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The Flying Carpet Of Small Miracles: A Woman's Fight To Save Two Orphans (2009)

by Hala Jaber(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1594488673 (ISBN13: 9781594488672)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: Several years ago I read "Salam Pax" - the book version of a blog - written by an Iraqi man about the realities of living in Baghad as it was waiting to be, and then being, bombed. It was a horrific, and at time even witty, account of the human cost of war. This book is another excellent account of the price war extracts from civilians written by somewhere who was there. Jaber's descriptions of the destruction to life, property and country are surprisingly neutral and all the more effective for that. What the average Baghdadi - who didn't have her protection and privileges as a Western journalist - suffered doesn't bear thinking about. Except that Jaber makes us face it. She writes of pregnant women crowding hospitals in the weeks and days before the bombing, wanting ... moreto have their babies induced to avoid the risk of going into labour later when the electricity is out or a bridge or the hospital bombed. She writes of children with horrific injuries and of whole families destroyed in an instant. At one point she describes how the palms trees that lined the road from the airport to Bagdad have been cut down by the Americans because of the risk of snipers and bombers who hid behind them. She understands why they did it but mourns the trees that have been flourishing despite being neglected for so many, many years. They needed nurturing she notes, not destruction; just like the Iraqi people.Despite this I didn't warm to Jaber herself. I'm not sure the story of her infertility meshed with the bigger story of war. Her mourning for her own never-to-be children reached the point of self indulgence as did her reaction to Zahra's death. How does one love two children, 'decide' to adopt them and then ignore the survivor for five years after the older one dies? How can you refer to a child as 'my daughter' and then put your own grief before the child's well being? And how after five years of ignoring the child do you just come back into its and assume you could adopt if you wanted? Towards the end of the book Jaber finds out the story of Zahra's death and makes a comment about how could she and (the girls') Grandmother bear it when they had already suffered so much. By now we know Grandmother's story and self obsession implicit in the comment took my breath.Overall however, an excellent book, smoothly written despite the difficult and emotive subject.
review 2: The Flying Carpet of Small Miracles is such an enchanting and captivating story. The writing was so vivid that I felt as though I was Hala and experiencing what she was. I could see the devastation the bombs had created, could see the injured and burned children and heard their cries of pain as though I was standing next to them. War is never a good solution and its ramifications are not limited to the area being targeted but instead have far reaching repercussions.The children in this story have lost and suffered more in their short lives than most of us will ever have experienced in our entire lifetime! The resilience of the families is unbelievable.The story follows Hala, a Muslim woman who is a British journalist covering stories in war torn Iraq. Hala ultimately makes a promise to two sisters to help them after being injured in the war but finds she isn’t able to keep one of those promises and then must face the grandmother she also promised. The trauma that this causes her is surreal and affects her life in ways she didn’t expect. Hala must come to terms with her broken promise to the sisters’, the grandmother, and also for the lack of something within herself she has wanted for years but was unable to achieve. This was a powerful, potent, completely unforgettable, and hauntingly good memoir! less

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