the family’s Ottoman ancestry; Nizar is an accomplished musician; and the family’s elegant matriarch an accomplished teacher. She falls in love with a villager, and together they have four children: Suad, Sawsan, Rashid and the narrator.

The story begins in earnest when the novel’s shadowy narrator is born. Life before isn’t perfect: the grandfather is a “silly man who cared more about his picture with Monsieur Henri Sourdain than his own life”, and is so horrified by his son’s sexuality that he makes sure Nizar is sent to prison. From the time of the narrator’s birth, however, shame begins to ravage the family in earnest. His father soon runs away with an older American woman, never to see the family again.

The ghost-narrator hardly exists on the page. We learn only that he lives a life of quiet frustration, doing tedious translations and observing his family’s collapse. The narrator is born just before the Party’s coup: “The Party and I were living parallel lives.” Neither the Ba’ath Party nor Hafez or Bashar Al Assad are named. Yet the dates make the identities of the “Party” and its leaders clear.

Slowly, shame eats away at the characters’ lives. The narrator’s mother is ashamed of her disabled and fragile daughter Suad, who she hides away, waiting for the girl to die.

When Suad does die, the narrator records: “My mother returned from the cemetery and burned everything that was left of Suad – her medicines, her few clothes, her sheets, and a quilt that smelled of urine.”

Sawsan, who loved fragile Suad, judges her mother harshly: “[I] spat on my mother, and told her that shame would follow her forever.” In turn, the mother becomes everything that once dishonoured her: dementia leaves her dirty and tattered.

The “irrepressible” Sawsan, too, is crippled by the shame. It begins with her passionate relationship with Munzir, which leads her to join the army and denounce her fellow students. When it ends, Sawsan has surgery to restore her hymen and, for a time, dresses “modestly” but her past will not be so easily contained.

It is only Nizar, the narrator’s uncle, who manages to sidestep the same fate. At times, the book seems to shy from Nizar’s sexuality. Yet he is the story’s moral centre and his family’s refuge: sheltering them in his home, taking care of them in illness and acting with decency and love.

And across Aleppo, people are crippled by shame: ashamed to work for the Party and to march in Party demonstrations but also ashamed to stand against it as well. Sawsan’s shame only lifts when she is part of the Syrian army and denounces the students. Rashid’s ebbs too when he joins an ultra-conservative religious group and when he heads off to Baghdad in 2003 to fight American forces.

At the heart of Khalifa’s book is a serious question: in a world steeped in shame, and in fear of standing out, is it possible for individual freedom to survive? Nizar manages to be true to himself, but in this fictive Aleppo few others do so.

M Lynx Qualey is a freelance writer based in Cairo who blogs at arablit.wordpress.com.

Recipe: Spirulina Coconut Brothie

Ingredients
1 tbsp Spirulina powder
1 banana
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (full fat preferable)
1 tbsp fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
½ cup fresh spinach leaves
½ cup vegan broth
2 crushed ice cubes (optional)

Method
Blend all the ingredients together on high in a high-speed blender until smooth and creamy. 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

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This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

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Where to buy

Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com

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Hotel Data Cloud profile

Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
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Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)

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Power: 905hp

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Price: From Dh439,000

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How they line up for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix

1 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

2 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

3 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

4 Max Verstappen, Red Bull

5 Kevin Magnussen, Haas

6 Romain Grosjean, Haas

7 Nico Hulkenberg, Renault

*8 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull

9 Carlos Sainz, Renault

10 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes

11 Fernando Alonso, McLaren

12 Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren

13 Sergio Perez, Force India

14 Lance Stroll, Williams

15 Esteban Ocon, Force India

16 Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso

17 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber

18 Charles Leclerc, Sauber

19 Sergey Sirotkin, Williams

20 Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso

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My Country: A Syrian Memoir

Kassem Eid, Bloomsbury

The bio:

Favourite film:

Declan: It was The Commitments but now it’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Heidi: The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Favourite holiday destination:

Declan: Las Vegas but I also love getting home to Ireland and seeing everyone back home.

Heidi: Australia but my dream destination would be to go to Cuba.

Favourite pastime:

Declan: I love brunching and socializing. Just basically having the craic.

Heidi: Paddleboarding and swimming.

Personal motto:

Declan: Take chances.

Heidi: Live, love, laugh and have no regrets.

 

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

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Part three: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

Series information

Pakistan v Dubai

First Test, Dubai International Stadium

Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11

Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Tue Oct 16 to Sat Oct 20          

 Play starts at 10am each day

 

Teams

 Pakistan

1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza

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1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shaun Marsh, 4 Mitchell Marsh, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marnus Labuschagne, 7 Tim Paine, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jon Holland