by Malka Marom
TABA’AN
Naturally (*)
TALMID HAKHAM
Outstanding yeshivah school student (**)
TANORAH
Underdress (*)
TAYERE NESHOME
Precious soul
TAYYARAT
Airplanes (*)
THOWB
Long tribal dress (*)
THOWBS
Long tribal dresses (*)
TRAMPIYADA
Hitchhiking station (**)
WALLAH
By God (*)
WAHADA-WAHADA
One by one (*)
WALAD
Boy (*)
YAA-ALLAH
Oh my God (*)
YA’ANI
Meaning, that is (*)
YAA-AKWHI
My brother (*)
YAA-RABB,
Dear Lord (*)
YAA-OKHTI
My sister (*)
YAHODI DARWISH
Jewish-Israeli doctor (*)
YAA-SALAAM
Good heavens (*)
YEMKIN
Perhaps, maybe (*)
ZAMAN
Time (*)
ZUBI
“prick”(*) (Hebrew slang)
ZAYAN
“Fucker” (Hebrew slang)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This novel has been called “. . . a splendid hymn to love, dignity, honour and duty,” even though the novel is set in the ever war-embroiled Middle East. Were these seeming contradictions reconciled in the novel?
Do you find you gained a deeper understanding of the many aspects of the conflict after reading this book? How did your prior knowledge of the Middle East affect your perception of this book?
The concept of sulha–which means in both Hebrew and Arabic: forgiveness, reconciliation, peace—is central in the book. Do you think a complete sulha was accomplished in this novel? Did Leora make peace with her husband’s death, her son’s decision, her current husband, her upbringing, childhood, lover—with the True Arabs, as the Bedouins refer to themselves?
Discuss the significance of duality—a major theme Sulha: Dave’s dual loyalties as well as the camel rider’s; Leora’s two husbands; Abu Salim’s two wives; and the desert, “a place where good and bad are wedded like sun and shade, where a stranger is always received and always shut out, a place where the common language is often silence or guns, where the horizon is wide and the boundaries are narrow . . .”
Is the “official” reason Leora states for her journey to the Sinai Desert and to the forbidden tents the “real” reason? Is Leora’s journey a quest “to find the woman buried in the rubble of widowhood”? Or is she escaping to the desert?
Why couldn’t Leora have solved her dilemmas in Canada? What might this tell us about her, Canada, and the immigrants to Canada?
If you, like Leora, were obliged by law to decide whether or not to allow your only son to serve high-risk military duty in defence of your nation, what would be your decision?
Throughout her stay in the forbidden tents, Leora wonders why this Bedouin clan broke their tribal law, which forbids all strangers to enter their women’s tents. What do you believe compelled these Bedouins to invite Leora to stay with them?
What compelled Leora to remain with her Bedouin hosts after the rumor was smuggled to her that she might be staying in tents where a father would kill his son and a brother would kill his sister? Why didn’t she, or Tal, Hillel, and El Bofessa alert the authorities?
Leora is an outsider not only in the remote Bedouin tents, but also in her native Israel and her husband’s native Canada. How do the many layers of her Outsiderdom interact? Consider the differences between observing and noting the actions as opposed to participating, engaging in them. By observing, does one become a de facto participant?
What should be the position of a modern society concerning tribal cultures living within it? Does society have the right to enforce its modern laws? What about honouring the cultural codes? Where should the line be drawn, if at all? Should the custom of women’s circumcision, for example, be allowed? As well as polygamous marriage or honour killings?
Can you envision a society with a liberal worldview living in seclusion like the Bedouins? Does the very fact that they live so isolated make it necessary to have strict rules of human conduct?
Can people be transformed by an experience of the “other” in a way that sensitizes us to moral differences between cultures and makes us respectful and tolerant of their practices? Clearly, Leora is estranged by the rite of female circumcision among the Bedouin, to give one example, and no measure of her newly acquired respect and tolerance will spare her a sense of cultural and moral distance on this point. Can one maintain both sides of this relationship to the “other” without losing one’s own sense of self, one’s honesty, one’s openness and one’s commitments?
Despite their differences, some of the characters in this novel become close friends and confidants. Are these true friendships? How do they influence one another’s outlook on life? Do any of them truly change their beliefs during the course of this novel?
How is Leora a different person at the end of the book than she was at the beginning? Was there any particular point in the book that marked the turn?
Sulha was written in a unique style: like the Sinai’s dry river beds, the novel is constructed in circles, and some parts within these circles are narrated in a lyrical poetic style, other in mythic style, and some in a journalistic reporting style. Which sections would you attribute to which of these three styles? Examine the effects of these various styles on the novel, and on your perception of the novel.
The personal versus the tribal are interwoven in many cases in both the Israeli and Arab-Bedouin societies, as in Leora’s dilemma whether to give her consent to her son, and in the case of Abu Salim’s dilemma over whether to pay for Bride Price with rights to smuggling routes or to water holes. Discuss other places where the personal and tribal are tightly linked, and where they are parallel.
What did the war widow Leora and the war hero Tal share in common? What attracted one to the other? What kept their relationship fuelled? What do you think happened to them after the novel left them?
Discuss the effect of warfare on personal life, belief, morality, conduct, spirit, relationships, love–of mate, child, parent, country.
Twenty-two years after her husband was killed Leora still grieves for him. Does it ring true to you? Have you suffered sudden loss? Is the trauma of sudden loss any different in the case of the missing in action, killed in action, or killed in a car accident, or a heart attack?
Did Leora betray everything her husband Arik lived and died for when she “dropped out” to Canada? Talk about the theme of betrayal and guilt in this novel. Has everybody in this novel betrayed somebody or some ideal?
In his praise of Sulha, Leonard Cohen pointed out that “Crucial human questions [are] passionately addressed, and answered in
a spirit of humanity . . .” Do you agree? What specific questions do you think were raised in Sulha? Were they resolved? What questions do you wish Sulha explored?
“Silence is a speaker” in this novel. What does it say?
After reading this novel, Anne Michaels noted that “Sulha attempts to reconcile ancient conflicts, the living and the dead, forgetting and forgiving, within the compassion and frailties of its characters . . .” Does it apply to the conflict between Awaad’s clan and their sheikh? Do you agree or disagree with the sheikh that the conflict in the Middle East is sparked not only by the dispute over land and water and religion but by the concept of time: modern vs. ancient, and authority: male hierarchal vs. democracy?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sulha is Malka Marom’s first novel, but prior to its publication, she was already well known internationally. She began her career as a folksinger, in the popular duo Malka & Joso who were the first to bring world music to Canada. Their recordings with Capitol EMI Records topped the bestsellers lists in Canada.
As a soloist, Marom performed on stage, TV and radio in Canada, the U.S., South American, the U.K., Europe and the Middle East.
She is also known and respected as a radio broadcaster and documentary maker. Her documentary A Bite of the Big Apple, an eight-hour exploration of the American Dream, was an ACTRA Award winner. Among her many other documentaries, Desert Diaries, My Jerusalem, and The Holocaust received nominations for the ACTRA Award.
Her documentary The Bedouins won the Ohio State Award. This documentary inspired Marom to study Bedouin Arabic, return to the Sinai, Negev and Judean deserts, where she lived with five different Bedouin clans for months at a time.
Marom’s documentaries also explore music and musicians. She has profiled Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen among others. Her interview with Pablo Casals was the last Casals ever gave and drew praise from many, including renowned pianist Glenn Gould.
Marom’s next book, In Conversation with Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, will be published by ECW Press in 2013.
For more information, visit www.malkamarom.com.
Sulha © 1999, 2012 by Malka Marom
All rights reserved. No parts of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage or retrieval systems – without the prior written permission of the publisher, or in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from the Canadian Licensing Agency.
This novel is a work of fiction. Locations, characters, names and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Marom, Malka
SULHA (Trade Paperback) published in 1999 by Key Porter Books Limited, Toronto Canada. ISBN: 1-55263-053-6
SULHA (In German translation) published in 2000 by Ullstein List Verlag. Munich, Germany. ISBN 3 550 08311 4
SULHA (In Greek translation) published in 2001 by Psichgios publications S.A. Athens, Greece. ISBN 960 – 274- 472-3
Cover Photographs: Brendan Healy & Alejandro Santiago
Cover Design: Alejandro Santiago
Appendix Photographs: Malka Marom, Bedouin, Avi Oblas