Diana Abu-Jaber - Crescent

Crescent is romantic, whimsical, and wonderful in every way, being both sensuous and smart. I want to hang out all day at Nadias Caf.

Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt

Its love Arab-American style! In Diana Abu-Jabers Crescent love, lust, and Lebanese cooking commingle to create a deliciously romantic romp about lamour and the quest for identity.

Vanity Fair

Abu-Jabers voluptuous prose features insights into the Arab American community that are wisely, warmly depicted, but her ambitions extend much further. [She] explore[s] the intersections among Arabic culture and love, myth, poetry, and food.

Irina Reyn, San Francisco Chronicle

A bewitching and timely novel about Iraq, love and the loneliness of exile. If the current war could be called anything like lucky, then it is a strange sort of luck that ushers in this novel, perfectly timed for popular interest. But it would be a shame if political relevance was the only motivation for taking up this lovely tale, an urgent mix of Scheherazade-style storytelling and treatise on the loneliness of exile. As Sirine feeds Hanif, Hanif nourishes Sirine with beautiful stories of her fathers homeland. Although in essence a love story, at times the object of desire is blurredis it the beloved, or is it the magical and unattainable city of Baghdad? Crescent creates a lovely portrait of Iraq, of a sophisticated and cultured city that those who call it home long to return to. Abu-Jabers union of genuine romance and current events works to create a novel at once timely and timeless.

Andria Spencer, The Oregonian

Radiant, wise, and passionatenever simple, never completely obvious. From the first page the prose glitters, dreams, takes risks. Abu-Jaber is also exploring the nature of Arab-American life, providing an essential portrait of a keen and dimensional community. Full of life and substance and heart, sensuous to the extreme but never dulled by excess detail, this is a book written by a woman who fully knows how to inhabit her tale. A book written by an author who never for an instant relinquished her grip on this willingly enchanted reader.

Beth Kephart, Chicago Tribune

Diana Abu-Jaber is a high-spirited, magnificently graceful storyteller, a poet of deliciously fluted fiction, character, and culture, and her work is needed now, now, now.

Naomi Shihab Nye, author of 19 Varieties of Gazelle

An evocative tale that, in the way of Like Water for Chocolate , uses food and food preparation as the background music to romance. [Abu-Jaber] makes the mundane streets of West L.A. seem mysterious and exotic and gives the lovers a king of mythic quality. Crescent is a rich, delicious concoction that has you rooting for the star-crossed lovers. And its sympathetic depiction of Arab-Americans and their concerns is a welcome counterbalance to the weight of current headlines.

John Muncie, Baltimore Sun

Its the story of how to love, begins a lovable immigrant uncle as he launches into a tale from the old country. Crescent itself is such a storyand more than that. It is a story about how to cook and how to eat, and how to live in the new country. And, like all good novels, it is about how to tell a story.

Sigrid Nunez, author of For Rouenna

Indeed, when Abu-Jaber describes [her characters] making baklava together, its a lot more erotic than what passes for love scenes in most modern novels. With a little more zaniness, this could have been My Big Fat Iraqi Wedding, but Abu-Jaber prepares a more complex dish thats equal parts romantic comedy, political protest, fairy tale, and cultural analysis. [T]he sweet humor that Crescent delivers so deftly is richly complemented by its exploration of loneliness. Abu-Jaber broadens her exploration of exile to include all the various ways were bereft of homeby the death of parents, the separation from lovers, the hunger for lost childhood. Abu-Jaber captures this despair with exquisite care, but her heart belongs to romance, not tragedy. Readers stuffed on headlines but still hungering for something relevant will enjoy this rich meal.

Ron Charles, Christian Science Monitor

Diana Abu-Jaber affirms the precious fragility of life, love, family, and the human community in new and meaningful ways.

Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Four Spirits and Ahabs Wife

Like Woolf, Abu-Jaber does an admirable job of showing how small moments can nudge a person to take large actions, in the domestic as well as the political spherefunny, thoughtfula book filled with deep undercurrents, which have come together in a smooth-flowing narrative, enlivened by vivid erotic encounters, good-humored, sometimes laugh-out-loud-funny conversations [and] atmospheric descriptions of lush Los Angeles neighborhoods. Whats truly endearing and convincing about this book and takes it beyond political allegory is its fairy-tale quality, which manages, paradoxically enough, to ground the story in the real world. Real feeling, not black-and-white labeling, is the bottom line in Crescent . A story that unfolds beautifully, as lightly and naturally as a roll of silk.

The Nation

Full of the seductions of new love and self-discovery, this second novel by the exquisitely talented Diana Abu-Jaber makes a generous appeal to the senses. Gorgeously written and deeply imagined, this novel is both a fable and a pleaa book that weaves a hypnotic, lasting spell.

Book

A thrilling achievement occurs in literary fiction when a writer manages to create a character so fascinating and memorable he walks off the page into reality. We all know such people: Scarlett OHara, Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff. The hero of Diana Abu-Jabers new novel, Crescent , could be one who steps into the consciousness of countless readers. The author serves up her story as a fine meal of many courses to be enjoyed in leisurely fashion. [T]he backdrop is hugefamilies separated, individuals wrenched from their homelands, searching for traditions. Although Abu-Jaber has put a lot on her plate, she blends the flavors and textures of her story with artistic integrity. I recommend this novel as I would a new restaurant. Go there, take your time and enjoy.

Jessie Thorpe, United Press International

A toothsome tale set in L.A.s richly diverse Arab American community. A bit of Like Water for Chocolate and My Big Fat Greek Wedding mixed together with a much-needed lesson in basic humanity.

Terry Hong, Asian Week

[Abu-Jaber] delivers a love story of aching intensity. By wrapping two innocent lovers in a beautifully woven veil of Arabic culture, [ Crescent ] achieves a double purpose, and in a style that will satisfy all those who devoured Chocolat and Babettes Feast . Like Sirines baklava, Abu-Jabers second novel is a layered and sweetly flavored confection crafted with warmth and serious attention. A single taste is unlikely to be sufficient.

Boston Herald

Crescent is, ultimately, a love letter to Arab culture and civilization, and the customs of diaspora immigrant life as a whole. What Abu-Jaber achieves so successfully is in creating a landscape full of these disparate characters, uniting them in their dreams, hopes and anxieties, and in so doing creating a rich symphony of experience. Abu-Jaber creates a loving arena for these characters, creating a three-dimensional tableau. Whether discussing poetry, politics or simply teasing each other, the reader is given a rare insight into the heyday of Arab culture. The fertile crescent never looked so heartachingly beautiful, or tasted so good.

Daily Star

Wise, spirited, and evocative, this work offers an ardent look at the human side of political cant. Essential for all libraries and for all readers interested in understanding the people our government wants us to despise.