Tamara ChalabiReseñas

A little bit disappointing, in that my sky-high expectations were not met. Still well worth reading.

A little bit disappointing, in that my sky-high expectations were not met. Still well worth reading.

The strengths of the book lie in the uniqueness and inherent appeal of the story more so than the way the author presents it.

Full review on The Stanford Daily website.

The strengths of the book lie in the uniqueness and inherent appeal of the story more so than the way the author presents it.

Full review on The Stanford Daily website.

So often what we learn from the nightly news is generic or impersonal. Even the human interest stories they show only touch the surface of complex situations. So when a memoir comes along to expand on our knowledge of historic and recent events, it is invaluable. Of course, a memoir by definition takes only one perspective and so has an inherent bias in its recounting. In this case, Tamara Chalabi a Lebanese-Iraqi, daughter of Ahmad Chalabi, one of the sources of perhaps questionable intelligence that led to the the American invasion in Iraq, writes a heartfelt and moving history of her family, their life in Iraq, and their subsequent exile from the country they loved.

Starting back in the early nineteen-teens, Chalabi opens the multi-generational tale of her influential and politically important family by introducing her great-grandfather, grandfather Hadi, and soon-to-be grandmother Bibi. She weaves the external happenings in the area that is soon to become the country of Iraq with the major personal events occurring in her wealthy family. Using the memories of her elderly relatives and what she remembers from her formidable grandmother, she constructs a tale of an elite family, political insiders despite their Shi'a religious identification in a country ruled by the Sunni, a family whose personal history is inextricably intertwined with the complex history of this troubled Middle Eastern country from its time as a part of the Ottoman Empire to its birth as an independent country mentored by the British and on through to its recent turbulent and violent history under Saddam Hussein and beyond.

This is neither dry history nor completely undocumented family memoir. Chalabi's family held governmental positions in most incarnations of Iraq's government until the coup d'etat that resulted in the deaths of everyone in the royal family. The men in the family earned immense wealth and had the ears of those who held the reins of power. The women, whose lives were more proscribed due to their religious beliefs and cultural mores, ruled the domestic sphere and contributed to their husbands' successes, especially Chalabi's diminutive, whirlwind grandmother Bibi who is a major presence throughout the bulk of the story.

The bulk of the tale centers around the unrest and turmoil of the first half of the twentieth century around Bhagdad, laying the groundwork and explaining the reasons that the situation today exists. Chalabi tries to be evenhanded in her criticisms of the West's dealings in the area but there are times when her anger towards Britain and the US seeps through. The weaving of the personal, the political and their extreme interconnectedness is done quite well, keeping the reader's attention through each narrative shift. The end of the book and the current lives of the Chalabis, especially Tamara's father Ahmad, feels much more rushed than the rest of the story though. It is possible to feel the nostalgia and yearning for a vanished time and place when Chalabi writes of the older generations but the feelings of exile are less complete when she tackles her own and her cousins' similar but confused feelings. And perhaps this would always hold true of a generation not born in country but it is a marked contrast and a definite weakness compared to the strength of feeling of previous generations. A look into a misunderstood area of the world through the eyes of one of its own, although certainly not an unbiased telling, an insightful one indeed.½

Tamara Chalabi's Late for Tea at the Deer Palace is a memoir of 4 generations of the Chalabi family of Iraq from roughly 1920 to the present. I was fascinated by what they had to endure during several changes in government during the 20th Century. The author gives us some day to day details of her family's life in Iraq from her great grandparents generation to her own generation. She also provides details of their life in exile. The family was quite wealthy until they were forced to leave Iraq but continued to have influence on events that were happening in Iraq. When Saddam fell from power, the author and her father returned to Iraq to assist in repairing the country. However, they returned to London a few years later. One of her uncles still lives there today.

Ms. Chalabi's great grandfather Abdul Hussein Chalabi was a powerful man who helped in creating the new country, Iraq, after the Ottoman Empire fell. Abdul's son Hadi was a great businessman and became very wealthy through his political connections with British diplomats and with the country's royal family. The story is mainly told though through the viewpoint of his wife Bibi, the author's grandmother. She had a strong personality that influenced how the men in the family conducted their businesses. When Hadi died she had been married to him for 70 years. 70 years! I think that this is incredible in today's world. After Saddam Hussein became the country's ruler Ms. Chalabi's father Ahmad Chalabi became the leader of the opposition party Iraqi National Congress while he was still in exile. The author herself entered Iraq for the first time in 2003 and voted in the first election ever held in the country.

Late for Tea at the Deer Palace is an insightful memoir of events that occured in Iraq in the past 100 years. Given the U.S.'S current involvement in the country, I believe this book should be required reading for all Americans. I learned a lot from reading it.