{"id":41337,"date":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/41337\/summer-reading-recommendation-the-mehlis-report"},"modified":"2023-08-11T04:13:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T04:13:11","slug":"summer-reading-recommendation-the-mehlis-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/en\/41337\/summer-reading-recommendation-the-mehlis-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Reading Recommendation: &#8216;The Mehlis Report&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><big>Summer is upon us, and you need something to read while you work on your tan at Sporting. Books, incidentally, are a perfect way to pick up members of the opposite sex because they are a great conversation starter. If someone wants to talk to you, they need only ask \u201cWhat are you reading?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  Picking up dates is not a problem for Saman Yarid, the protagonist of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Mehlis-Report-Rabee-Jaber\/dp\/0811220648\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe Melhis Report,\u201d<\/a> a novel by Rabee Jaber. In fact, Saman spends his days juggling different lovers \u2013 not that it helps him much. The novel is set in 2005, shortly after the bombing that killed Rafik Hariri. Saman is plagued by both existential crises and panic attacks in uncertain times. He struggles to make sense of what happened. At work in East Beirut, \u201cif anyone ever asked him what he does in this office, he\u2019d say: &#8216;I drink coffee.&#8217;\u201d <\/big><\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beirut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/41337.png\" width=\"100%\"><br \/>  (Image via <a href=\"https:\/\/numerocinqmagazine.com\/2013\/09\/09\/love-song-for-a-city-of-the-dead-a-review-of-the-mehlis-report-by-rabee-jaber-steven-axelrod\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">numerocinqmagazine.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>  <big>Saman lives in an empty mansion in Achrafiyeh \u2013 the rest of his family has passed away or fled the country. He is haunted by his sister Josephine, kidnapped during the war. Her words reverberate with the grief of someone who cannot make herself heard. From the afterlife she tells him, \u201cI call you, but you don\u2019t answer. I want to tell you things. I have so many things to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  Saman\u2019s living sisters plead for him to come join them in Paris and Baltimore in emails and phone calls. But Saman can\u2019t leave; he seems glued to his native city. Jaber tells us that Saman \u201cnever once traveled far from Beirut without feeling as if he\u2019d left half of himself behind, as if he were split in two. Half of him moving on the streets of New York or London or Tokyo or Lyon, and the half back in Beirut waiting for the rest of him.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  In Beirut, Saman isn\u2019t so much happy or whole, but he is. Josephine comments, \u201cIt\u2019s like your guts are tied to Beirut\u2019s, and you don\u2019t know why.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  The book explores often-absurd efforts to make meaning of life in the city. The title itself is a reference to the report on the assassination that will be issued by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. Saman tells his sisters that he is awaiting the report to make sense of the assassination.  But even he seems to doubt whether the report will in fact reveal the truth. Members of Lebanese Parliament are heard denouncing the supposed \u2018serial killer\u2019 planting bombs in Beirut. <\/p>\n<p>  Words themselves come under scrutiny: \u201cWords don\u2019t say anything. We say \u2018moon,\u2019 but that word isn\u2019t the moon. The moon is a white object swimming in the heights. How could a single word ever grasp it?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>  As insufficient as words may be, Jaber rewards his readers with a fast-moving narrative, and a beautifully detailed account of life in Beirut that may make this city\u2019s residents glow with recognition. <\/p>\n<p>  He captures tiny details of city life &#8212; Saman even orders manakish from Zaatar wa Zeit (or \u2018Oil &#038; Thyme\u2019 in the English translation). Under Jaber\u2019s pen, a thing like going tanning at Sporting Club Beach could be elevated to pure poetry. And that, friends, is what a great book can do. <\/p>\n<p>  The book is available in English and in the original Arabic under the title, &#8220;Takrir Mehlis.&#8221;  <\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><big>Summer is upon us, and you need something to read while you work on your tan at Sporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":417215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_preview_accessed":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"media-embed-type":[],"class_list":["post-41337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"authorship":[42],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Summer Reading Recommendation: &#039;The Mehlis Report&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Summer is 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