The Pessoptimist

Emile Habibi's novel The Pessoptimist (1974) - to give it its full title, The Strange Events Surrounding the Dissapearance of Said the Unfortunate the Pessoptimist - depicts the life of a Palestinian in Israel, employing black humor and satire to deal with what it means for Arabs to live in the state of Israel. The …

Ahmed Matar’s Black Humor

I have been listening to Ahmed Matar's poetry since childhood, when no long car ride was undertaken without the cassette tape of the Iraqi poet reciting poems, giving us lines which were a blend of humor and despair, ironic in  their tone, lacerating in their self-criticism, bringing us face to face with a shared Arab …