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Sweetness in the Belly
Like Brick Lane and The Kite Runner, Camilla Gibb's widely praised new novel is a poignant and intensely atmospheric look beyond the stereotypes of Islam. After her hippie British parents are murdered, Lilly is raised at a Sufi shrine in Morocco. As a young woman she goes on pilgrimage to Harar, Ethiopia, where she teaches Qur'an to children and falls in love with an idealistic doctor. But even swathed in a traditional headscarf, Lilly can't escape being marked as a foreigner. Forced to flee Ethiopia for England, she must once again confront the riddle of who she is and where she belongs.
368 pages, Paperback
First published March 29, 2005
About the author
Camilla Gibb
17 books298 followersFrom the author's web site:
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
"Camilla Gibb, born in 1968, is the author of three novels, Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so's Life and Sweetness in the Belly, as well as numerous short stories, articles and reviews.
She was the winner of the Trillium Book Award in 2006, a Scotiabank Giller Prize short list nominee in 2005, winner of the City of Toronto Book Award in 2000 and the recipient of the CBC Canadian Literary Award for short fiction in 2001. Her books have been published in 18 countries and translated into 14 languages and she was named by the jury of the prestigious Orange Prize as one of 21 writers to watch in the new century.
Camilla was born in London, England, and grew up in Toronto, Canada. She has a B.A. in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Toronto, completed her Ph.D. in social anthropology at Oxford University in 1997, and spent two years at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral research fellow before becoming a full-time writer.
Camilla has been writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where, for the past two years, she served as an adjunct faculty member of the English Department's MA in Creative Writing Program.
She is currently working on a new novel and divides her time between Toronto and London, England."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 743 reviews
April 2, 2009
The language is beautiful, the descriptions of the culture and landscape are intense, even her depiction of the main character's feelings in memorizing the Qur'an is, to me, a Muslim, a mind opener.
But...
The Islam in her book is not the real Islamic teaching. It's heavily mixed with cultural traditions, but still labeled 'Islam'. I can imagine the readers say "Oh, now I know more about Islam' but are actually misled. True, it's not Miss Gibbs responsiblity (why would you learn about a religion from someone who is not a believer again?), but with all the precise details she showed of the traditions and habits, one might assume that she had done a lot of research about Islam and that her portrayal of Islam is valid. So all those mistaken information has left me dissatisfied.
I also have a problem with her message. To conclude that a person can only be a 'good person' if she/he becomes more permissive, leaving the code of law now and again, may be what many readers want, but is not prudent. Everyone in her story either becomes inhumane from or shackled with the religion (Islam), or they leave Islam and be humane again. Perhaps she's yet to meet a person who is kind, compassionate, and successful BECAUSE he/she is a Muslim. Or perhaps she has never read the stories of the Prophet (who is the kindest, the most compassionate ever, and very, very successful). Or simply because she meant to discredit Islam. God knows best.
But...
The Islam in her book is not the real Islamic teaching. It's heavily mixed with cultural traditions, but still labeled 'Islam'. I can imagine the readers say "Oh, now I know more about Islam' but are actually misled. True, it's not Miss Gibbs responsiblity (why would you learn about a religion from someone who is not a believer again?), but with all the precise details she showed of the traditions and habits, one might assume that she had done a lot of research about Islam and that her portrayal of Islam is valid. So all those mistaken information has left me dissatisfied.
I also have a problem with her message. To conclude that a person can only be a 'good person' if she/he becomes more permissive, leaving the code of law now and again, may be what many readers want, but is not prudent. Everyone in her story either becomes inhumane from or shackled with the religion (Islam), or they leave Islam and be humane again. Perhaps she's yet to meet a person who is kind, compassionate, and successful BECAUSE he/she is a Muslim. Or perhaps she has never read the stories of the Prophet (who is the kindest, the most compassionate ever, and very, very successful). Or simply because she meant to discredit Islam. God knows best.
June 25, 2011
I really need to revise my ratings, as this is one of my all time favourites, up there with "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks.
This is a work of fiction that reads like a colourful symphony...artfully composed and flowing with notes both wistful and poignant. Ms. Gibb transports the reader into the dusty streets of Africa, squatting in the dirt to dry chillies, or chewing qat to get high. Then readers struggle along with the characters in their daily grind as deposed refugees in Thatcher's England, amidst a population of Pommies growing increasingly resentful of their presence.
I loved this story, the way it is told from a truly unique perspective - that of a young girl orphaned when her hippy parents are killed, and left to be raised by another ex-pat Brit who has found roots in Islam and Morocco, and a revered guardian in the Great Abdal. Despite the noble efforts of these two men who truly oversee her protection and education as a child, Lily finds herself as a teen in Ethiopa, with few prospects and has to eke out a meagre existence as a teacher to poor children, while she tries to fit into the local community who continue to view her white face with suspicion and derision.
Political intrigue becomes political unrest, becomes manipulated famine to control the masses and those with any rumoured connection to the Emperor are sent to flee for their lives. Lily is one of the many who have to do just that, leaving the country she calls home, and her one and only love behind. He is the more western- minded doctor Aziz, who has had his own battles living in Harar with his black Somali appearance.
Her first love stays in her heart for many years, and is partly what drives her passion for matching refugee families with other relatives who trickle into England via various parts of Europe over the next decade.
"Sweetness in the Belly" is a journey that will make you believe you were there.
This is a work of fiction that reads like a colourful symphony...artfully composed and flowing with notes both wistful and poignant. Ms. Gibb transports the reader into the dusty streets of Africa, squatting in the dirt to dry chillies, or chewing qat to get high. Then readers struggle along with the characters in their daily grind as deposed refugees in Thatcher's England, amidst a population of Pommies growing increasingly resentful of their presence.
I loved this story, the way it is told from a truly unique perspective - that of a young girl orphaned when her hippy parents are killed, and left to be raised by another ex-pat Brit who has found roots in Islam and Morocco, and a revered guardian in the Great Abdal. Despite the noble efforts of these two men who truly oversee her protection and education as a child, Lily finds herself as a teen in Ethiopa, with few prospects and has to eke out a meagre existence as a teacher to poor children, while she tries to fit into the local community who continue to view her white face with suspicion and derision.
Political intrigue becomes political unrest, becomes manipulated famine to control the masses and those with any rumoured connection to the Emperor are sent to flee for their lives. Lily is one of the many who have to do just that, leaving the country she calls home, and her one and only love behind. He is the more western- minded doctor Aziz, who has had his own battles living in Harar with his black Somali appearance.
Her first love stays in her heart for many years, and is partly what drives her passion for matching refugee families with other relatives who trickle into England via various parts of Europe over the next decade.
"Sweetness in the Belly" is a journey that will make you believe you were there.
November 30, 2009
The book was well written, and I liked how it jumped between time periods. But I just didn't feel any pressure to keep reading - it was more like 'a story of the life of...' book with no climax or hook. just kinda ended. Amazing how she was able to completely depict Ethiopia in the pages though... I read this after coming back from there and I could completely picture the streets and imagine the characters. Another caveat though - her descriptions of Islam were not really accurate - much of the practices there are cultural and span Muslim and Christian communities. I found that in Ethiopia, unlike the impression from the book, Muslim and Christian communities live in harmony with each other.
June 7, 2009
Lilly is the only child of a couple of wandering, hippy English parents: "born in Yugoslavia, breast-fed in the Ukraine, weaned in Corsica, freed from nappies in Sicily and walking by the time we got to the Algarve." In Morocco, she's left in the care of the Great Abdal while her parents go jaunting, only to learn she is suddenly an orphan. Raised by the Great Abdal, a muslim Sheikh, and Mohammed Bruce Mahmoud, a "fiery-haired" ex-British Muslim convert, she found that "once I was led into the absorption of prayer and the mysteries of the Qu'ran, something troubled in me became still." When she is 16, she and her friend Hussein make a pilgrimage to the city of Harar in Ethiopia, to the compound of Sheikh Jami Abdullah Rahman, direct descendent of a saint. On route, they stay at the Emperor of Ethiopia's palace, courtesy of a letter of introduction from Mohammed Bruce.
Because Lilly is farenji (white), and the Sheikh is very racist (as is everyone else she encounters there), she is separated from Hussein and sent to live with the sister of the Sheikh's third wife, Noura, an Oromo, while Hussein stays to be one of his disciples. Lilly learns the language of the Hararans, who are not black but consider themselves Arab, who use the local Oromo population as serfs and combine old tradition with Islam. She falls in love with Aziz, a young local doctor, half Hraran, half Sudanese, almost an outcast because he is black. He introduces her to a less all-pervasive interpretation of Islam, and politics.
Famine strikes the north while the Emperor has cavier flown in from Europe for his own dinner. Unrest stirs, the soldiers take over in the name of communism and quickly put in place a military dictatorship. Lilly escapes being rounded up with anyone else who has ties to the Emperor, though she never met him, and makes it to London where she becomes a nurse and, with her friend Amina, sets up an office to keep track of all the refugees, uniting them with family members, all in the hope of finding Aziz's name on a list.
I loved this book. It's become one of my favourites, easily so, and - strangely enough, given the subject matter - I would even call it a comfort read. It's a dark story yet I did not find it depressing for a second, due to the quality of the writing. Gibb has a light touch, and holds back from telling us what to feel or how to react: reading this book was like feeling a breeze against your cheek. Even brutality is rendered bittersweet through the light touch of Gibb's word choices. It is never saccharine, never melodrammatic, and opens a door into a world few of us have any idea or understanding of.
A couple of things I didn't understand: why did Lilly and Hussein stay in Ethiopia, and how did she manage to get through nurse training in England when she'd had no formal education? Minor quibbles...
There are some brutal moments in the story. Most especially disturbing is the scene of female circumscion, which did make me turn green, riveted though I was. I'd seen it on an SBS documentary years ago, the first time I learned that it happened at all (it is illegal, but still practised in many places). The Ethiopan sections are set in the 1970s (Lilly is 19 when she flees), which is not so very long ago. They believed it made women pure, that it kept them from being "on heat", and that they would never get a husband if they weren't infibulated. It's quite terrifying. As Aziz points out, though, it's not actually an Islamic tradition.
But there is a beautiful, delicate balance between the more horrific traditions and superstitions, Islam and a more modern way of thinking. Lilly, as narrator, is never shaken from her beliefs, though she has occasion to question her own nature. She shows a human side to Islam, a side as familiar as Christianity - what I mean is, her religion never comes across as weird, scary, alien etc. The similarities between Islam and Christianity come through clearly. I also liked the "truer" understanding of jihad, as an inner struggle with the flaws of your own nature, not with another person, country or culture.
It is the way this book is written, and Lilly's voice, that make it strangely warm and comforting, as well as humorous (at times), philosophical, world-weary, honest, enlightening, touching. It is such a human story, and I especially find it interesting that it closely follows the lives of women - in Africa and the refugees crowded into the council estate flats in London. It is through the daily lives of women, who worked and cooked and sang and found husbands for their children and kept the old traditions alive, that the city of Harar really comes alive.
There is also insight into the world of refugees and the communities they establish in other parts of the world. While the author confesses she took some liberties with geography and history, still this book fleshed out a country and a people who were only ever, in my mind, images of black skeletons staggering through a desert, thanks to the News. Despite the uglier moments, the uglier side to their world and way of life, the characters were so well drawn that I felt like I knew them personally. I think that this quality, above anything else, is what makes this a "comfort read" for me. I could easily read this many more times, and get more out of it each time.
Because Lilly is farenji (white), and the Sheikh is very racist (as is everyone else she encounters there), she is separated from Hussein and sent to live with the sister of the Sheikh's third wife, Noura, an Oromo, while Hussein stays to be one of his disciples. Lilly learns the language of the Hararans, who are not black but consider themselves Arab, who use the local Oromo population as serfs and combine old tradition with Islam. She falls in love with Aziz, a young local doctor, half Hraran, half Sudanese, almost an outcast because he is black. He introduces her to a less all-pervasive interpretation of Islam, and politics.
Famine strikes the north while the Emperor has cavier flown in from Europe for his own dinner. Unrest stirs, the soldiers take over in the name of communism and quickly put in place a military dictatorship. Lilly escapes being rounded up with anyone else who has ties to the Emperor, though she never met him, and makes it to London where she becomes a nurse and, with her friend Amina, sets up an office to keep track of all the refugees, uniting them with family members, all in the hope of finding Aziz's name on a list.
I loved this book. It's become one of my favourites, easily so, and - strangely enough, given the subject matter - I would even call it a comfort read. It's a dark story yet I did not find it depressing for a second, due to the quality of the writing. Gibb has a light touch, and holds back from telling us what to feel or how to react: reading this book was like feeling a breeze against your cheek. Even brutality is rendered bittersweet through the light touch of Gibb's word choices. It is never saccharine, never melodrammatic, and opens a door into a world few of us have any idea or understanding of.
A couple of things I didn't understand: why did Lilly and Hussein stay in Ethiopia, and how did she manage to get through nurse training in England when she'd had no formal education? Minor quibbles...
There are some brutal moments in the story. Most especially disturbing is the scene of female circumscion, which did make me turn green, riveted though I was. I'd seen it on an SBS documentary years ago, the first time I learned that it happened at all (it is illegal, but still practised in many places). The Ethiopan sections are set in the 1970s (Lilly is 19 when she flees), which is not so very long ago. They believed it made women pure, that it kept them from being "on heat", and that they would never get a husband if they weren't infibulated. It's quite terrifying. As Aziz points out, though, it's not actually an Islamic tradition.
But there is a beautiful, delicate balance between the more horrific traditions and superstitions, Islam and a more modern way of thinking. Lilly, as narrator, is never shaken from her beliefs, though she has occasion to question her own nature. She shows a human side to Islam, a side as familiar as Christianity - what I mean is, her religion never comes across as weird, scary, alien etc. The similarities between Islam and Christianity come through clearly. I also liked the "truer" understanding of jihad, as an inner struggle with the flaws of your own nature, not with another person, country or culture.
It is the way this book is written, and Lilly's voice, that make it strangely warm and comforting, as well as humorous (at times), philosophical, world-weary, honest, enlightening, touching. It is such a human story, and I especially find it interesting that it closely follows the lives of women - in Africa and the refugees crowded into the council estate flats in London. It is through the daily lives of women, who worked and cooked and sang and found husbands for their children and kept the old traditions alive, that the city of Harar really comes alive.
There is also insight into the world of refugees and the communities they establish in other parts of the world. While the author confesses she took some liberties with geography and history, still this book fleshed out a country and a people who were only ever, in my mind, images of black skeletons staggering through a desert, thanks to the News. Despite the uglier moments, the uglier side to their world and way of life, the characters were so well drawn that I felt like I knew them personally. I think that this quality, above anything else, is what makes this a "comfort read" for me. I could easily read this many more times, and get more out of it each time.
November 24, 2014
Gibb depicts the life of a "ferengi" (foreign/white/European) woman (Lilly) living as a devout Muslim in two settings: Harar, Ethiopia and London, England. Through this character's eyes, we learn more about people in this African nation, struggling with day-to-day tasks amid political, economic, cultural and religious tensions--both in their native country and abroad as refugees.
The author creates a number of compelling characters who inhabit a variety of positions in the spectrum of the Muslim experience--male/female, conservative / progressive, westernized / traditional, monied / poor, etc. It's a good book for showing that the Islam world is not monolithic.
The book as strong literary merits as well. The auther does a good job using fractured chronology to reveal Lily's Ethiopian past to explain her "current" conflicts / hopes as experienced in London as a refugee. Gibb weaves in themes about love, national identity, religious fidelity, and family structure. The strongest image employed is a recurring use of crushing spices with a mortar and pestle to create a rich aroma--implying that Lilly and others still emit sweetness and spice despite - or because - of the conflict in their life.
I enjoyed the artistry and the information. All Ethiopians may not agree with the depiction of their homeland in the same way that a couple of characters take exception to Sir Richard Burton's depiction of Africans in his writings. Nevertheless, I have a more complex view of the country as a result of Gibb's novel.
The author creates a number of compelling characters who inhabit a variety of positions in the spectrum of the Muslim experience--male/female, conservative / progressive, westernized / traditional, monied / poor, etc. It's a good book for showing that the Islam world is not monolithic.
The book as strong literary merits as well. The auther does a good job using fractured chronology to reveal Lily's Ethiopian past to explain her "current" conflicts / hopes as experienced in London as a refugee. Gibb weaves in themes about love, national identity, religious fidelity, and family structure. The strongest image employed is a recurring use of crushing spices with a mortar and pestle to create a rich aroma--implying that Lilly and others still emit sweetness and spice despite - or because - of the conflict in their life.
I enjoyed the artistry and the information. All Ethiopians may not agree with the depiction of their homeland in the same way that a couple of characters take exception to Sir Richard Burton's depiction of Africans in his writings. Nevertheless, I have a more complex view of the country as a result of Gibb's novel.
March 9, 2013
Honestly i just finished the book and the one thing i can say is that it has enlighten something within me and this passage has left a strong impression within me....
"For all the brutality that is inflicted upon us, we still possess the desire to be polite to strangers. We may have blackened eyes, but we still insist on brushing our hair. We may have had our toes shot off by a nine years old, but we still believe in the innocence of children. We may have been raped, repeatedly, by two men in a Kenyan refugee camp, but we still open ourselves to the ones we love. We may have lost everything, but we still insist on being generous and sharing the little that remains. We still have dream."
When we wake up to a fresh morning sunlight and forget what went wrong the other day and hoping the new day might bring something good or living worthy, i felt that in those following lines....
I respect Camilla Gibb for her research on Islam. This book is not about religion, but i honor her for her hard work on finding out about the culture, religion and about it's people.
"For all the brutality that is inflicted upon us, we still possess the desire to be polite to strangers. We may have blackened eyes, but we still insist on brushing our hair. We may have had our toes shot off by a nine years old, but we still believe in the innocence of children. We may have been raped, repeatedly, by two men in a Kenyan refugee camp, but we still open ourselves to the ones we love. We may have lost everything, but we still insist on being generous and sharing the little that remains. We still have dream."
When we wake up to a fresh morning sunlight and forget what went wrong the other day and hoping the new day might bring something good or living worthy, i felt that in those following lines....
I respect Camilla Gibb for her research on Islam. This book is not about religion, but i honor her for her hard work on finding out about the culture, religion and about it's people.
June 5, 2010
Sweetness in the Belly is the moving and heart-warming story of Lilly Abdal. Told in her own words, it adds to it a special liveliness, directness and authenticity. Camilla Gibb has succeeded in creating a rich and detailed account of the life of a young woman caught between cultures and identities. It is also a love story at different levels. Her narrative alternates between periods during the four dramatic years in Ethiopia and those during ten years in London, after leaving Ethiopia in 1974, at the end of Emperor Haile Selassi's reign.
Gibb's novel is fast moving and particularly compelling in its portrayal of Lilly's life in the holy city of Harar. At the same time, she is conveying in-depth insights into the respective realities there and in England and establishes the religious and cultural context that surround the heroine with great subtlety and credibility.
Alternating with accounts of her time in Harar, as she grows into an adult (1970-1974), Lilly narrates her life in London, beginning fifteen years after leaving Ethiopia. Now working as a nurse and living in a poor housing estate, she remains an outsider who does not fit into British reality. Committed to preserve her religion and her Ethiopian culture, she befriends Amina, her Ethiopian refugee neighbour and creates an oasis of "home" around them. While Amina and her family adjust more and more to the western lifestyle, Lilly clings to the memories of her previous life and the people in it. But developments force her to reassess and look into the future rather than hanging on to the past. Will she be able to do it?
Gibb's rendering of the East African refugee scene is as realistic as her portrayal of conditions in Harar. Her novel is grounded and enriched by her thorough research and personal experiences with the cultures and the places she evokes. Ethiopians went through famine and deprivations during the early 1907s, a time that ended in the uprising against and eventual removal of the Emperor. Gibb brings this context into the novel without overburdening the reader. She finds a convincing balance between the personal and the general keeping the book a page turner from beginning to end
Gibb's novel is fast moving and particularly compelling in its portrayal of Lilly's life in the holy city of Harar. At the same time, she is conveying in-depth insights into the respective realities there and in England and establishes the religious and cultural context that surround the heroine with great subtlety and credibility.
Alternating with accounts of her time in Harar, as she grows into an adult (1970-1974), Lilly narrates her life in London, beginning fifteen years after leaving Ethiopia. Now working as a nurse and living in a poor housing estate, she remains an outsider who does not fit into British reality. Committed to preserve her religion and her Ethiopian culture, she befriends Amina, her Ethiopian refugee neighbour and creates an oasis of "home" around them. While Amina and her family adjust more and more to the western lifestyle, Lilly clings to the memories of her previous life and the people in it. But developments force her to reassess and look into the future rather than hanging on to the past. Will she be able to do it?
Gibb's rendering of the East African refugee scene is as realistic as her portrayal of conditions in Harar. Her novel is grounded and enriched by her thorough research and personal experiences with the cultures and the places she evokes. Ethiopians went through famine and deprivations during the early 1907s, a time that ended in the uprising against and eventual removal of the Emperor. Gibb brings this context into the novel without overburdening the reader. She finds a convincing balance between the personal and the general keeping the book a page turner from beginning to end
April 3, 2009
i hesitate to outrightly use terms like predictable and cliche, but this book is rife with common "now" afflictions (third-world vs. first-world transition, cross-cultural spirituality, etc.) that reveal quite a lot about the story's eventual outcome. while the story might be more about the journey than the destination, none of the revelations or realizations really sneak up on or enlighten the reader.
April 7, 2015
As someone with very little knowledge of Ethiopia I appreciated this book enormously not only for it's educational value but also for the compelling stories of refugees and the struggles they face trying to build new lives. Novels that manage to weave compelling characters with a depth of cultural and historical information are like gems along my reading journey for they expand my world well beyond what a dry reading of any assortment of texts or articles on the issues could ever hope to do.
May 25, 2008
This story was so well-written I had to check the front cover a couple of times that it was indeed "A Novel"! The story switches back and forth in time, and the author does it so well I was easily able to read without the dissonance I often feel with the technique. The story of a white Muslim woman in Ethiopia during the times of great changes, this story is also a scrabble-lover's dream. Words like QAT, SUQ, MIRQANA, and more are used throughout. I won't have any trouble remembering those words during my scrabble games!
November 12, 2015
I enjoyed the book, its basic story line, and I appreciate the educational aspects of the novel (i.e. Ethiopia, Sufi Islam, the difficulties of being a refugee in a western country). I think any reader with an interest in the world, in anthropology, in world religions, will appreciate and enjoy the book. I also think the novel is a very honest, accurate depiction of someone who is dispossessed (someone who finds themselves rootless for a variety of reasons -in this case blending reasons of religion, culture, language and race).
With that said... as a Muslim convert (having read hundreds of books on Islamic theology, history and the Islamic world) I find the "message" of the book a bit suspect. For example, in a review published in The Miami Herald, the reviewer writes "Gibb's grave and graceful third novel also does a timely job of reminding readers of the peaceful, centering power of Islam." Islam is a diverse religion, and yes, it provides a peaceful, centering aspect to the vast majority of its billion of followers. However, I think, in trying to understand Islam, many westerners/non-Muslims are buying into a very simplified way of viewing Islam: "good Islam" (mystical, spiritual Islam) and "bad Islam" (conservative, focused on the fundamentals and legalistic rulings). In "Sweetness in the Belly," Lilly exemplifies "good Islam" in the ways in which she places the importance of culture over religion (sufi culture, found in this book in both Morocco and Ethiopia), her willingness to "water down" her religion over time (i.e. marrying a non-Muslim/Hindu man at the end of the book, being okay with the occasional drinking of alcohol, etc.) and her condemnation of more conservative Muslims (note criticisms of more conservative mosques in England later in the book -discussing extremist mosques, but not traditional mosques). There is a general sense that there are only two versions of Islam operating in the world: one tolerant of all cultural beliefs and focused on the spiritual (non-Arab countries), and one focused on outside issues (i.e mostly Arab, veiling, following Islamic theological rules, etc.). Which is an incredibly simplistic, inaccurate "inside" view of the Muslim world. There are millions of mosques throughout the world that, yes, focus on Islamic fundamentals (i.e. the five pillars) without being judgmental, extremist or oppressive. There are also plenty of practicing,, hijab-wearing, five times/day praying, Islamic-law following Muslim women that are kind, compassionate and tolerant. For me, personally, as a reader, I don't find this version of a Muslim in this book. Despite the fact that I think this type of Muslim is the most common version of a Muslim worldwide (i.e. dedicated to their religion, its laws and its practices on a personal basis, yet tolerant of others' differences in practices and beliefs), this book contributes to the general sense that Muslims are rather a) extremist, judgmental and Arab or b) non-Arab, focused on the spiritual/mystical sides of Islam. Neither of which, truly, is in an way representative of theological Islam (i.e. which is totally and completely focused on the middle path, the combination of the physical/spiritual, the rejection of the ascetic). You'll find this Islam in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Brunei, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria... and yes, in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, etc., etc. as well.
I DO think this book provides a very accurate, descriptive view of the Sufi Islamic world. And the story, itself, is quite entertaining and educational. I just wish that the book did a better of job of showing that this is simply one version of Islamic practice among many diverse, legitimate, peaceful versions of Islamic practice worldwide. Instead, I feel that the author, too often, attempts to pit the spiritual against the legalistic interpretation of Islam, as if the two are not peacefully combined (and equally sides of the same coin) for most Muslims worldwide.
**Sidenote: for those new to Islamic theology, it's worth noting that the vast majority of Muslims would state that believing in saints, or praying to saints, is outside the theology of Islam. A central tenant of Islam is that there are *no* intermediaries, ever, between a person and God. That is why there is no official priest-like figure, no official "church" or institution, etc. There is a very strict separation between the Creator and the created, with worship only belonging to the Creator, never the created. So when you do find "Muslim saints," it'll happen in areas formerly colonized by Catholic countries (i.e. Morocco, Ethiopia) where the local population started to merge Catholic cultural practices with Muslim beliefs/practices. Thus, believing in saints or praying to saints is less an indigenous cultural practice, than a mishmash of Catholic and Muslim beliefs at a local level. If you're interested in Islamic theology, the book I'd recommend, first and foremost, for the basics is Jeffrey Lang's "Even Angels Ask." Fazlur Rahman also writes good introductory books on Islamic theology. And Muhammad Asad's "The Message of the Qur'an" is, I think, the best English translation of the Qur'an on the market.
**A good novel that provides an honest, straightforward look at a typical Muslim family is "In the Language of Miracles" by Rajia Hassib.
With that said... as a Muslim convert (having read hundreds of books on Islamic theology, history and the Islamic world) I find the "message" of the book a bit suspect. For example, in a review published in The Miami Herald, the reviewer writes "Gibb's grave and graceful third novel also does a timely job of reminding readers of the peaceful, centering power of Islam." Islam is a diverse religion, and yes, it provides a peaceful, centering aspect to the vast majority of its billion of followers. However, I think, in trying to understand Islam, many westerners/non-Muslims are buying into a very simplified way of viewing Islam: "good Islam" (mystical, spiritual Islam) and "bad Islam" (conservative, focused on the fundamentals and legalistic rulings). In "Sweetness in the Belly," Lilly exemplifies "good Islam" in the ways in which she places the importance of culture over religion (sufi culture, found in this book in both Morocco and Ethiopia), her willingness to "water down" her religion over time (i.e. marrying a non-Muslim/Hindu man at the end of the book, being okay with the occasional drinking of alcohol, etc.) and her condemnation of more conservative Muslims (note criticisms of more conservative mosques in England later in the book -discussing extremist mosques, but not traditional mosques). There is a general sense that there are only two versions of Islam operating in the world: one tolerant of all cultural beliefs and focused on the spiritual (non-Arab countries), and one focused on outside issues (i.e mostly Arab, veiling, following Islamic theological rules, etc.). Which is an incredibly simplistic, inaccurate "inside" view of the Muslim world. There are millions of mosques throughout the world that, yes, focus on Islamic fundamentals (i.e. the five pillars) without being judgmental, extremist or oppressive. There are also plenty of practicing,, hijab-wearing, five times/day praying, Islamic-law following Muslim women that are kind, compassionate and tolerant. For me, personally, as a reader, I don't find this version of a Muslim in this book. Despite the fact that I think this type of Muslim is the most common version of a Muslim worldwide (i.e. dedicated to their religion, its laws and its practices on a personal basis, yet tolerant of others' differences in practices and beliefs), this book contributes to the general sense that Muslims are rather a) extremist, judgmental and Arab or b) non-Arab, focused on the spiritual/mystical sides of Islam. Neither of which, truly, is in an way representative of theological Islam (i.e. which is totally and completely focused on the middle path, the combination of the physical/spiritual, the rejection of the ascetic). You'll find this Islam in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Brunei, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria... and yes, in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, etc., etc. as well.
I DO think this book provides a very accurate, descriptive view of the Sufi Islamic world. And the story, itself, is quite entertaining and educational. I just wish that the book did a better of job of showing that this is simply one version of Islamic practice among many diverse, legitimate, peaceful versions of Islamic practice worldwide. Instead, I feel that the author, too often, attempts to pit the spiritual against the legalistic interpretation of Islam, as if the two are not peacefully combined (and equally sides of the same coin) for most Muslims worldwide.
**Sidenote: for those new to Islamic theology, it's worth noting that the vast majority of Muslims would state that believing in saints, or praying to saints, is outside the theology of Islam. A central tenant of Islam is that there are *no* intermediaries, ever, between a person and God. That is why there is no official priest-like figure, no official "church" or institution, etc. There is a very strict separation between the Creator and the created, with worship only belonging to the Creator, never the created. So when you do find "Muslim saints," it'll happen in areas formerly colonized by Catholic countries (i.e. Morocco, Ethiopia) where the local population started to merge Catholic cultural practices with Muslim beliefs/practices. Thus, believing in saints or praying to saints is less an indigenous cultural practice, than a mishmash of Catholic and Muslim beliefs at a local level. If you're interested in Islamic theology, the book I'd recommend, first and foremost, for the basics is Jeffrey Lang's "Even Angels Ask." Fazlur Rahman also writes good introductory books on Islamic theology. And Muhammad Asad's "The Message of the Qur'an" is, I think, the best English translation of the Qur'an on the market.
**A good novel that provides an honest, straightforward look at a typical Muslim family is "In the Language of Miracles" by Rajia Hassib.
October 28, 2019
After her Hippie parents are murdered, Lilly, an eight year old white girl is raised as a Sufi Muslim in Morocco. At the age of 16 she undertakes a gruelling overland spiritual pilgrimage from Morocco to Ethiopia, where she boards with a poor family in the mostly Muslim town of Harar, earning her keep through teaching the Qur'an to local children. The 1970's are a harsh time in Ethiopia, and life for Lily is not easy. As a single woman in a Sufi Muslim society, she is treated with suspicion. As a white woman "a Faranji", she needs to earn every ounce of respect from all her surroundings.
After the fall of Haile Selaisse, she is forced to leave Ethiopia and she finds herself in London running an agency that helps Ethiopian refugees to find their relatives while searching for her own loved one, Aziz, a doctor who she knew and fell in love with in Harar.
The descriptions are very authentic, and give you a very good picture of the time and place. I read the book at the beginning of my visit to Ethiopia and found that it gave me a firm introduction to the culture, people and food.
After the fall of Haile Selaisse, she is forced to leave Ethiopia and she finds herself in London running an agency that helps Ethiopian refugees to find their relatives while searching for her own loved one, Aziz, a doctor who she knew and fell in love with in Harar.
The descriptions are very authentic, and give you a very good picture of the time and place. I read the book at the beginning of my visit to Ethiopia and found that it gave me a firm introduction to the culture, people and food.
July 24, 2009
Lilly’s parents, British citizens, lead a life of reckless wanderings. While the family is traveling in Ethiopia, Lilly’s parents are killed and Lilly is sent to stay with the Great Abdal, a teacher and leader of his people. She is taught to be a devout Muslim by Abdal and she learns much about literature and art by visits from a great teacher, Muhammed Bruce. Eventually she is sent to live with a young mother, Nouria. Lilly finds she can supplement the income of Nouria and her children by teaching the children the Koran. Lilly comes to know a handsome doctor, Aziz. As Lilly grows older, she and Aziz become friends and then fall in love.
The story brought together so many unexpected elements---a young British girl who becomes an ardent Muslim…a devout Muslim who risks it all for the sake of being with the man she loves…the complex ancestry of the doctor, with both desirable and undesirable parents---that it felt like a memoir. It has left me thinking about cultural identity and religious belief; thinking about a book even after finishing it is always a sign to me of an excellent read.
The story brought together so many unexpected elements---a young British girl who becomes an ardent Muslim…a devout Muslim who risks it all for the sake of being with the man she loves…the complex ancestry of the doctor, with both desirable and undesirable parents---that it felt like a memoir. It has left me thinking about cultural identity and religious belief; thinking about a book even after finishing it is always a sign to me of an excellent read.
June 11, 2018
Sweetness in the Belly is a "quiet" book, it creeps up on you slowly but surely with its poignant tale of love, lost and found set in a world of displaced people and cruel realities.
I was apprehensive to read a story of a Muslim woman who is so steadfast in her faith, written by a non-Muslim. I shouldn't have worried much, as the Islamic themes (both spiritual and cultural) were handled with great sensitivity and understanding.
Many reviews of this book spoke about the main character's constant search for belonging. But for me, I found the book to be more about acceptance. To accept and be accepted.
In a way, there is an almost spiritual feel to the book that is uplifting and yet, hopeful despite the harsh settings of Ethiopia and the dreariness of London.
Lilly lost her family at such a young age, and is forced to make up her own family, wherever her journeys take her. This is where she learns to accept what is placed before her and be accepted in return.
A beautiful, uplifting book that does leave the reader with a "sweetness in the belly".
I was apprehensive to read a story of a Muslim woman who is so steadfast in her faith, written by a non-Muslim. I shouldn't have worried much, as the Islamic themes (both spiritual and cultural) were handled with great sensitivity and understanding.
Many reviews of this book spoke about the main character's constant search for belonging. But for me, I found the book to be more about acceptance. To accept and be accepted.
In a way, there is an almost spiritual feel to the book that is uplifting and yet, hopeful despite the harsh settings of Ethiopia and the dreariness of London.
Lilly lost her family at such a young age, and is forced to make up her own family, wherever her journeys take her. This is where she learns to accept what is placed before her and be accepted in return.
A beautiful, uplifting book that does leave the reader with a "sweetness in the belly".
June 6, 2018
I would give it 3.5 stars because the writing was so fantastic—such rich descriptions of people, places, feelings! I appreciated the chance to read more about Ethiopia and its history and the facets of Islam. I also like the theme of discovering a sense of self and identity. The book was just kind of boring. There was no real climax or inciting incident; the story just dragged along.
May 25, 2019
Camilla Gibb really hit the sweetspot on this one. I knew very little about Ethiopia's history beyond the tragic famine pictures that had appeared in the news. This is a truly engaging story.
February 6, 2023
An astonishingly beautiful, poignant and painful story, so well written the characters stayed with me. We are taken through places and times I never could have known. Lives with such struggles and the will to survive
March 6, 2009
Nama Etiopia pernah sangat terkenal pada tahun 1980 hingga 1990-an. Hampir setiap malam, layar televisi kita menampilkan gambar-gambar mengenaskan tentang situasi di negeri tersebut yang dilanda kelaparan berkepanjangan akibat kekeringan dan juga perang saudara.
Di negeri dengan sejarah yang panjang ini pernah memerintah seorang kaisar, raja di raja, dengan kekuasaan bagaikan dewa, Haile Selassie. Ia juga sangat dipuja oleh kaum penganut ‘agama’ Rastafaria. Nama Rastafari diambil dari nama kecil Haile Selassie, Ras Tafari, sebelum menjadi penguasa Etiopia. Kaum Rastafarian inilah yang kemudian melahirkan aliran musik reggae. Pada tahun 1974, Haile Selassie digulingkan dari takhtanya, digantikan oleh sebuah pemerintahan Sosialis.
Negeri dengan populasi 40% golongan muslim ini sangat percaya pada para wali. Setiap benda dipercaya memiliki wali sendiri. Secara bergurau dikatakan, bahkan kutil pun ada walinya. Mereka juga kerap melangsungkan ritual agama yang bercampur tradisi di makam-makam para wali tersebut. Dari kenyataan ini tergambarlah sesungguhnya penduduk Ethiopia amat relijius sekaligus juga meyakini hal-hal mistis. Kalau di kita barangkali bisa disejajarkan dengan kejawen.
Melalui kaca mata seorang novelis Kanada, Camilla Gibb, yang juga adalah master antropologi sosial, novel berjudul asli Sweetness in the Belly ini memaparkan wajah Etiopia pada kurun waktu 1970 hingga 1990-an. Dengan tokoh seorang wanita muda kelahiran Inggris, Lily, Camilla telah mengawetkan sepotong catatan sejarah negeri yang pernah mengilhami penyanyi balada Iwan Fals menciptakan sebuah lagunya yang terkenal: “Ethiopia”.
Meskipun Lily adalah seorang farenji, kulit putih, ras yang sering dianggap lebih unggul dari kulit berwarna, namun Gibb tidak menampilkannya sebagai karakter yang serbapintar dan serbatahu. Gibb cukup bisa mengambil jarak dengan tokoh utamanya itu sehingga tidak terjerumus menjadikan dirinya sebagai Lily. Keterangan-keterangan ihwal kondisi alam, geografi, sosial politik, dan budaya setempat, tersampaikan melalui tokoh-tokoh lokalnya, seperti Aziz, seorang dokter muda yang bersama teman-teman mahasiswanya diam-diam melakukan gerakan perlawanan terhadap rezim yang berkuasa. Dalam setiap pertemuan dengan kawan-kawannya itu, Aziz mengajak Lily. Dari sinilah Lily mengeruk banyak informasi tentang negeri yang menjadi tanah air keduanya itu.
Agar cerita tak menjadi garing, tentu harus ada kisah cinta di antara para tokohnya, bukan? Maka, dibuatlah kisah asmara antara Lily dan Aziz.
Novel ini ditulis Gibb sebagai hasil studi dan penelitiannya tentang Islam di Mesir serta pengalamannya tinggal selama 1,5 tahun bersama satu keluarga muslim Etiopia di Harar sekitar tahun 1994-1995. Di negara ini, Gibb menyaksikan dengan mata kepala sendiri berbagai praktik budaya lokal yang sering membahayakan dan merugikan perempuan.
Umpamanya, upacara absuma, khitan bagi anak-anak perempuan yang kerap kali menelan korban karena dilakukan secara tradisional oleh seorang dukun. Biasanya penyebab melayangnya nyawa anak-anak itu akibat kehabisan darah. Sampai saat ini, tradisi tersebut masih terus berlangsung.
Camilla juga menemukan fakta masih banyaknya praktik poligami di kalangan kelompok muslim. Motivasi para perempuan yang bersedia dikawani lelaki beristri terutama karena faktor ekonomi selain alasan agama dan adat yang diyakininya.
Namun, ia juga tak memungkiri bahwa banyak pula hal unik dan indah yang ia temukan di tengah-tengah tanah yang kerontang itu. Misalnya saja, kebiasaan penduduk mengunyah daun qat atau acara minum buna (kopi khas Etiopia) sembari kumpul-kumpul dan bergosip.
Sweetness in the Belly – entah kenapa judul yang keren ini harus diubah menjadi judul yang panjang lebar, Lily: Pencarian Cinta Seorang Gadis Eropa di Ethiopia – akhirnya bagi saya menjadi sebuah bacaan fiksi yang cukup mencerahkan. Darinya, saya memperoleh “tenpa sengaja” sekeping pengetahuan adat, budaya, dan sejarah Etiopia. Andai harus dengan sengaja membaca buku tentang Etiopia, barangkali saya akan pikir-pikir dulu. Ya, agaknya demikianlah “keajaiban” sebuah karya fiksi.***
Di negeri dengan sejarah yang panjang ini pernah memerintah seorang kaisar, raja di raja, dengan kekuasaan bagaikan dewa, Haile Selassie. Ia juga sangat dipuja oleh kaum penganut ‘agama’ Rastafaria. Nama Rastafari diambil dari nama kecil Haile Selassie, Ras Tafari, sebelum menjadi penguasa Etiopia. Kaum Rastafarian inilah yang kemudian melahirkan aliran musik reggae. Pada tahun 1974, Haile Selassie digulingkan dari takhtanya, digantikan oleh sebuah pemerintahan Sosialis.
Negeri dengan populasi 40% golongan muslim ini sangat percaya pada para wali. Setiap benda dipercaya memiliki wali sendiri. Secara bergurau dikatakan, bahkan kutil pun ada walinya. Mereka juga kerap melangsungkan ritual agama yang bercampur tradisi di makam-makam para wali tersebut. Dari kenyataan ini tergambarlah sesungguhnya penduduk Ethiopia amat relijius sekaligus juga meyakini hal-hal mistis. Kalau di kita barangkali bisa disejajarkan dengan kejawen.
Melalui kaca mata seorang novelis Kanada, Camilla Gibb, yang juga adalah master antropologi sosial, novel berjudul asli Sweetness in the Belly ini memaparkan wajah Etiopia pada kurun waktu 1970 hingga 1990-an. Dengan tokoh seorang wanita muda kelahiran Inggris, Lily, Camilla telah mengawetkan sepotong catatan sejarah negeri yang pernah mengilhami penyanyi balada Iwan Fals menciptakan sebuah lagunya yang terkenal: “Ethiopia”.
Meskipun Lily adalah seorang farenji, kulit putih, ras yang sering dianggap lebih unggul dari kulit berwarna, namun Gibb tidak menampilkannya sebagai karakter yang serbapintar dan serbatahu. Gibb cukup bisa mengambil jarak dengan tokoh utamanya itu sehingga tidak terjerumus menjadikan dirinya sebagai Lily. Keterangan-keterangan ihwal kondisi alam, geografi, sosial politik, dan budaya setempat, tersampaikan melalui tokoh-tokoh lokalnya, seperti Aziz, seorang dokter muda yang bersama teman-teman mahasiswanya diam-diam melakukan gerakan perlawanan terhadap rezim yang berkuasa. Dalam setiap pertemuan dengan kawan-kawannya itu, Aziz mengajak Lily. Dari sinilah Lily mengeruk banyak informasi tentang negeri yang menjadi tanah air keduanya itu.
Agar cerita tak menjadi garing, tentu harus ada kisah cinta di antara para tokohnya, bukan? Maka, dibuatlah kisah asmara antara Lily dan Aziz.
Novel ini ditulis Gibb sebagai hasil studi dan penelitiannya tentang Islam di Mesir serta pengalamannya tinggal selama 1,5 tahun bersama satu keluarga muslim Etiopia di Harar sekitar tahun 1994-1995. Di negara ini, Gibb menyaksikan dengan mata kepala sendiri berbagai praktik budaya lokal yang sering membahayakan dan merugikan perempuan.
Umpamanya, upacara absuma, khitan bagi anak-anak perempuan yang kerap kali menelan korban karena dilakukan secara tradisional oleh seorang dukun. Biasanya penyebab melayangnya nyawa anak-anak itu akibat kehabisan darah. Sampai saat ini, tradisi tersebut masih terus berlangsung.
Camilla juga menemukan fakta masih banyaknya praktik poligami di kalangan kelompok muslim. Motivasi para perempuan yang bersedia dikawani lelaki beristri terutama karena faktor ekonomi selain alasan agama dan adat yang diyakininya.
Namun, ia juga tak memungkiri bahwa banyak pula hal unik dan indah yang ia temukan di tengah-tengah tanah yang kerontang itu. Misalnya saja, kebiasaan penduduk mengunyah daun qat atau acara minum buna (kopi khas Etiopia) sembari kumpul-kumpul dan bergosip.
Sweetness in the Belly – entah kenapa judul yang keren ini harus diubah menjadi judul yang panjang lebar, Lily: Pencarian Cinta Seorang Gadis Eropa di Ethiopia – akhirnya bagi saya menjadi sebuah bacaan fiksi yang cukup mencerahkan. Darinya, saya memperoleh “tenpa sengaja” sekeping pengetahuan adat, budaya, dan sejarah Etiopia. Andai harus dengan sengaja membaca buku tentang Etiopia, barangkali saya akan pikir-pikir dulu. Ya, agaknya demikianlah “keajaiban” sebuah karya fiksi.***
January 2, 2013
Right off the bat, I think I should point out that my familiarity with Ethiopian culture and history is not enormous. I don't think I'm in a position to evaluate whether or not Gibb's treatment of the country was or was not problematic. I've been doing some reading about this book, and the consensus from people who know better seems to be that it succeeds in a lot of ways in portraying a complex culture beyond just "starving and poor", but that there are subtle ways in which Lilly's whiteness is privileged over her non-white friends and family. Again, I don't think I'm qualified to make that call, so I will not be focusing on that aspect of the book.
In general, I thought Sweetness in the Belly was a beautifully written, evocative book with a lot of emotional texture. The characters felt very real to me; they made a much larger impact on me than any characters in books I've read recently. The writing was incredibly descriptive and beautiful. I've never been to Harar or London, but I could imagine them both wonderfully based on the incredible writing. Sometimes it's hard to write descriptively without the text getting bogged down, but that wasn't a problem with this book.
The juxtaposition of Lilly's two lives was beautifully done. I never felt like different sections were cut off so as to create dramatic cliffhangers; it all felt very natural. I also loved the parallels between her life in Harar and in London. In Harar, she becomes like a co-wife to Nouria, and in London she is Amina's co-wife.
I did find this book incredibly lovely to read, filled with vivid descriptions and incredibly realistic characters with flaws, redeeming qualities, and believable emotional turmoil. It was a book that was full of emotion without pandering to the readers' nostalgia. I think it's just a very, very nice book.
In general, I thought Sweetness in the Belly was a beautifully written, evocative book with a lot of emotional texture. The characters felt very real to me; they made a much larger impact on me than any characters in books I've read recently. The writing was incredibly descriptive and beautiful. I've never been to Harar or London, but I could imagine them both wonderfully based on the incredible writing. Sometimes it's hard to write descriptively without the text getting bogged down, but that wasn't a problem with this book.
The juxtaposition of Lilly's two lives was beautifully done. I never felt like different sections were cut off so as to create dramatic cliffhangers; it all felt very natural. I also loved the parallels between her life in Harar and in London. In Harar, she becomes like a co-wife to Nouria, and in London she is Amina's co-wife.
I did find this book incredibly lovely to read, filled with vivid descriptions and incredibly realistic characters with flaws, redeeming qualities, and believable emotional turmoil. It was a book that was full of emotion without pandering to the readers' nostalgia. I think it's just a very, very nice book.
August 1, 2008
This fascinating story takes us between two very different worlds. London in the 1980’s where Lily is a nurse struggling to find her place and Africa where she was raised by a Moroccan religious leader after being orphaned by her hippie English parents.
Much of the action takes place in Ethiopia where Lily must struggle to integrate herself and come to terms with cultural practices strange and abhorrent to her. She finds acceptance and comfort in teaching her adoptive family and other neighborhood children from the Koran.
When Lily is separated from the man she loves and forced to flee Ethiopia because of political events, her inner life stagnates. She is emotionally frozen in the past, waiting and wondering what has become of him. She isolates herself by solely connecting with other refugees in the housing estate where she lives.
Parts of the story I had great difficulty reading, but over all, getting a glimpse of the culture and everyday lives of women in this part of the world was illuminating, and really beautiful. Lily’s faith sustains her through a difficult life and in the end I was left with a feeling of admiration for her devotion as well as the author’s subtle handling of painful personal and political events.
Much of the action takes place in Ethiopia where Lily must struggle to integrate herself and come to terms with cultural practices strange and abhorrent to her. She finds acceptance and comfort in teaching her adoptive family and other neighborhood children from the Koran.
When Lily is separated from the man she loves and forced to flee Ethiopia because of political events, her inner life stagnates. She is emotionally frozen in the past, waiting and wondering what has become of him. She isolates herself by solely connecting with other refugees in the housing estate where she lives.
Parts of the story I had great difficulty reading, but over all, getting a glimpse of the culture and everyday lives of women in this part of the world was illuminating, and really beautiful. Lily’s faith sustains her through a difficult life and in the end I was left with a feeling of admiration for her devotion as well as the author’s subtle handling of painful personal and political events.
September 20, 2020
Sweetness In The Belly was not the book I was looking for when walking into the library. After reading only one sentence of the blurb "In Thatcher's London, Lilly, a white Muslim nurse, struggles in a state of invisible exile". I was sold. This is why I love libraries, you never know who will take you home.
A refreshing, thought-provoking read, that lead me hooked from page one. The story alternates from present to past. Lilly is a great character. I will be reading more of Camilla Gibb in the future.
“Once you step inside, history has to be rewritten to include you. A fiction develops a story that weaves you into the social fabric, giving you roots and a local identity. You are assimilated, and in erasing your differences and making you one of their own, the community can maintain belief in its wholeness and purity. After two or three generations, nobody remembers the story is fiction. It has become fact. And this is how history is made.”
Strong 4 stars
A refreshing, thought-provoking read, that lead me hooked from page one. The story alternates from present to past. Lilly is a great character. I will be reading more of Camilla Gibb in the future.
“Once you step inside, history has to be rewritten to include you. A fiction develops a story that weaves you into the social fabric, giving you roots and a local identity. You are assimilated, and in erasing your differences and making you one of their own, the community can maintain belief in its wholeness and purity. After two or three generations, nobody remembers the story is fiction. It has become fact. And this is how history is made.”
Strong 4 stars
August 18, 2011
"Sweetness in the Belly","Camilla Gibb","0385660170","review","This is the story of a woman whose parents were nomadic hippies wandering through Europe and North Africa. When she was 8 her parents were murdered in Morocco and she was taken into the home of a Sufi Moslem sheik and immersed in the Koran. During a time of political turmoil she ends up in Ethiopia. As a white Moslem woman there she finds it difficult to fit into the society. She falls in love with a native doctor, but there are difficulties due to culture, but also because her Moslem faith is stricter than his.He disappears during time of revolution and she returns to England. Here she works with refugees but never forgets him. Did not care for the characters or the way the flashbacks were arranged. Also did not care for the setting, although I love Ethiopia."
May 19, 2015
“Sweetness in the Belly”, by Camilla Gibb. ****
A lush, leisurely love story— but the principal love interest is Ethiopia: people, culture, and religion.
The novel tells the story of an Ethiopian Muslim woman of white Irish parentage, and her experience as a teen Ferengi (‘outsider’) in Ethiopia, and a refugee after resettlement in London in 1974.
She leaves her heart in Ethiopia, in more ways than one, and the tale is part coming-of-age story, part romance novel— but mainly an account of Ethiopian culture, as seen through the eyes of a protagonist who is immersed, but not fully accepted.
It is told in slices alternating between Ethiopia’s turmoil leading up to the deposition of Haile Selassie, and the refugee experience in London in the 1980s.
Highly recommended.
A lush, leisurely love story— but the principal love interest is Ethiopia: people, culture, and religion.
The novel tells the story of an Ethiopian Muslim woman of white Irish parentage, and her experience as a teen Ferengi (‘outsider’) in Ethiopia, and a refugee after resettlement in London in 1974.
She leaves her heart in Ethiopia, in more ways than one, and the tale is part coming-of-age story, part romance novel— but mainly an account of Ethiopian culture, as seen through the eyes of a protagonist who is immersed, but not fully accepted.
It is told in slices alternating between Ethiopia’s turmoil leading up to the deposition of Haile Selassie, and the refugee experience in London in the 1980s.
Highly recommended.
November 16, 2024
An interesting book set in Ethiopia and London. A sensitive and thoughtful account of devastation of dictatorship, revolution and destruction in Ethiopia and the struggles of being a refugee in London - the sense of displacement and loss, whilst dealing with the past traumas of war. Also an interesting analysis of differences in practices of Islam, depending on different cultures and traditions. I am unfamiliar with what the political scene was in Ethiopia in '70's but sense that her political analysis had a Western perspective. But certainly a book worth reading.
January 5, 2013
4.5 out of 5.0 stars - I really really liked this book - the book deals heavily with the politics of Ethiopia and the practices of Islam, topics which might cause a story to drag or deter readers, but I felt they were so deftly woven into the plot that it never felt like a history lesson. Gibb is a talented writer and I plan to read more of her work!
October 6, 2008
I really liked this book. Very readable; immerses you into Lilly's world of poverty, war, and exile. Despite these depressing topics- this story uplifts as Lilly rises above her circumstances. I recommend this book to everyone- its truly wonderfully written!
February 18, 2021
As a piece of fiction, this book uses writing rich with cultural detail in order to portray the complexities of identity and belonging from the perspective of someone viewed by others as a foreigner, a refugee, a spy, someone who does not belong. I read this book as someone who knows very little about Islam so I cannot justifiably comment on its accuracy of the portrayal of Islam and the Qur’an, but I do know that Gibb certainly wrote this using an anthropological lens and at times I nearly forgot that the book is actually a novel.
By the end of the story, the protagonist, Lilly, finally begins to settle her life in London after moving out of subsidized housing and into her own home and finding a partner in Robin. From what I understand, this book sends a message of combining Islam with other cultural influences in order to finally realize oneself. Almost like a hybridization process of sorts, which I suppose makes sense given Lilly’s own variety of backgrounds and complicated upbringing. However, I am unsure if this message would sit well with Muslims and even Islamic converts.
Although Gibb consulted with a number of informants and based many aspects of this novel on her ethnographic research in Ethiopia, she still writes with an etic perspective which risks the inaccurate portrayal of very real concepts. Without much knowledge of Ethiopia in the 1970s, I am unable to comment on her depictions in terms of accuracy, but nonetheless Gibb’s writing creates a wonderful scene of complex people and the worlds in which they lived. The use of non-linear storytelling allows the readers to juxtapose the different positions in which Lilly finds herself. Overall, I enjoyed the book despite my lack of knowledge concerning the non-fictional elements of the story.
By the end of the story, the protagonist, Lilly, finally begins to settle her life in London after moving out of subsidized housing and into her own home and finding a partner in Robin. From what I understand, this book sends a message of combining Islam with other cultural influences in order to finally realize oneself. Almost like a hybridization process of sorts, which I suppose makes sense given Lilly’s own variety of backgrounds and complicated upbringing. However, I am unsure if this message would sit well with Muslims and even Islamic converts.
Although Gibb consulted with a number of informants and based many aspects of this novel on her ethnographic research in Ethiopia, she still writes with an etic perspective which risks the inaccurate portrayal of very real concepts. Without much knowledge of Ethiopia in the 1970s, I am unable to comment on her depictions in terms of accuracy, but nonetheless Gibb’s writing creates a wonderful scene of complex people and the worlds in which they lived. The use of non-linear storytelling allows the readers to juxtapose the different positions in which Lilly finds herself. Overall, I enjoyed the book despite my lack of knowledge concerning the non-fictional elements of the story.
September 13, 2022
Sweetness in the Belly is a beautifully written book with a protagonist, Lily, who is orphaned at a young age and raised in the Muslim faith in Morocco by a friend of her parents. She embarks on a pilgrimage to Ethiopia and remains there living in a Harari community. As events unfold, Lily becomes a refugee and ends up in England.
The novel moves back and forth between the present time in England where Lily is working as a nurse and sharing her life with another refugee family and the time she spent in Ethiopia. I love books set in Africa and Camilla Gibb's portrayal of Lily's life in Ethiopia was fascinating.
It would be interesting to understand Gibb's choice to focus on the teachings in the Qur'an when she is not Muslim. That aside, this is a wonderful book.
If you enjoy reading about Ethiopia, I highly recommend Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese which is a favourite of mine.
The novel moves back and forth between the present time in England where Lily is working as a nurse and sharing her life with another refugee family and the time she spent in Ethiopia. I love books set in Africa and Camilla Gibb's portrayal of Lily's life in Ethiopia was fascinating.
It would be interesting to understand Gibb's choice to focus on the teachings in the Qur'an when she is not Muslim. That aside, this is a wonderful book.
If you enjoy reading about Ethiopia, I highly recommend Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese which is a favourite of mine.
December 21, 2022
I didn’t dislike this book, but I couldn’t get emotionally invested in the story. There’s a particular type of novel that’s historically come out of Toronto and been nominated for the Giller Prize that I generally don’t love - the kind where the author seems a little detached from the usually tragic, often historical subject matter/setting, whose characters come across as sad Torontonians living out some kind of sterile academic exercise no matter where the story is set or what the plot is - and this is one of those. Obviously lots of people love that kind of book (otherwise Margaret Atwood wouldn’t be so popular) but it’s not for me. Also, as a modern reader I now find it impossible not to think about whether a given story is the specific author’s to tell, and I’m not sure about this one.
July 9, 2015
A thoroughly enjoyable book. Having read "The Beauty of Humanity Movement" and it being one of my favourite books of all time, I looked forward to reading this earlier novel by Camilla Gibb. Like " Beauty" this story was equally warm, eloquently told and touching. Daughter of a very nomadic, hippie-like couple and left alone in Morocco, Lily is orphaned at a young age and raised by a much beloved Imam, who schools her in the Muslim faith. Lily embraces her faith completely and it anchors and guides her throughout her life. At 16, she and a friend go on a pilgrimage to Harar, the holy city of Ethiopia, and take up residence there; her male friend, Hussein, under the guardianship of a sheik and Lily as a house girl-come- friend of Nouria, cousin to one of the sheik's wives. Lily, being white, is immediately disliked by the racist sheik. Living with Nouria in her meagre home, Lily grows to like her life there; bonding and eventually teaching the Qur'an to Nouria's and the other neighbourhood children and forming friendships with young people close to her age who meet weekly, chew qat and discuss politics and other current events. In this group of friends, Lily grows close to and then falls in love with a young doctor, Aziz. Her love for Aziz and his love for her provide that " Sweetness in the Belly" as the book is titled that lasts a lifetime. Lily and her friends get caught up in the revolution in Ethiopia in the seventies and they eventually all scatter as refugees. Lily ending up in England, out of touch with Aziz and in a close friendship with another Ethiopian refugee, Amina who has two children and has lost track of her husband as well. Lily and Amina work to reunite Ethiopian refugees with lost family and friends and become very close. The story, itself, transitions smoothly back and forth between 1970's Ethiopia and 1980's England. The overarching warmth of the book comes from growing to understand and relate to Lily's perspectives on life. English by birth yet her entire identity is established as a worshipper of the Muslim faith and a citizen of Ethiopia. Even back in England as a refugee, she continues to "be" Ethiopian; developing close ties and relationships with that community there. She also practices as a nurse in a hospital in London, but the part of her life that gives her purpose, during that dark time when she is separated from Aziz and does not know his fate, is the work she does with Amina in reuniting families of Ethiopian refugees. There are some dark and disturbing moments in this book definitely and yet it's Lily's inner strength and solid faith that gives the book it's tone of warmth, friendship and community. 4 stars; as though a book, well worth the read, it, in my mind, is not quite as "meaty", gripping and beautiful as "Beauty of Humanity Movement ".
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