Description
Jana Fawaz al-Hassan's novel “99th Floor” (June 2014, Dafafa Publications/Dar al-Akhtalaf) belongs to the literature of war, specifically presenting the aftermath of the Lebanese civil war from a modernist perspective. The novel takes place between a pivotal moment in the Sabra and Shatila massacre in September 1982 and New York in 2000, and the multi-voice narration is based on a stream-of-consciousness style. Majd, a young Palestinian who bears the scars of the massacre on his body, falls in love with Hilda, a Christian from a feudal family that enjoyed the influence of the Christian right during the war.
The conflict begins when the girl, who is studying and practicing dance in New York, decides to return to her village in Mount Lebanon to rediscover her past. Between his perception of the old enemy and his fear of losing her, Majd is also forced to relive traumatic events that led to the death of his mother and her unborn child and transformed his father from an UNRWA teacher to a fedayeen and then a florist in America's famous Harlem neighborhood.
From his office on the 99th floor of a New York building, Majd's Palestinian identity is ambiguous, especially since he was born in the diaspora and has never had a vivid experience of his homeland. The novel pits the post-war generation against its predecessors to ask questions about the futility of old battles, whether they are truly over, and reflections on the power of love to purge hatreds and animosities.
Despite being set in the previous century, “99th Floor” sounds an alarm bell, far from ideologies, against the war raging across the Middle East. “99th Floor” sounds an alarm, beyond ideologies, against the war raging across the Middle East, telling us that bloody battles require more than a ceasefire, and that "the tragedies of wars don't end after they happen, but start from there, from the stories of the buried remains.
