A Very Large Expanse of Sea - Tahereh Mafi
Updated: Aug 12, 2021
Genre : (YA Fiction)
Wow. I would like to note that I finished this book, the morning of writing this review, and it is currently 5:02 pm of that day, and I am still amazed and moved by that book.
The book is about a girl who falls in love with a boy in high school. Seems pretty simple on the surface, but nothing is simple in this world ... as the book shows. Shirin is a young Muslim teenager living in America after 9/11, just like many other Muslims in America she faced racism and bigotry. Her scarf made her many people's enemies and made many hers. But fortunately/unfortunately she never stayed in one place, and always had to move for, what her father referred to as "a better future", something many immigrant families achieve for. Navid, her brother, is a popular and typical heart candy for all the girls in high school, unlike Shirin who is unsocial and is unable to find her friends in school, but there is one thing that keeps them together. Breakdancing.
Throughout the book, as Shirin faces xenophobia and Islamaphobia challenges, one thing that makes her happy is breakdancing... and another boy. Shirin finds herself in a relationship with a boy at high school, not even o purpose. His name Ocean, the basketball champ in high school, and his life is nothing like hers.
How do they meet? and how they fall in love? , is one story, and the other what people say about their relationship? how they face the challenges? and if it even lasts as long as they hope?
The book takes the reader through a rollercoaster of truth, pain, and love. The best rollercoaster I have experienced in my life.
One reason this book touched me so much was due to the relation between me and the main character, but I think more importantly, because of the realism and unfortunate truth illustrated in the book. Considering that this was a fictional book, it was the most real and unfiltered book I have ever read, and that made me feel like this is somewhere for someone a very true and real story. It's one of the books you want to keep on your shelf forever, and in your heart for longer.
Personally, unlike the main character, I do not wear a scarf, but I am a Muslim. That's what made me most intrigued, was seeing it from the perspective where religion is on their face, for me it was always an option to hide it, and many times I have been guilty of doing so. But as maturity came, I took pride in it, but that didn't mean I never cared and was never hurt. As Shirin feels in the book, I felt the same way.
The book showed me many things, and I think the quotes I have presented below, show perfectly what my biggest life lesson from it was:
"If the decision you’ve made has brought you closer to humanity, then you’ve done the right thing.” - Shirin's' Dad
“I dressed the way I did not because I was trying to be a nun, but because it felt good—and because it made me feel less vulnerable in general like I wore a kind of armor every day. It was a personal preference.”- Shirin
“Ocean had given me hope. He’d made me believe in people again. His sincerity had rubbed me raw, had peeled back the stubborn layers of anger I’d lived in for so long. Ocean made me want to give the world a second chance.” - Shirin
“Please don’t walk away from me because you’re worried about the opinions of racists and assholes. Walk away from me because you hate me,” he said. "Tell me you think I’m stupid and ugly and I swear this would hurt less.” - Ocean
“When I was a kid and would tell my mom that people at school were mean to me, she’d pat me on the head and tell me stories about how she’d lived through war and an actual revolution, and when she was fifteen someones cracked open her skull in the middle of the street while her best friend was gutted like a fish so, hey, why don’t you just eat your Cheerios and walk it off, you ungrateful American child. I ate my cheerios. I didn't talk about it.” - Shirin about her mom
mixed with truth, is humor, and some of these lines, I will definitely use in the future:
“Be careful with that," I said, nodding at the paper, "because if you text me too much, you'll have to marry me. It's the rules in my religion.”- Shirin texting Ocean
One of the most important pages that stuck with me *Spoiler Alert* :
“The news cycle never let me breathe anymore. 9/11 happened last fall, two weeks into my freshman year, and a couple of weeks later two dudes attacked me while I was walking home from school, and the worst part—the worst part—was that it took me days to shake off the denial; it took me days to fathom the why. I kept hoping the explanation would turn out to be more complex, that there’d turn out to be more than pure, blind hatred to motivate their actions. I wanted there to be some other reason why two strangers would follow me home, some other reason why they’d yank my scarf off my head and try to choke me with it. I didn’t understand how anyone could be so violently angry with me for something I hadn’t done, so much so that they’d feel justified in assaulting me in broad daylight as I walked down the street. I didn’t want to understand it. But there it was.”
From The Large Expanse of Sea. Photo : Abeeha Zaidi
Where can you find it :
-Local Library
-Book Store
-Amazon
EVERYWHERE ... AND GO GET IT !!
Comments