I was planning for Dr. Zhivago to be book #2, but I had to pick up a copy of a play that I needed for my Shakespeare class last night, so I stopped in the library. I ended up leaving with 4 more books than I really needed, so be prepared to hear a lot about post-WWII Germany in the upcoming week: 3 of the books are by Heinrich Boll, one of my all-time favorite writers. If you haven’t read The Clown before, go out and get yourself a copy of it. Now. The only way I can describe it to people is that it’s sort of like a grown-up version of The Catcher in the Rye, except that it deals with the hypocrisy of religion and politics, and has an incredibly heartbreaking love story. Thematically, the two don’t have a whole lot in common, but certain elements (for instance, the loss of a sibling to each narrator affects their story a great deal) and character traits of the main characters are somewhat similar. The narrative of The Clown is quite beautiful; Holden Caulfield doesn't hold a candle to Hans Schnier, the clown himself. I could go on and on about the novel, and German literature in general (it’s my favorite genre – I’m a nerd) but I’ll have plenty of time for that when I cover the Boll books. So, before I go off on another tangent, I should get down to business. The 4th book I picked up (and literally did not put down until I’d finished) was Alicia Erian’s disturbing and darkly funny Towelhead.
Towelhead is about Jasira, a 13 year old girl who is physically mature for her age but is vastly emotionally underdeveloped. This is mainly due to the fact that her parents seem incapable of responsibly raising their child. This becomes largely apparent when Jasira is sent against her wishes to live with her father in Houston. Gail and Rifat have been divorced since Jasira was 5, and they each take turns manipulating Jasira in order to get back at one another. Gail sends Jasira to live with Rifat after Barry, Gail’s boyfriend, behaves inappropriately with Jasira. Gail takes the side of her live-in boyfriend, claiming that Jasira purposely paraded her developing body in front of the older man, and therefore, the 13 year old is more liable for Barry’s actions than Barry himself is. Gail hopes that Rifat, a strict Lebanese man, will have more control over his daughter and will raise her to behave modestly. Unfortunately for Jasira, her father is often cruel and abusive, rarely displaying any affection towards her. He treats her developing sexuality with both frankness and repulsion. Hence, Jasira is often lonely and desperate for attention in any form, including the kind she receives from her 36 year old neighbor, army reservist Mr. Vuoso.
There is a lot of sex and violence in Towelhead. While a majority of it is truly disturbing, Erian injects enough tenderness into the story that one almost understands why Jasira never quite asserts herself against those who are manipulating and mistreating her. I was constantly bothered by Jasira’s passivity about her sexuality – she has moments of emotional clarity, but ultimately reverts into a very child-like view of the events happening around her. I suppose that’s forgivable because she is still very much a child, and even though she has mature desires and wishes to be treated like a woman, she is abused and kept ignorant of any kind of decent relationship (either with adults or other kids, or the ways in which both interact). There are hints of this kind of ideal relationship though, when Jasira meets Gil and Melina, another neighbor couple who show more concern for Jasira’s well being than her own parents ever have.
It’s uncomfortable to read the graphic sex scenes – after all, they involve a 13 year old. I often wanted to stop reading (I can’t help it, I’m a little squeamish, and not so far removed from my Catholic upbringing that sex is still regarded in some tiny corner of my mind a Very Bad Thing.) However, the ending is a soothing salve to the mind-burn you get from everything leading up to Jasira’s revelation. It also manages to get away with being somewhat unrealistically happy without becoming too cloying and saccharine.
