Book Review: The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing

Actor Darina Al-Joundi's debut recalls a childhood at the start of the Lebanese Civil War with profound immediacy.

By Karen Rigby
Published: March 1st, 2011 | 12:00am

Drawing its title from the American music icon whose frenetic “Sinner Man” commemorates a lifestyle that can no longer be sustained as well as a father whose death marks a crossroads for the author, this account of a daughter’s search for liberation is episodic, insouciant, and revealing. In her debut, actor and writer Darina Al-Joundi (with Mohamed Kacimi, in a translation by Marjolijn de Jager) recalls her childhood at the start of the Lebanese Civil War, her family’s brief refuge in Baghdad, and their return to Beirut, the city she once viewed with affection that’s quickly transforming into a brutal landscape, from the Sabra massacre to a series of domestic setbacks. Al-Joundi does not, however, rely on recounting the consequences of freewheeling and often gritty escapades during the ‘70s and ’80s. The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing is no coming-of-age tale framed by easy, charming reflections on lessons gained from turbulent times. Instead, it’s a feat that runs closer to the bone. Al-Joundi laces scenes with minimalistic flair and lets events shine all the more in the absence of extensive explications. The result is profound immediacy. Though readers experience the shock of abuse, even when the “music” stops, there is little doubt about Al-Joundi’s ferocious resolve—right up to the promise in the book’s final line.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing

by Darina Al-Joundi

The Feminist Press, March 2011

144 pages

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