Jul 312013
Gardens of Water: A Novel
Powerful, emotional, and beautifully written, Alan Drew’s stunning first novel brings to life two unforgettable families–one Kurdish, one American–and the sacrifice and love that bind them together.
In a small town outside Istanbul, Sinan Basioglu, a devout Muslim, and his wife, Nilüfer, are preparing for their nine-year-old son’s coming-of-age ceremony. Their headstrong fifteen-year-old daughter, İrem, resents the attention her brother, Ismail, receives from their parents.
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Lovely and terrible,
It has been nine years since the deadly Turkish earthquake of 1999, and yet the upheavals described in Gardens of Water echo throughout the news of today. Sinan, a Kurdish refugee shopkeeper working to establish a life in Turkey, fights to keep Turkey’s liberal secular influences from affecting his family. But then the earthquake strikes, and the Turkish influences are joined with even more Western influences in the form of an American family who gives shelter and aid to Sinan and his wife and children.
One of those children, his teenaged daughter Irem, has already felt the temptations of the West as personified by Dylan, the American family’s son. Thrown together in a post-earthquake refugee camp, Dylan and Irem test boundaries for both of their families. Irem is forbidden to see Dylan, confined to the family tent. “She was stained with rumors because of a kiss. But it wasn’t a stupid kiss; it was everything; it was what she wanted most, the only thing that made her happy. And the walls of the tent were crowding in and her mother wouldn’t shut up and she thought she would explode.”
Questions of honor arise… the honor of women, the honor of Kurds, the honor of Muslims, the honor of good and decent individuals caught up in a chaos beyond their control. The clash of cultures leads to tragedy, though it is a tragedy accompanied by understanding.
The resonance of current events comes with the subtle examination of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, and a more explicit description of the good intentions of American Christians and the road they pave. Sinan’s father fell victim to Turkish oppression, but Sinan must acknowledge that his father provoked the oppressor. The American missionaries provide a rapid response to the disaster, bringing in desperately needed housing, food, and water, but their insistence on proselytizing and conversion brings about suspicion and even retaliation from both devout and militant Muslims in the camps. Author Alan Drew may not have set out to draw parallels, but he does draw all the difficulties faced by all of the characters with balance and care, never preaching, and understanding the conflicts he limns so well results in a deeper understanding of the conflicts we face now.
The complexities of the issues are served well by Drew’s talent for storytelling, and his command of language is masterful. Early on, Sinan “watched the streak of black water beyond the rooftops, and the city lights strewn around the bay like a necklace. The tea-black sky floated above him, punctured with only three stars, just three tiny pinpricks. At night in the village there were more stars than night sky, more world out there staring back than there were people in the whole of this city, probably more than there were people in all of the world’s cities.” The transitions between plot development and thought processes, between exterior event and interior monologues, are seamless, descriptions are lyrical yet never self-conscious or forced. If there were “little darlings,” he either killed them all or wove them in so skillfully that the language is never a distraction from the story but rather lifts it up and carries it along. “Gardens of Water,” with its masterful blending of fiction and historical fact, is one of the finest stories told in recent years.
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|Alan Drew’s Amazing Writing Debut !,
First time author Alan Drew has crafted a story that offers everything a reader could want in a novel. His prose is somehow both lush and spare – it is a story lovingly told. The exotic location backgrounds the compelling saga of a Kurdish family whose life is ruptured as a result of the massive 1999 Turkish earthquake. The brilliantly told story explores how, in stressful times, clashes of culture, religion, age and economic status can lead to unexpected consequences. The hackneyed phrase “you won’t be able to put it down” surely describes my reading experience. Don’t miss this stunning novel by this new author – I eagerly await his next work.
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|Grab this for your book group!,
Gardens of Water–Alan Drew
My suggestion: Don’t bother with plot summaries or opinions, just read it for yourself and if you’re in a book group–make it a group read.
Gardens of Water has a lot for everyone, and gives insight into the culture clash within Muslim families in a way that’s different. The Kurdish family (father, mother, 15-yr old daughter, 9-yr-old son) has been displaced to Turkey in the late 1990s. For the first time I feel some understanding of the Muslim male viewpoint, usually portrayed in a rather simplistic almost inscrutable, cold way. The father is old-fashioned strict but not a fundamentalist, a step toward middle-of-the road; I saw him as equivalent to first-generation European immigrants to the US: one foot in the old world and not quite sure how to raise their children, who are being exposed to values and situations they never faced.
You can read plot summaries anywhere, so I’ll just concentrate on my reactions.
This fine book doesn’t take the easy road of pat answers; many of the characters experience true inner conflict on several issues and both sides of the several issues seem to get fair treatment. The best part for me was gaining some small understanding of the thought process and crescendo of emotions in people (American and Kurd) whose beliefs are so different from mine. It also provides some insight into the effects of the situation in Iraq during Hussein’s rule and the general area, but on a personal level. The writing is straightforward–none of the look at me I’m writing stuff–and the issues are quite accessible. In some ways, it’s a kinder, gentler Kite Runner or Thousand Splendid Suns. Some have compared elements of the story to Romeo and Juliet, which I would have found off-putting. For me, the story was much a culture clash within the families and internal to the various people. But because it’s told in an even-handed way, you get to explore your own feelings through each character. These folks have some tough issues to face and I found it quite moving. It’s the type of book you hate to have end because you won’t spend time with these people any more.
This is likely to be an extremely popular AND worthwhile book–lots to discuss when your feelings setlle.
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