Blogging Woolf

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine is described as “a nuanced rendering of one woman’s life in the Middle East.”

The author writes from the point of view of his reclusive septuagenarian Lebanese narrator, Aaliya, who muses on literature and philosophy as she manages her increasingly challenging life. A translator working from English and French into Arabic, Aaliya discourses at length about her work and the nuances and difficulties of translation, including a mixed assessment of Constance Garnett’s translations of the Russians.

Noting that Margaret Yourcenar translated Virginia Woolf’s The Waves into French, Aaliya the critic says, “I can’t bring myself to read her translation.” Later, she talks about projects she might yet undertake: “I can translate Mrs. Dalloway. I’ll spend that famous day inside Clarissa’s head as she prepares to host the party. Or work on A Room of One’s Own in a soggy apartment of my own.”

Further linking this novel with Woolf, Stacey Goldring, the creator of NPR’s Chapter Endnotes, remarks that “Aaliya is Clarissa. Beirut is her London. Virginia Woolf’s protagonist leaves her place to run errands to prep for a party. Aaliya has to escape her apartment in order to avoid a neighbor’s knock.”