The Baghdad Eucharist: A Novel (Hoopoe Fiction) Kindle Edition

It is virtually impossible for an outsider to grasp the emotions and choices faced by Christians in Baghdad. I was greatly touched by this novel.

We tend to think of Iraq as exclusively Muslim country. The Baghdad Eucharist tells the story of what it is like to be Christian in Iraq during the American occupation. It is told from two perspectives: religious and gender.

Seeing life in a different cultureMaking me more aware of how US war actions affected others

Immediately after the end of the First World War, Gertrude Bell was instrumental in creating the modern (non)-state of Iraq, by cobbling together three of the former provinces on the defunct Ottoman Empire. The impetus, in part, was to form a “consolation prize” for the loser in the power struggle in the Arabia peninsula. Faisal was one of the two sons of Hussein, who lost out to Ibn Saud in that struggle. Faisal would become the first king of the new country. From afar, the country is split between the two principal sects of Islam, the Shiites, in a majority, and the Sunnis, in the minority. As a third dimension, there are the Kurds of the north, still fighting to form their own country. Largely under the radar is the fact that there was also a sizable Christian minority, approximately 12% of the population at the end of the Second World War, declining to 6% in 2003, and no doubt even lower today. This novel is the story of one Christian extended family, detailing the reasons behind the decline.I first read and reviewed Sinan Antoon’s  I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody  in 2011, and was impressed, so I thought I tried his latest novel, published in 2017. He writes in Arabic, and Maia Tabet, who translates authors such as Elias Khoury, provides an excellent rendition into English.“You’re just living in the past, Uncle!” Antoon commences his novel with that sentence, from Maha to Yousef, who is now in his ‘70’s. Yousef had indeed seen a bit of Iraqi history. Was there a “golden age”? Not really, though amid the car bombs and sectarian violence, it is not difficult to understand that many Iraqis saw life under Saddam as preferable. Before that, there were various periods whose transition to the next one was usually marked by violence and brutality. The monarchy was overthrown in 1958, and the Army leader who led that coup, Abd al-Karim Qasim, was murdered in the next coup, that occurred in 1963. And on and on, until the Baathists and Saddam provided some “stability.”Chaldea lives! Prior to reading this novel, I considered the term “Chaldea” as a reference to one of the various Mesopotamian civilizations of millenniums ago. Yet that term is used to denote the form of Catholicism widely practiced in modern day Iraq. It does not recognize “Rome” as its spiritual leader. The prayers and rituals of this form of Catholicism are also woven throughout the novel. I even learned that the spokesperson for Saddam, Tariq Aziz, was Christian.Survival. The core aspect of this novel are the interpersonal relationships among this extended family, and how they managed to live (or not) among this background of turmoil. Emigration was a seemingly inevitable option, with a diaspora scattered to Australia, Sweden, England and America. One of the grandsons is a student at UCLA and helps bring in supplies to his family during the boycott period (the ‘90’s, remember that?). One of the daughters graduates as a nurse, lands a well-paying job in Sulaymaniyah, in the northern (Kurdish) part of Iraq. She cannot live there alone as a single woman, so the entire family moves there. Hinnah is the family’s “matriarch,” strongly religious, who ensured the family was raised with both love and discipline.Yousef’s life is mainly behind him, hence the living in the past, and the reluctance to start over in a new country. Maha, on the other hand, simply wants to finish her education so that she does not have to start over at the bottom of the heap in a new country, educationally. As a Christian, she suffers the slights from some of her classmates. The tensions of life in Iraq weigh heavily on her marriage.Love, memory, and piles upon piles of anguish. Antoon has packed a lot into this short novel and shined a light on the plight of yet one more Iraqi minority that I was only dimly aware of. 5-stars.

This is an incredible read about life in Baghdad, and should honestly be required reading for anyone who either 1) supported the war in Iraq or 2) supports a ban on refugees. It is also a useful challenge to the common narrative of "sectarian violence" or politics that we often find ourselves falling back to when discussing Iraq.

I've read all of Antoon's novels and found this one to be the most moving, most powerful because it is so economical and focused. This is a character-driven story that takes place around the horrific 2007 attack on a Baghdad cathedral. Antoon's characters are real: they are complicated and imperfect, fragile and compromised. Which is to say, they are human -- full of dignity, engaging and familiar. Their stories expose the fault lines between Iraqi Christians, and between Iraqis more generally. It is astounding that Antoon managed to create such a rich human drama in so few pages. Unlike so many English translations of Arabic, the language here is interesting and lively. Tabet is one of the best Arabic-English translators, and she is in top form here.Highly, highly recommended for anyone who loves a great story about what it means to be human in this messed-up world.