SciFi/Fantasy Mini Review: No Windmills in Basra by Diaa Jubaili (Translated by Chip Rossetti)

 


No Windmills in Basra isn't a book I feel particularly qualified to review - the book is an anthology of mostly flash fiction (fiction ranging from less than a page to just a few pages) as well as perhaps a few stories that might qualify as full short stories, all written by Iraqi author Diaa Jubaili.  The stories all take place in Iraq and calling some of the stories "fantasy" may be a bit of a misnomer, they're more about surrealistic and imaginative (almost like magical realism, although obviously from a different culture) takes on the state of life in southern Iraq.  So perhaps someone with a more literary bent is a better person to review this, I don't know, but I did want to leave at least a mini review on this book that I did complete this year after a borrow from the library.  

Because No Windmills in Basra is a fascinating read and well worth your time, which at a very short length, it won't take up too much of, even as it hits at times significantly hard. 

As I mentioned above, the book is largely filled with flash fiction, sometimes of even less than a page in length, with really only one story with any page length (the last one in the collection).  The stories are separated into sections: Wars, Love, Mothers, Women, Children, Poets, and Miscellaneous, which each contain stories that sound pretty much like you'd expect, although there's some stories that feel like they could fit in multiple categories (for example, the Wars impact nearly every category, as the tragic impact of the wars affects Iraqi life throughout).  

And the stories generally work even for this Western Reader, even if some of the context of some of the stories, particularly the ones referencing regional myths that the translator attempts to give context to but can't really bridge the gap.  Using his surreal pen, Jubaili shows the traumatic impact of war, the struggles of women in Iraq dealing with a patriarchal and religiously misogynist culture, and the struggles of children and others dealing with all of the above, especially in a society that is sometimes just politically oppressive as well.  Jubaili's surreal approach to it all makes the stories surprisingly fresh and fascinating, even as they deal with serious issues, and might make you depressed in the end. 

All in all, a very worthy short read, even if something not in my usual purview.