Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Confusion of Languages
Siobhan Fallon
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Confusion of Languages
Siobhan Fallon
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Confusion of Languages, by Siobhan Fallon, is the story of two families stationed in Jordan with the military. The wives, Cassie and Margaret, are the protagonists and as different as they can be. Cassie knows the rules of behavior in Jordan. She follows them studiously. Margaret takes risks. Author Fallon, who lived in Jordan, describes the streets, the traffic, the protests, the vendors in the roads reaching out to cars’ passengers, all to perfection. We are there.
When Margaret (who is driving) and Cassie have a fender-bender, Margaret is told to go to the police station by Arab policemen. Cassie goes to Margaret’s home with the baby. Margaret is away for hours. Cassie spends the entire evening there. The whole story takes place on May 13th. When Margaret and her militarily correct husband, Crick, had gone to a briefing at the embassy, they were late in arriving. Margaret was caught sketching the speaker in her notebook. They were told about emergency situations, about abductions, bombings, white powder in the mail, and what to do in those cases.
When Cassie is in Margaret’s house, watching the baby Mather, she looks into closets, and drawers, finds a diary and reads it. Margaret has written about her every secret and action. Author Fallon cleverly weaves back and forth from Cassie’s thoughts to Margaret’s. This gives the reader insight into both women’s feelings.
Margaret suspects her husband, Crick, is having an affair with Karen, another woman at the embassy. A photo of Karen and Crick is in his toilet kit. Why did he keep it if he’s no longer seeing her? Margaret is attracted to Saleh, the Arab custodian of her apartment. His knowledge of English is rudimentary, but she and he carry on a conversation. The confusion of languages is the theme.
When their husbands are deployed to Italy for NATO conferences to settle middle East problems, the women feel free. Margaret visits Saleh in his closet room, and takes Arabic lessons in the park with Hassam, the guard. This is not permitted under embassy rules. When Margaret befriends Hassam and goes to a tourist destination,Petra, by herself for three days, she’s in big trouble. Hassam is fired from his job, which he needs desperately to support his family, poor natives. Margaret feels terrible for him.
What happens to Margaret and Cassie:? Where has Margaret been all day and night? Will they remain friends? Do the husbands return from Italy to continue their chaotic lives at the embassy? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
When Margaret (who is driving) and Cassie have a fender-bender, Margaret is told to go to the police station by Arab policemen. Cassie goes to Margaret’s home with the baby. Margaret is away for hours. Cassie spends the entire evening there. The whole story takes place on May 13th. When Margaret and her militarily correct husband, Crick, had gone to a briefing at the embassy, they were late in arriving. Margaret was caught sketching the speaker in her notebook. They were told about emergency situations, about abductions, bombings, white powder in the mail, and what to do in those cases.
When Cassie is in Margaret’s house, watching the baby Mather, she looks into closets, and drawers, finds a diary and reads it. Margaret has written about her every secret and action. Author Fallon cleverly weaves back and forth from Cassie’s thoughts to Margaret’s. This gives the reader insight into both women’s feelings.
Margaret suspects her husband, Crick, is having an affair with Karen, another woman at the embassy. A photo of Karen and Crick is in his toilet kit. Why did he keep it if he’s no longer seeing her? Margaret is attracted to Saleh, the Arab custodian of her apartment. His knowledge of English is rudimentary, but she and he carry on a conversation. The confusion of languages is the theme.
When their husbands are deployed to Italy for NATO conferences to settle middle East problems, the women feel free. Margaret visits Saleh in his closet room, and takes Arabic lessons in the park with Hassam, the guard. This is not permitted under embassy rules. When Margaret befriends Hassam and goes to a tourist destination,Petra, by herself for three days, she’s in big trouble. Hassam is fired from his job, which he needs desperately to support his family, poor natives. Margaret feels terrible for him.
What happens to Margaret and Cassie:? Where has Margaret been all day and night? Will they remain friends? Do the husbands return from Italy to continue their chaotic lives at the embassy? Find this intriguing story on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.