Alesa Lightbourne

THE KURDISH BIKE is a pretty good book, especially in light of recent news stories about the plight of our Kurdish allies in northern Syria. Alesa Lightbourne's autobiographical novel, based on her own year spent teaching in Iraq's "Kurdistan," focuses on a number of subjects - the narrator's failed marriage and financial problems, which brought her to Iraq, an ancient culture she tried to understand, friendships, with her fellow expats and some locals, and adventures and entanglements she got caught up in. There is also a subplot which touches tangentially on the ancient practice of female genital mutilation, and the narrator's horror at this locally accepted practice of "cutting" young girls.

While the writing is quite good, the storyline seems a bit too scattered, causing the narrative to stutter along, to ebb and flow, so it was something of a struggle to stick with. I could not relate closely to any of the characters, so that was a problem. The narrator-protagonist, sixty-ish Theresa Turner, seemed at times a touch too gullible to be real, but I liked her sense of humor, so that kept me reading. But the ending seemed so anticlimactic that, well, it was hardly an ending at all.

That said, it was still a "pretty good book" and yeah, I'd recommend it, especially to readers curious about Kurdish life and expat teachers in the mideast. (three and a half stars)

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (más)

Daring to Do!

An unusual story set in Northern Iraq where divorced teacher, Theresa Turner takes on a stint of teaching in a ultra conservative school, the International Academy of Kurdistan, for the upper echelon in the far reaches of Kurdistan in 2010.
Somewhere between a novel and a memoir, I was fascinated by Theresa's purchase of a bike and steps towards exploring the culture she was working within. Her developing relationships with the women of the village is a jewel. Her entree into their hopes and dreams, their disappointments and the rules they live by is eye opening. Her brief moments of journeying with these women is wonderful.
What's not so precious is the showing up of the teacher she's replaced with a somewhat sinister aura. That played into sinister shadows of disgruntled converts, something I didn't like and didn't think was necessary. And why didn't Theresa just toss the guy's mysterious package he'd left in her apartment out? Then there's the educational and employment practices of the school and the treatment of the teachers who become somewhat trapped in the system.
But returning to the women. By sharing their joys and problems, Theresa becomes a conduit for the reader into a world we know nothing of. I become unsure as to whether it's rewarding or condescending. I want it to be the former.
The education practices of the school, the teaching conditions and the traps for unwary players are less likable. Certainly there's a note of beware what you get yourself into for all those thinking about going to more conservative countries for employment. Theresa's first impressions of the educational compound do not bode well. "My new home is more like a military barracks, a bastion of something as yet unclear." That clarity comes with hooks not before discernable.
Despite this I keep coming back to the romantic idea of the immense privilege that is Theresa's when she takes chances and is accepted by the women into their homes and culture, all on the wing and promise of a bike! However whether Theresa returns that respect is sometimes moot. I'm still conflicted.

An Alesa Lightbourne ARC via NetGalley… (más)

The main reason I asked for this book was to compare it with "Guests of the Sheik", a fantastic non-fiction book from 1965 (reissued 2010) that I first read around 1989. I expected that this new book would be an annoying story of a closeted missionary, but that wasn't the case at all. Ms Lightbourne really is a teacher and her book is about her experiences working at a school.

Ms Lightbourne's stint in KRI ended a decade before I got there and the economy and it's upward trend changed, especially after the oil crisis and the disastrous 2017 independence referendum. Even though the book is structured as a novel, I think I recognize the places she talks about – maybe not the exact place, but sort of. I picture her in Algosh, on the Mosul side of Duhok that was devastated by the ISIS war, although it was more likely to have been up near Akre. It doesn't matter, really, the site is a composite.

Ms Lightbourne arrives in Kurdistan on a short teaching contract at a very odd high school. To keep from going stir crazy she buys a bike and rides around the countryside (with no mention of landmines). As in "Guests of the Sheik", Ms Lightbourne found her most warm and human experiences with the women of the villages she visits. Her students are her escorts.

As in "Guests" love and sex are important parts of women's lives. There is a lot of discussion of FGM in this book, a practice has been banned in KRI for over a decade. I found the mother's story of her daughter being captured during the war and sold into sexual slavery very poignant. The mother was comforted by the knowledge that because she was cut, the prostituted daughter was never shamed by lust.

(My sources of info on FGM today were limited. One male friend said that besides being against the law, FGM was being touted as an "Arab" custom, not a Kurdish one, and that the strong antipathy of the Kurds for anything Arab was effective in suppressing it. I didn't have any good medical or female sources to ask.)

Unlike "Guests", Ms Lightbourne is a teacher, not an anthropologist, and her stay in Iraq was short. She has pulled her experiences into an enjoyable short novel that provides a glimpse into a particular place at a particular time and makes no claim to much ethnography. I enjoyed the book very much.

I received a review copy of "The Kurdish Bike" by Alesa Lightbourne (self-published) through NetGalley.com.… (más)

kurdish-people, teaching, contemporary, cultural-exploration

Alesa leaves behind the uncertainties of teaching students in the US for the uncertainties of teaching students who had become internationals during the years that Saddam Hussein dominated their homeland. She makes friends among her colleagues, learns to fake compliance with a repressive educational system, learns new words. But her best achievements are being befriended by a local young woman and her mother and helping to change awareness of the practice of female circumcision. There are good times and bad, highs and lows, especially those related to financial issues back in the states. This book is a novelization of the author's own experiences, and I am glad that part of that process included melding some characters together, the book itself is a learning experience for those of us who think that we have problems.
I generally prefer books which are narrated by the author, who better to know how to convey emotions and in some cases pronounce non English words!
I requested and received a free audio copy courtesy of AudioBookBOOM.… (más)