And the Children's Teeth Are Set on Edge

Author Name: Najma Khalil Habib

As is her custom in all her writings, the Palestinian author Dr. Najma Khalil Habib treats her text as a space that accommodates the prevailing social, political, and ethical changes in terms of its time, place, and characters. Through her diverse themes, she addresses various human issues that constitute a literary concern stemming from the core of life and reality. Within this awareness, her creative text can be read as an interpretation or observation that takes shape in a structure open to reading and deconstruction.
● In the first collection, "...And the Children's Teeth Are Set on Edge," the author derives her title from the biblical saying "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." The title is intensely personal, with its contents linked to observing the lives of two troubled protagonists from two different generations who lived through and were affected by the Lebanese Civil War. Each generation has a different perspective, so the author imbued the characters with the attributes of war, in terms of the changing values, beliefs, and life choices imposed by that historical period. In this collection, the author criticizes political dependency in Lebanese and generally Arab life.
● In the second collection, "Australians," the theme of Lebanese expatriation forms the core around which the stories revolve in the New World, "Australia." Here, the interplay between the migrant's self-awareness and their expatriate environment emerges. The stories reflect scenes from the daily life of the expatriate and their struggle to find a better life in work, housing, and education, while also evoking a feeling of not belonging when it comes to the right to vote, as they are not entitled to participate in this tradition because they were "classified differently." This implies the impossibility of replacing one's original identity with a new belonging.
● In the third collection, "Caricatures," there are features of satirical literature, presenting stories whose surface is humorous and ironic, but whose essence is a critique of the changing values and behaviors in the New World. They are written in a humorous and amusing style, as if they were spontaneous and direct caricatures, bringing to life human archetypes that combine seriousness and humor. This successful stylistic approach indicates the author's mastery of her art and her ability to create a modern text that reveals the other side of life in expatriation with a different creative vision.