The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing by Darina Al-Joundi

The daughter of a secular Syrian father, and a Lebanese mother, she describes the Lebanon War/invasion, and its various factions (Muslims, Christians, and Druze - Israelis, refugee Syrians, and Lebanese) her unconventional 'no rules' childhood and an experimental (taboo) youth. But what I know is that I've never read anything like it. Is this resilience? Is it dismissal? Still trying to figure out. Other writers would spend (at least) half the book describing what she just synthesized into ONE sentence. In one short sentence, she'll mention some sort of horrific atrocity or major life-changing event, and then just move on to the next thing with little to no detail or description of the lasting effects. Her writing style (co-authored with Kacimi) is spare. A few good life stories does not always a good memoir make. Some are beautifully done with rich details, others need a good editor to slice and dice and build a narrative. I've had varied experiences with memoirs. 'I was at an ungrateful age, neither woman nor child, but prematurely adult as well because the war had robbed us of our childhood.'įrom THE DAY NINA SIMONE STOPPED SINGING by Darina al-Joundi and Mohamed Kacimi, translated from the French (Lebanon) by Marjolijn de Jager In this dramatic true story, Darina Al-Joundi is defiantly passionate about living her life as a liberated woman, even if it means leaving everyone and everything behind in this “beautifully taut and relentlessly unemotional” memoir ( Kirkus ). When she does just that, the final act of defiance elicits a catastrophic response from her surviving family members. On his deathbed, her father’s last wish is for his favorite song, “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone, to be played at his funeral instead of the traditional suras of the Koran. As the war dies down, she begins to incur the consequences of her lifestyle. The more oppressive the country became, the more drugs and anonymous sex she had, fueling the resentment directed at her daily by the same men who would spend the night with her. She spent her adolescence defying death in Beirut nightclubs as bombs fell across the city.

Raised in 1970s Lebanon on Charles Baudelaire, A Clockwork Orange, and fine Bordeaux, Darina Al-Joundi was encouraged by her unconventional father to defy all taboos. in this unique” memoir ( Publishers Weekly ). The Homeland actress’s “recollections of her unconventional youth in war-torn Beirut are heartbreaking yet humorous . . .

The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing by Darina Al-Joundi