The Woman I Left Behind: a Novel

by Kim Jensen

Overview

The Woman I Left Behind is a poetically written novel about a turbulent love affair between a young American woman and a Palestinian refugee. When Irene, an intelligent, committed and discerning student meets Khalid, a Palestinian refugee now living in Southern California, she immediately knows that this man would cause her both immense pain and immense joy. Coming from two separate worlds that are at odds with each other, both Irene and Khalid have to overcome their cultural differences. Irene comes to realize that she has to break free from her parents' norms and values and lead a more meaningful life—a life not guided by superficialities but by a sense of commitment and purpose. After opening her eyes not only to the psychological wounds Khalid suffered during his experiences of war, deportation, and exile, but also to her own childhood wounds, Irene abandons her detached self, ultimately leading to a reconciliation with Khalid.

With its detailed depictions of modern Palestinian history, as well as its cast of colorful characters—from Palestinian feminists to American cyberpunks—Kim Jensen's novel reiterates the vital connections between politics, the imagination, and the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931896221
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	04/01/2006
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.45(w) x 8.45(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Poet and novelist Kim Jensen has lived and taught in France, California, and the Middle East. She has published her work in a variety of journals and magazines. In 2001, she won the Raymond Carver prize for short fiction. Kim currently lives in Maryland where she serves on the editorial board of the Baltimore Review and is associate professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County. She lives with her husband, Palestinian artist Zahi Khamis, and their two children. 

 

What People are Saying About This

Sharif Elmusa

Packed with politics and sensuality, warm as bread baked in a Palestinian village bakery and passionate as California’s purple jacaranda, The Woman I left Behind is a marvelously told tale, a timely offering for American and Arab readers to view themselves in the other’s intimate and unsparing mirror.
—(Sharif Elmusa, co-editor of Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry)

Fanny Howe

This is a revolutionary love story, set in the present and written in a transparent prose style that doesn’t give exaggeration, embellishment or sentimentality any room. Its frank politics, and its cold appraisal of whiteness, are rare in contemporary American writing. That is, the story has an unapologetic commitment to social change. The struggle between Irene and Khalid is almost equal in strength and therefore almost without a victory; the powers keep shifting. The truth given by this story is that a victory by one would mean an implicit defeat for BOTH of them. This is the lesson, critical to our time: that the sustaining of balance between warriors is an act of love. This is an important book for the years ahead.

Penny Rosenwasser

In The Woman I Left Behind, Kim Jensen creates a compelling portrait of the life of young Sayeed, who lost his parents to war and occupation. This powerful narrative conveys the poverty, chaos, and pain-as well as the spirited resistance of his community-in a way I had not felt before. It was hard to put this book down.
—(Penny Rosenwasser, author of Voices from a Promised Land: Palestinian & Israeli Peace Activists Speak Their Hearts)

Susan McCallum-Smith

Susan McCallum-Smith, Baltimore Urbanite
While many other American novelists continue to retreat into the safety and self-absorption of the interior life, Kim Jensen, up and coming Baltimore writer, looks beyond the individual, and beyond our nation, to capture the true complexities of love in the modern world. Fearless in both language and scope, Jensen's debut novel, The Woman I Left Behind, explores the relationship between an American and a Palestinian exile, who, despite their best intentions, discover that there can be no separation between political and personal identity, even in matters of the heart.

Editorial Reviews

"Packed with politics and sensuality, warm as bread baked in a Palestinian village bakery, and passionate as California's purple jacaranda, The Woman I Left Behind is a marvelously told tale, a timely offering for American and Arab readers to view themselves in the other's intimate and unsparing mirror." 

—Sharif Elmusa, Al-Ahram Weekly

"This is a revolutionary love story, set in the present and written in a transparent prose style that doesn't give exaggeration, embellishment or sentimentality any room...an important book for the years ahead." 

—Fanny Howe, author of On the Ground

 

"Fearless in both language and scope, Jensen's debut novel, The Woman I Left Behind, explores the relationship between an American and a Palestinian exile, who, despite their best intentions, discover that there can be no separation between political and personal identity, even in matters of the heart." 

—Susan McCallum-Smith, Baltimore Urbanite

From the Publisher

Jensen's awkward debut describes the politically and intellectually impassioned love affair between two students at a Southern California university in the 1980s who share a radical politics and love of poetry, but must bridge a wide cultural gulf. Khalid, a Palestinian refugee whose parents were shot by Israeli soldiers, and Irene, an alienated, antiestablishment Gentile from an affluent East Coast family, meet at an antiapartheid rally. From having "no inner resilience" (the result of her empty, materialistic upbringing and a sexual assault), Irene begins to discover purpose and engage with identity politics. Irene and Khalid's initially intense sexual attraction is strained by cultural differences and Khalid's war-bred cynicism, but their tumultuous relationship spans the course of the novel, which lasts to the first Iraq war. The woman of the title refers to the sheltered child-of-privilege Irene was before her radicalization, the beloved aunt Khalid left behind in Palestine, and Bernie, the activist he married for U.S. citizenship and abandoned for Irene. The book suffers from cardboard characters propped up to represent ideas and an oblique structure, which seeks to authenticate the fractured consciousness of victims of personal and political violence, while also encompassing an affected he said/she said approach to narrative. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A Palestinian refugee and an American college student find love amid a clash of cultures during the first Gulf War. Khalid and Irene meet in the mid-'80s at a UCLA protest rally calling for an end to apartheid. He has been a refugee since the age of eight, when an Israeli Defense Forces bombing killed his parents in the June '67 Middle East War. Irene is an emotional exile who left her family's smothering East Coast wealth to drift through the alien beauty of Southern California. A chance meeting with an older woman (who seems to be based on the late poet Kathy Acker) helps steer Irene away from minimum-wage jobs and dead-end friends toward college courses, political causes and eventually Khalid. The instant sexual heat Irene and Khalid experience forces them to start reckoning with long-buried feelings. Just as they begin to trust one another, Irene learns that Khalid is already married, albeit only for green-card purposes. Suddenly the ethnic differences that initially delighted the couple and added playful sparring to their passion begin to divide them. During the run-up to the first Gulf War, the geo-political machinations of the governments involved-especially, in Khalid's eyes, the bullying arrogance of the United States-take on very personal implications . . . and throw the lovers' future into doubt, recrimination and worse. Debut novelist Jensen, winner of the 2001 Raymond Carver Prize for Short Fiction, powerfully portrays Khalid's boyhood amid the violence of the Middle East and the proud but complicated family that he either lost or left behind. Irene's background, by contrast, is implied rather than realized, which dilutes the clarity of her character as an adult. Ultimately,the lesser story (boy-meets-girl) undermines the greater one (East meets West). But the tale is well crafted, with its scenes of high drama and great sex. A first novel that offers a lot more than most.

Kirkus Reviews