Reviews

• 美しい情景描写が魅力のラブ・ストーリーです

  まず、最初は挿入されたアラブの物語で始まります。各チャプターの最初に、アラブの物語が挿入されています。その辺に、最初は戸惑いましたが、読み進むうちに、主人公の伯父が語って聞かせる物語だという事が分かってきます。 文章は、難しくなく、とても美しい表現が続きます。ところどころ、（私の語学力のせいだと思います）分らない所がありますが、多少表現が分らなくても、ストーリーを追うのに差し障りは全くありません。アメリカでは評判が良かったようです。 ヒロインのShirinは、両親に捨てられ体験を持つ女性で、LAの大学でアラブ文学を教える伯父に育てられました。39歳で独身。母親が白人で、外見は白人です。アラブ料理店でシェフをしていますが、自分がアラブ系である事をほとんど意識していませんでした。 そこへ新任の大学教師としてHanがやって来ます。彼は、フセイン政権下でイラクに家族を残して単身亡命した事で、心に傷を負っており、過去を語ろうとしません。 過去を語りたがらないHanへの疑惑、そこに付け入る詩人Azizの誘惑。 Shirinを実の娘のように思っている料理店の店長と娘、女子学生のRana、カメラマンのNathanなどが絡み合って、アラブ系アメリカ人の世界が展開します。色々な料理の名前が出て来るのも、興味津津です。 第二部は一転して急展開。第一部で気になっていた出来事が大きな意味を持ち始めます。運命の悪戯に登場人物達は翻弄され、Hanの運命も、大きく変わります。

• Wonderful Book by a Wonderful Author

  I've read every single book by Jaber and can barely wait for every one of her novels. Crescent is a memoir of her time in Jordan, her fathers homeland and about some of her upbringing in America and the bigotry and ignorance they faced being an inter-cultural family. Its about identity and independence and allowing the Arabian in her to inform the American woman she became. I found her mother to be the surprise hero of her story and her families story. Im Arabian myself (Lebanese) so it was fascinating to see the familiar events and personalities and culture clash and knitting all of that together to create a new person.

• I love it!!!

  This book is a must-read!!! When I started reading it, I didn't know much about the story and the plot in general. But from the beginning, I was amazed, caught into the story and couldn't stop reading anymore. This is such a hearty, true, emotional and lovely story, full of turns and twists and until the end you're not sure what will happen. I really just love it!

• Scrumptious Feast of Storytelling, Wisdom, Poetry, and Love

  Are you a foodie? Ever been in love? Enjoy a good yarn? Intrigued by exotic cultures? Do you fancy good poetry? Want to be moved? READ CRESCENT. You will be smitten and spiced and wooed and enraptured by the spell of a masterful storyteller and literary artist. After finishing this book, I wanted to shout from the rooftops-"Everyone--stop what you are doing--read Crescent! Your life will be enriched for the experience." Abu-Jaber cooks with amazingly lyrical and unselfconscious metaphors. Without cliché, she stirs you into her characters' lives, serves up the smell of cardamom-spiced coffee, lentils and onions, tabouli-and dips you in the complexities of lust and love and adventure and hope. Meanwhile, the layers of her story are like the complex layers of a great dish. Beyond the protagonist, Sirine's story, there is her love's story, and there are the stories of those around them both. At the same time, Sirine's beloved uncle and father-surrogate spins an Arabian-nights-style epic of mermaids and sirens and jinns and the Mother of All Fish, and oh yeah, Omar Sharif. The uncle's story slides in and out of the current story, and they each cast light on the other. Oh, it's all too complicated and juicy and fun to do justice by explaining it. Sounds chaotic, but in fact, Crescent makes brilliant, colorful good sense. After this glorious feast of a book, you will be satisfied and happy. And enlightened a little about Middle-Eastern culture. It made me want to cook! And to love more completely. Thank you, Diana Abu-Jaber, for creating this work of love and for serving it up for our enjoyment.

• Lovely Summer Read

  I picked up this book over the summer to have something to read while a lot of my favorite tv shows were on hiatus during the summer months. The storyline is quite cute and lovely, its about a girl who has roots back in the middle east, but is a regular American girl like the rest of us and is still looking for love despite the fact she's not in her 20s anymore. There is a little plot twist, and the ending was rather cute and unexpected. This is a great read, quite delightful, fresh, and fun. Only dislike was that I couldn't get to taste a lot of the food the character was cooking in the book and made me hungry!!!

• This is my favorite book. I can't tell you how many copies ...

  This is my favorite book. I can't tell you how many copies I've bought to replace ones I've given away to friends. It's a wonderful read when you're broken hearted, or feeling lost, or hungry for a good story you can sink your teeth into. I had the privilege of studying writing with Professor Abu-Jaber many many years ago at University (I had already read this, as well as Arabian Jazz, and so was a little starstruck) and I have always loved her voice. She is a superlative storyteller, and this, her most tender tale of love and food and being set adrift in America, offers a rare and nuanced glimpse into the aftermath of the first Iraq war and the middle eastern immigrant experience. It's hard to describe; the pacing is slow and often contemplative, but there's a lot going on...many story lines weave in and out of the main narrative and just when you think you can't possibly keep track of it all it starts to pull together into one big, messy, epic, intimate, dreamy, visceral, tragic, beautiful story. Every character is fascinating and human and inherently worth loving, even the scoundrels. And the way she writes about food! Every morsel is mouthwatering. Also, there's a dog and he's pretty great.

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