15. Origin, Diana Abu-Jaber

May 11, 2009 21:56

Another amazing book in my continuing series (yes! I made it to two!) of posts on books new to the comm.

Origin is a mystery, or several mysteries. The main character, Lena, has an unknown past about which her not-quite-adopted parents have told her little, and in her job as a fingerprint specialist she is also drawn into investigating a series of crib deaths in her city. Lena is logical and detached, overwhelmingly drawn to the details of her work, but also highly intuitive and constantly worrying at her lost memories -- what she does remember seems impossible. Abu-Jaber's writing is evocative and possibly addictive, though in a very different style from her other work. Summer would be a great time to read this book since the miserable freezing cold of a northeastern winter is awfully well described!

Race in this book was largely invisible. There's one moment where Lena's foster parents reveal how important it was to them to get a white baby, but other than that I didn't see it addressed. Abu-Jaber is a fabulous writer, though, so I still recommend Origin on grounds of sheer literary greatness. I also read Crescent, which is set among Arab-American immigrants and their wonderful food; it wasn't as memorable as Origin, but I recommend it as well.

[Abu-Jaber's The Language of Baklava, a memoir of the author's mixed-race, mixed-location childhood, was previously reviewed by littlebutfierce.]

united states, thriller, arab-american, fiction, crime/mystery, mystery, (delicious), novel

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