A massive wave of immigration is currently sweeping across the US How do new immigrants; specifically the Hmong refugees from Laos; assimilate?KEY TOPICS: This book first traces the stages of the Hmong refugee experience and then looks at how Hmong families are adjusting and adapting to their new lives in America. From a family-centered focus; the reader gains an appreciation for how the Hmong see their own adaptational process and how they represent and define their Hmongness in America. Sociologists and anthropologists. Part of the New Immigrants Series.
#58746 in Books Fatima Mernissi 1995-09-04Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.50 x 5.75 x 1.00l; .62 #File Name: 0201489376242 pagesDreams of Trespass Tales of a Harem Girlhood
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Delightful read !By Alexandra G.(Greece)A fantastic; very well written book.The fascinating memoirs of Fatima Mernissi's childhood; together with her extended family and relatives; living in a "domestic harem"; are so charmingly narrated. The book is originally written in English; although the author is an Arabic native speaker.Fatima Mernissi's writing is like a liquid velvet flowing through the pages of her book; scented with Moroccan orange and lemon-tree blossom.If you wish to enjoy the above book; take your time; choose a comfortable armchair; far from noise; fly to 1940's Morocco and enter the author's harem..Here is her mother's intriguing point of view about happiness (page 80) : "When I asked her(her mother)how much happiness she had in her life; she said that it varied accordingly to the days. Some days she had 5%;others(...)100%". I wished to congratulate Fatima Mernissi for her book and for the nostalgic read she offered to me. I felt deeply sorry when I saw that she died last year; at the age of 75.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The dawn of feminism in the Muslim worldBy MaryThis book is a wonderful chronicle of a unique cultural crossroads from a unique and delightful perspective. Set in Morocco; where Arab and western worlds were colliding in the 1940s; the story is told from the perspective of a little girl who is trying to make sense of her swiftly changing world. She was born into a traditional family's harem at a time when women's rights in the Arab world were starting to take hold and modern culture was beginning to obliterate the traditions of centuries. She tries to make sense of both worlds as she navigates her journey from childhood to becoming a woman and defines her sense of self. The parallels to today's world are uncanny and timeless.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Moved too slow; repetitiveBy HelloReeseI purchased this for a book club group I am in. I started it a couple of times; but I found the writing to be overly repetitive and the plot slow moving; so I never could really get started. The subject matter is interesting - 1940s Morocco; in a communal residential compound shared by extended family - but there wasn't much that grabbed my attention and held it; or anything about the character that intrigued me and made me want to continue to book. It continued to feel like a chore to read. So; I never finished it; and didn't speak much about it at my book club discussion.
