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Towelhead A Novel Alicia Erian 9780743285124 Books

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Towelhead A Novel Alicia Erian 9780743285124 Books

This book is about a 13 year old girl. I have seen it described as a "coming of age story"-but I do not see it that way. It is a story about a shy, lonely girl who is molested, horribly neglected, and raped. Set during the first Desert Storm conflict, Jasira is a beautiful, physically developed Lebanese girl. When her mother's boyfriend behaves inappropriately towards her, Mom sends her off to live with Dad-blaming her for the incident. Jasira's father is not much better as a parent. He is prudish, nervous, and bad- tempered, and he leaves her to her own devices most weekends when he goes off to stay with his girlfriend. Bored, lonely, and bewildered by her body and its feelings, Jasira becomes a vulnerable target for her neighbor, Mr Vuoso. She also enters into a relationship with a boy her own age, who her dad forbids her to see because he is Black. In short, Jasira is either neglected or abused by all the adults who are supposed to care for her. But she finds a ray of hope in the young couple next door, Melina and Gil, who take her into their home when her father beats her. These young people give her a glimpse of real family love and healthy boundaries. I will not give away the ending, for I am sure most people reading this wonder what Jasira's fate will be. Ms Erian did a terrific job talking about a painful, uncomfortable subject. When she writes, the sentence rhythms and vocabulary are those of a young girl. And the book is realistic, because as tragic as Jasiras's situation is, there are funny scenes involving the everyday incidents of a kid's life. One especially funny and endearing aspect of the book is her friendship with Denise, a schoolmate who fancies herself an author. Denise provides an excellent foil to Jasira. She has a family who annoys her, but who care for and love her. And she has a crush on one of her teachers-but this man is a responsible teacher who is good to his students in a normal, healthy way. Although this book is about a teenager, I would not call it a young person's book. The subject is VERY adult, and it makes painful reading, especially if you are a parent. But what I applaud is Ms Erian's presentation of this subject is that she shows it to us EXACTLY AS IT IS, while writing beautifully.


Tags : Towelhead: A Novel [Alicia Erian] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. It is August 1990. Saddam Hussein has just invaded Kuwait, and Jasira's mother has bought her daughter a one-way ticket to Texas to live with her strict Lebanese father. Living in a neat model home in Charming Gates,Alicia Erian,Towelhead: A Novel,Simon & Schuster,0743285123,Literary,Sagas,Arab Americans,Arab Americans;Fiction.,Bildungsromans,Children of divorced parents,Children of immigrants,Conflict of generations,Domestic fiction,Fathers and daughters,Lebanese Americans,Suburban life,Suburban life;Fiction.,Teenage girls,Teenage girls;Fiction.,American First Novelists,FICTION General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Sagas,Fiction,Fiction - General,General,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Popular American Fiction,FIC000000,FIC008000

Towelhead A Novel Alicia Erian 9780743285124 Books Reviews

While there is great skill in Erian's writing, this novel seemed too packed with too many unnecessary plot devices that work more to shock than anything. The title suggests that culture will have a larger role than it really does, but in the end it takes a backseat to perverse side of human sexuality that is at the heart of the plot. The sexuality was not the problem to me, it was the worst case scenario that Erian painted for Jasira, the main character which ultimately felt a little too much to be true. Even more, none of the characters in the story were particularly likable, which is a big problem for any book. In the end, it felt like Erian tried to portray too much and let the overall story fall short and seem like more of a shock-read than what it could have been.
This is a book I could not stop reading until done. I like the multicultural themes and dialogue (very believeable) but too sexy for me to promote in my classroom as I was hoping. But I'll know about the book as I'm always looking for good YA novels for my students - especially multicultural themes.
Towelhead kinda weirded me out. I bought it for my wife after she saw an actor from the film version talking about it on The View a month or so ago. She started reading it to me aloud while we were driving across Ohio and Pennsylvania. We were both weirded out. I mean we grew up in the 50s and 60s, a time when kids simply did not engage in the kind of sexual experimentation so graphically portrayed in this book. Granted there is a kind of innocence and a kind of unquestioning amorality in the way they do it, but still ... I know there's been a lot of stuff in the news and media in the past few years about the prevalence of sex play, particularly oral sex, that junior high schoolers now supposedly regularly indulge in, just to "be popular." But to read about it here, from inside the mind of a 13-14 yr-old girl, is just shocking, frightening, and, finally, just incredibly sad. And the home-life of protagonist, Jasira - if you can even call it that - is simply nonexistent and tragic. The adult neighbor who molests her, the father who hits her, the mother who sent her away because mom's boyfriend was too "interested" in Jasira. The inter-racial and inter-ethnic relationships set against the backdrop of the first Gulf War are all very skillfully interwoven into the story, making poor Jasira even more of a victim. I'm nearly sixty-five years old and I shudder to think of all that my grandchildren will have to cope with - all the wrong expectations and peer pressure of a society gone dreadfully astray from the values my wife and I knew as children and teenagers. I'm not saying this is a bad book. Quite the contrary. It's an excellent depiction of the way things probably are, unfortunately. I winced my way through 300-plus pages, but in the end, there is an epiphany-like scene (for Jasira) that brought tears to my eyes, and also gave me hope that maybe somehow things would be okay for her after all. I'm not sure if this book is meant for teenagers to read. Probably not, but their parents definitely should. Alicia Erian has written a very important document of our times. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy and Pinhead A Love Story
...and won't let me say how I really feel, so I'll just summarize this book has no literary value, it is full of gratuitous rape scenes, and the characters are flat and not redeemable. I can't believe this was assigned in a college course. I can't believe this was assigned in ANY course. I'm sure there are plenty of other books out there, fiction and non, that better portray the horrific and confusing world of abuse without making it graphic and gratuitous, as this author so desperately wanted to do. I feel like everything she wrote was just for shock, which is a clear sign of how little the author has to offer as a writer.
This book is about a 13 year old girl. I have seen it described as a "coming of age story"-but I do not see it that way. It is a story about a shy, lonely girl who is molested, horribly neglected, and raped. Set during the first Desert Storm conflict, Jasira is a beautiful, physically developed Lebanese girl. When her mother's boyfriend behaves inappropriately towards her, Mom sends her off to live with Dad-blaming her for the incident. Jasira's father is not much better as a parent. He is prudish, nervous, and bad- tempered, and he leaves her to her own devices most weekends when he goes off to stay with his girlfriend. Bored, lonely, and bewildered by her body and its feelings, Jasira becomes a vulnerable target for her neighbor, Mr Vuoso. She also enters into a relationship with a boy her own age, who her dad forbids her to see because he is Black. In short, Jasira is either neglected or abused by all the adults who are supposed to care for her. But she finds a ray of hope in the young couple next door, Melina and Gil, who take her into their home when her father beats her. These young people give her a glimpse of real family love and healthy boundaries. I will not give away the ending, for I am sure most people reading this wonder what Jasira's fate will be. Ms Erian did a terrific job talking about a painful, uncomfortable subject. When she writes, the sentence rhythms and vocabulary are those of a young girl. And the book is realistic, because as tragic as Jasiras's situation is, there are funny scenes involving the everyday incidents of a kid's life. One especially funny and endearing aspect of the book is her friendship with Denise, a schoolmate who fancies herself an author. Denise provides an excellent foil to Jasira. She has a family who annoys her, but who care for and love her. And she has a crush on one of her teachers-but this man is a responsible teacher who is good to his students in a normal, healthy way. Although this book is about a teenager, I would not call it a young person's book. The subject is VERY adult, and it makes painful reading, especially if you are a parent. But what I applaud is Ms Erian's presentation of this subject is that she shows it to us EXACTLY AS IT IS, while writing beautifully.