red pen

Author's name: Mona Al-Tamimi

In her novel "Red Pen," the creative Emirati writer Mona Al Tamimi poses the question of childhood from within the narrative text, bringing the world of childhood and adulthood into the limelight amidst the changes of contemporary life with all its pains and hopes. The protagonists are two child brothers, the first "Hamad," a romantic who dreams of flying his plane in the sky after becoming an experienced pilot. His father helps him achieve his ambition; thus, he pursues his dream until he grows up and succeeds in achieving it. However, the subsequent loss of his childhood princess turns his life into a painful story! The second is “Rashid,” who lost his childhood features under the difficult circumstances that accompanied his parents’ separation and his failure to accept his father’s absence, which led to his attachment to his mother and his rejection of his father. He continued his life in a routine manner, learned, and became a successful engineer. This is how life is, giving with one hand and taking with the other. What distinguishes this novel, in addition to its romantic character, is that it combines in its discourse the theories of the family novel and the Oedipal novel by establishing it according to a triangular relationship between the son, the father, and the mother, including the convergence or discord between the three poles, which makes reading this novel from a psychoanalytic perspective possible... The novelist introduced her work with an “introduction” in which she says: “The pain of loss continues to reinforce losses in the human soul and drag it backward. There is nothing more severe than the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a homeland. You may deceive yourself at first with two words, and that is what is called hope. But the struggle with it, from Yes, running after the illusion of light at the end of the tunnel is the true essence of the origin of the chaos that pervades the soul. That seems more positive than anything else. What confirms that step is your attachment to hope. That is the point of light worth running after, even if you are not used to running after anyone. To realize what has passed and absorb the lesson, even if time dares you, that is a strong step, proving the magnificence of your determination. That beautiful straw that will bring you back to the shores of life again, to inhale that breeze that you fear losing one day. - The little hero, nine years old, is overwhelmed by the chaos of circumstances and the confusion of life. He makes a clear effort to create a barrier, in the face of the wind, so that it does not harm him. He tries to be brave and strong, in the face of the storm. But can he?
In this life, every person sometimes meets their own angel, a new human being. As long as they are alive, they can rebuild what has been destroyed. This novel is dedicated to all those who do not surrender to illness and injustice.