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WORK TITLE: The Clothesline Swing
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://dannyramadan.com/
CITY: Vancouver
STATE:
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Syrian
Syrian-Canadian * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Danny_Ramadan * http://www.cbc.ca/books/how-ahmad-danny-ramadan-s-experience-as-a-syrian-refugee-influenced-his-debut-novel-1.4191518
RESEARCHER NOTES:LC control no.: n 2017047417
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017047417
HEADING: Ramadan, Ahmad Danny
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100 1_ |a Ramadan, Ahmad Danny
670 __ |a The clothesline swing, 2017: |b t.p. (Ahmad Danny Ramadan) page 4 of cover (his personal experience as a Syrian refugee and advocate has made him passionate about volunteerism, democracy, social justice and LGBTQ refugees’ rights; previously authored two collections of short stories in Arabic; lives in Vancouver, BC)
PERSONAL
Born May 31, 1984, in Damascus, Syria; immigrated to Lebanon, 2012; immigrated to Canada, 2014.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, journalist, and activist. Volunteer at Rainbow Refugee Society, Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society, and An Evening in Damascus fund-raiser; public speaker at various events and organizations; Grand Master of Vancouver Pride Festival, 2016.
AWARDS:Social Activist StandOut Award, 2017; Top Canadian Immigrant Award, 2017.
WRITINGS
Contributor to publications, including the London Guardian, Washington Post, Daily Xtra, and Foreign Policy. Translator of 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think, by Raif Badawi. Author of two short-story collections, Death and Other Fools and Aria.
SIDELIGHTS
Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a writer and activist based in Vancouver, Canada. Born in Damascus, Syria, he immigrated to Canada in 2014. There, he has become involved in volunteering for nonprofit organizations supporting other immigrants, as well as the LGBTQ community and the poor. Ramadan has written short-story collections in Arabic and has contributed to publications, including the London Guardian, Washington Post, Daily Xtra, and Foreign Policy.
In 2017, Ramadan released his first novel in English, The Clothesline Swing. The three main characters in the book are a hakawati, or storyteller; his male lover, who is suffering from a terminal illness; and Death. Death has followed the hakawati through his life since the hakawati nearly died when his friends attacked him in Cairo after learning of his sexuality. The hakawati migrates from his home country of Syria, eventually settling in Canada, where he meets his lover. The two experience the challenges of living in an adopted country and being stigmatized for being both gay and immigrants.
In an interview with James Henley, contributor to the CBC website, Ramadan discussed his intentions for the book, stating: “I hope that this can push folks to believe in the talents of folks around them. These are the talents of the refugees who come to Canada. Hire them for jobs. Support them as they explore their artistic selves. Try to see them as productive people.” Ramadan told a writer on the Sad magazine website: “The art of storytelling is embedded in the Syrian tradition and costume; ‘Hakawati’ is an actual career. … It was also an art of activism; as those stories reflected and mirrored the Syrian people’s struggles against the many nations who occupied their lands; starting with the Arabs, the Ottomans and finally the colonizing nations of both Britain and France. I wanted to honour this tradition in my novel and bring forward that beautiful tradition, showing all the different faces it has.”
“Ahmad Danny Ramadan has crafted a novel that compels readers to share—vicariously, with his characters—the beauty and history of Syria, the horrors of civil war and the joy, release and pain of forbidden love,” asserted Gord Arnold on the Winnipeg Free Press website. Tara Henley, reviewer on the Georgia Straight website, remarked: “Perhaps the most striking aspects of The Clothesline Swing are Ramadan’s determination to draw out the beauty in even the most dire of circumstances, and his faith in the power of stories to heal.” Writing on the Lambda Literary website, Zane DeZeeuw commented: “Though not as artful of a book as expected from an award-winning author, The Clothesline Swing is culturally significant and important, and therefore, the novel should be read.” DeZeeuw added: “The Clothesline Swing helps humanize Syrian refugees by giving faith, hope, and more importantly, a voice to these people.” Grubisic, reviewing the book on the Vancouver Sun website, suggested: “Ramadan’s account can’t be lauded as entertaining or uplifting. It’s not. That said, Hakawati’s recollections and his take on resettling in Canada is immersive and disarming. And as a glimpse of regions with deep-seated homophobia, the novel’s a bracing reminder of how many forms oppression can take.”
Kamal Al-Solaylee, contributor to the Quill & Quire website, stated: “The Clothesline Swing suffers as its author wavers in the interstices between non-fiction and fiction, and turns for the first time to writing in English, after two collections of short stories in Arabic. But while the stylistic lapses occasionally distract, they take nothing from the urgency and power of this book as a whole.” “Ramadan’s delicate use of imagery links these narratives, allowing them to reverberate with meaning and emotion,” asserted a Publishers Weekly critic.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 10, 2017, review of The Clothesline Swing, p. 50.
ONLINE
Ahmad Danny Ramadan Website, http://dannyramadan.com/ (January 8, 2018).
CBC Website, http://www.cbc.ca (September 29, 2017), James Henley, author interview.
Discorder, http://www.citr.ca (May 1, 2017), Jennifer Van Houten, author interview.
Georgia Straight, https://www.straight.com (June 7, 2017), Tara Henley, review of The Clothesline Swing.
Lambda Literary Website, https://www.lambdaliterary.org (September 2, 2017), Zane DeZeeuw, review of The Clothesline Swing.
Plenitude, http://plenitudemagazine.ca (May 5, 2017), Brett Josef Grubisic, author interview.
PopFlock, http://www.popflock.com (January 8, 2018), author profile.
Quill & Quire, https://quillandquire.com (June, 2017), Kamal Al-Solaylee, review of The Clothesline Swing.
Sad, http://www.sadmag.ca (October 3, 2017), author interview.
Toronto Star Online, https://www.thestar.com (July 14, 2017), review of The Clothesline Swing.
Vancouver Sun Online, http://vancouversun.com (April 26, 2017), Brett Josef Grubisic, review of The Clothesline Swing.
Winnipeg Free Press Online, https://www.winnipegfreepress.com (June 24, 2017), Gord Arnold, review of The Clothesline Swing.
Winnipeg International Writers Festival Website, https://thinairwinnipeg.ca (January 8, 2018), author profile.
AHMAD DANNY RAMADAN
Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-Canadian author, public speaker, storyteller and an LGBTQ-refugee activist. His English debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, continues to receive raving reviews.
As an LGBTQ activist, he has been involved in coordinating online and on the ground efforts to support Queer and Trans identifying refugees from Syria to immigrate to Canada. Danny volunteers with Rainbow Refugee Society supporting their work in creating Private Sponsorship Groups to bring LGBTQ-identifying refugees from Syria to his new home in Canada. He also runs the annual fundraiser An Evening in Damascus to support those efforts. Since May 2015, he has raised over $100.000 to support a total of eight other LGBTQ-identifying Syrian refugees. He was picked as the Grand Marshal for the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade 2016 to celebrate those efforts.
Danny is an experienced journalist with bylines appearing in the Washington Post, The Guardian and Foreign Policy. His novel The Clothesline Swing is published by Harbour Publishing House in May 2017 to raving reviews by The Globe and Mail, Publishers Weekly and Quill and Quire, among others.
He is also a public speaker and a storyteller, featured in the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia Breakfast 2015, National Liberal Convention 2016 and TEDxSFU 2016.
HIGHLIGHTS
His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing, is published by Nightwood Edition, a partner to Harbour Publishing House on May, 2017.
He has raised over $100.000 in funds for LGBTQ-identifying refugees and supported 18 people to find refuge in Canada.
He is a public speaker and a storyteller, who was a keynote speaker at the Liberal Party Convention in Winnipeg 2016, and a TEDx talk presenter.
He is currently the Community Food Hub Volunteer Specialist at The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society.
He was awarded The Social Activist StandOut Award 2017, and the Top Canadian Immigrant Award 2017.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a Syrian-born author, storyteller and LGBTQ-refugees activist who has called Canada home since 2014. His advocacy has helped shape the queer community in Vancouver into a sanctuary for queer refugees. He runs the annual fundraiser “An Evening in Damascus” which brings an authentic cultural exchange between Syrians and Canadians. His debut novel, The Clothesline Swing (Nightwood), tells the story of two lovers anchored to the memory of a dying Syria. It was warmly reviewed by the Quill and Quire, Vancouver Sun, Georgia Straight, and Globe and Mail, among others. Danny Ramadan lives in Vancouver, and currently works at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
QUOTED: "The Clothesline Swing is—in a way—a collection of short stories with intertwining characters that weave in and out of each other’s lives. I think that as I got older, I became more capable of seeing the complexity of the human condition, and see the intersectionality of people around me—as well as myself. That allowed me to see the many faces one can wear, and the many stories one can carry. In a way, my experiences and knowledge reflected in how I master my craft, and how I want to tell a story in a more complex way."
Brett Josef Grubisic • Interviews • Writers’ Room
The Many Stories One Can Carry: An Interview with Ahmad Danny Ramadan
May 5, 2017
Interview by Brett Josef Grubisic
The Clothesline Swing coverAhmad Danny Ramadan isn’t afraid to challenge readers with The Clothesline Swing, his debut novel. Weaving together fantastic and magical tales with those that are heartbreaking, sobering, drunken, and decadent, Ramadan’s storyteller, an old man residing in Vancouver West End who was born and raised in Damascus during a turbulent era of Syria’s history, is beguiling and mercurial. This man’s artful playing with truth, lies, and that massive grey area between the two confounds and mesmerizes. Named Hakawati, the narrator isn’t just weaving stories for the sake of speaking. His long-term partner is sick, and with impatient black-clad Death literally occupying the same rooms, Hakawati’s fighting for more time, more love, and more memories before his partner’s soul is taken away forever.
Brett Josef Grubisic interviewed the author in advance of his novel’s publication on May 9.
BJG: You’ve previously written two short story collections in Arabic. What prompted the change of genre and language?
ADR: I enjoy writing short stories; I find them mesmerizing and capable of telling a small peculiar detail that would reveal much of my characters’ background through the lenses of limited narratives. I also highly doubt I stepped away from the genre: The Clothesline Swing is—in a way—a collection of short stories with intertwining characters that weave in and out of each other’s lives. I think that as I got older, I became more capable of seeing the complexity of the human condition, and see the intersectionality of people around me—as well as myself. That allowed me to see the many faces one can wear, and the many stories one can carry. In a way, my experiences and knowledge reflected in how I master my craft, and how I want to tell a story in a more complex way.
As for the language, I think that I’m adaptable. I have always enjoyed writing in Arabic, and I still do. But I find myself capable of telling the same stories in English in a way that reflects my culture and background as a person indigenous to a nation of storytellers, as well as allows me to pull the curtains apart for folks on this side of the world to see the real Damascus—the city I loved—rather than the desert full of fighters and war people see on television.
BJG: Fending off Death, your storyteller narrator compares himself to Scheherazade. When working within that classical literary figure (and technique), what peculiar challenges did you face?
ADR: I’ve always been fascinated by this triangle of characters in One Thousand and One Nights. There is a power dynamic there between a woman who is only capable of saving her own life through her craft as a storyteller, and a powerful man who is mesmerized by her—and almost defenceless to her power despite having a swordsman who can off her head without hesitation. I think that the most peculiar challenge I found using this technique is to remain true to this balance of power; Hakawati has something to gain by telling stories—he is saving his own life, keeping his idea of death at bay. His worst nightmare is loneliness without his partner—for what’s a storyteller without a listener to validate his stories?
The listener, while passive and almost defenceless to Hakawati’s waves of stories, is actually the more powerful side of the relationship, and by dying he is punishing his partner further than he can imagine; he is making him suffer through his worst nightmare.
Also, it would have been easy to just let the characters talk, or tell a chronicle story of the two lovers; I didn’t want to write a book where one-dimensional characters are telling redundant stories about predictable struggles of refugees and clichés of Syrian culture. I wanted to tell a meaningful story, with characters that have depth and authenticity.
BJG: The storyteller mixes together magical tales, fables, and harrowing (and seemingly realistic) accounts from his own life and those of family and friends…while also suggesting that he might be insane and imagining the story from “a mental hospital bed.” What drew you to create such a complex way to render your story?
ADR: The first answer that jumped to my head when I got this question was “Why the hell not?”—haha.
In all seriousness, I believe that the mental affects of going through the experience refugees go through remain an underrated topic to discuss. The alienation, longing for home, and the PTSD many refugees go through is worth noting and exploring. It’s also worth telling and sharing. Now, looking at queer-identifying refugees, those are folks who always felt alienated and experienced traumatic events in their daily life, and going through the physical experience of moving not only across the world, but also across cultures, would surely trigger such issues.
Also, looking at Hakawati—a person growing up with a mentally ill parent and an abandonment issue—who ended up finding a fleeting sense of happiness and home with his partner and then feeling that he is about to lose that home will surely trigger those abandonment issues and make him believe he might be hallucinating that previous joy as he’s starting to grasp the fact he is about to lose it.
In my mind, Hakawati is not insane. He is just frightened and mentally decaying—hence his friendship with Death.
BJG: Your storyteller says, “We rarely leave the past behind and completely let go. Sometimes we even forget the past, but its residue remains within us.” How did you go about choosing what of your own past experiences in Syria wound up in your novel?
Ahmad Danny Ramadan photo
Ahmad Danny Ramadan. Photo by Danny3aw.
ADR: In my acknowledgements at the end of the book, I thank a number of friends and acquaintances from back in the Middle East by first name only for their stories they shared with me. This book wouldn’t have been rich with details the way it is if I didn’t hear those stories and go through some magical experiences I had with the many friends I left behind in the Middle East. I think that I melded those stories with my own personal stories and made them into this book. Many of those stories might have become unrecognizable even to those I was inspired by to write them.
Also, some of those stories are roads that I wish I took that I explored in my own writing. As well as two stories in the book told by Hakawati that are true events I personally went through, and writing them the way I did allowed me healing that I didn’t imagine is possible. I think part of that healing is for people to read them and to be affected by them, and that’s why I shared them.
BJG: The storyteller’s remembrances of his past are often violent, harrowing, and brutal. In contrast, fleeting and long-lasting friendships between gay people as well as their love affairs, while often secret and intoxicated, are a lovely and necessary positive force in your book. How different is your personal understanding of queer life in Damascus from that of the storyteller?
ADR: I think this is one of the places where Hakawati and I see eye to eye on a topic: I think that there are so many understandings that can be brought to light when talking about queer life in Damascus, and I have tried my best to reflect many of them in the book through multiple characters. I think that queer life is a secretive life that is so far off the mainstream it became a beautiful—yet sometimes lonely and scary—variety of its own. Some of my queer Syrian characters are rebellious souls pushing the envelope and trying to find their place in the reality of Damascus while other queer characters are just trying to survive it. Some of them are impacted by their queer identity in a way that changed their lives or even ended them.
I think allowing all of those characters to exist and tell their different stories reflects the reality of queer life in Syria; it’s a colourful mix of horror, beauty, friendship, love, and social hatred.
BJG: Although set in what I understand as a future version of Vancouver’s West End, the city itself and Canadian culture more generally appear to make little impression or have little positive influence on the story’s lovers. As the teller of an immigrants’ tale, what led to that characterization of the place?
ADR: All right. I have to be honest here, this is a logistical issue more than a creative choice: this happened mainly because I wrote 80% of the book between 2013 and 2014 while I was still in Beirut as a refugee and before I came to Canada with little to no knowledge about Canadian culture or what Vancouver is like.
As I edited the book with my wonderful editor, we started to enhance the Canadian narrative and add to it. I have thought about adding more touches of the Canadian culture to the book as I was working on its final draft months ago, but then I looked at my characters and at their own lives. These are two men who rarely left each other’s sides, they’re haunted by their experiences and struggles to come to Canada. It makes sense to me that they would be prisoners of their own past instead of stepping outside into this new culture. First-generation immigrants, you’d notice, are the least [likely] generation to let go of their home cultures, and the ones who struggle to learn English and adapt to the Canadian culture and the Canadian weather. It stands to reason that those two men have found peace here in Canada, but they didn’t explore it further—they didn’t want to find more trouble; they had their fair share of that.
BJG: Reluctant nomadism—as a physical fact and state of mind—forms a kind of theme or undercurrent in your novel. For a refugee, such as Hakawati and his partner, how do you see that pattern of nomadism as impacting daily life?
ADR: From personal experience, I can tell you that change became my normal. Routine is scary, like a ticking clock of a time bomb. The longer I stay still, the more anxious I become. I feel like a sitting duck; I become an easier target for my own demons.
This served me well in my own travels around the Middle East; it sheltered me when I needed to escape one corner to live in the next, allowed me to land on my feet like a street cat, and protected me from being exposed for my sexual identity. But as I came here to Canada, it became more difficult and challenging; my mind wants to continue running, but it doesn’t know from what anymore.
I’m trying to channel this energy towards pushing myself professionally and as a writer. I’m trying to explore the world and travel for pleasure. I’m trying to calm my nerves and create a sense of belonging here.
Today, I’m here in Vancouver, I’m where I belong. I live today for today, and I hope that the more roots I dig in here, the stronger that sense of home becomes.
A UBC prof, Brett Josef Grubisic has written fiction including the novels The Age of Cities and This Location of Unknown Possibilities. His current novel project is set in a small BC mill town in late 1980; From Up River, and One Night Only tells the up-and-down tale of two sets of teenage siblings who form a New Wave cover band.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
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Ahmad Danny Ramadan
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
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DannyRamadan.jpg
Author and activist Ahmad Danny Ramadan at the Vancouver Pride Parade 2016 Proclamation event.
Born May 31, 1984
Damascus, Syria
Occupation Author, Activist
Ahmed Danny Ramadan (born 1984) is a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker, columnist, and a gay refugee activist. He was born in Damascus, Syria, and immigrated to Lebanon as a refugee in 2012, before immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia in September 2014.
Ramadan was picked as the grand marshal of the Vancouver Pride Festival 2016, for his work supporting LGBTQ-identifying refugees and newcomers. He was awarded the Social Activist StandOut Award by the Vancouver Pride Society, and was picked as one of the 25 Top Immigrants to Canada in 2017 by Canadian Immigrant He speaks publicly about issues related to gay Syrian refugees and he writes a bi-weekly column for Daily Xtra.
Writing
Ramadan has translated the work of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to English, released in 2015 by Greystone Books under the title 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think.
Ramadan published two collections of short stories in Arabic while he lived in Egypt. His first collection, Death and Other Fools, was released by Dar Laila in 2004. His second collection, Aria, was released by Dar Malameh in 2008.
The Clothesline Swing is Ramadan's debut novel in English. Inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, the novel tells the epic story of two lovers anchored to the memory of a dying Syria. One is a Hakawati, a storyteller, keeping life in forward motion by relaying remembered fables to his dying partner. Each night he weaves stories of his childhood in Damascus, of the cruelty he has endured for his sexuality, of leaving home, of war, of his fated meeting with his lover. Meanwhile Death himself, in his dark cloak, shares the house with the two men, eavesdropping on their secrets as he awaits their final undoing.
In its review, titled "The Sweetest Taboo", Winnipeg Free Press stated that the author "has crafted a novel that compels readers to share -- vicariously, with his characters -- the beauty and history of Syria, the horrors of civil war and the joy, release and pain of forbidden love." adding that the novel is "an enjoyable, if challenging, cultural and historical excursion.".
Publishers Weekly called the work "remarkable" stating that "Ramadan's delicate use of imagery links these narratives, allowing them to reverberate with meaning and emotion.".
"This debut novel from the Vancouver-based Syrian writer reads as many things," writes Kamal Al-Solaylee for Canadian magazine Quill and Quire, "a coming-out memoir, a history lesson, a critique of authoritarianism, a narrative about sharing narratives - but above all, it's a requiem for a dying country and people." The Globe and Mail called the novel "sombre, fantastical, violent and tender," adding that Ramadan's "English-language debut is a gay son's conflicted love letter to Syria."
The Georgia Straight called the narration of Ramadan "fragmented, poetic, and rich with magic realism," adding that the novel "is a lesson in both artistic mastery and human resilience. And, unexpectedly: joy."
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Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
The Clothesline Swing and everything else
AUTHOR
Brit Bachmann
PHOTOGRAPHY
Jennifer Van Houten
MAY 1, 2017
Issue
May 2017
PDF
“Oh my god, it is the worst. It is by far the worst. It feels like the last minutes of giving birth to something, and it’s painful, and it’s bothering me. … It is actually one of the worst feelings ever. And a great feeling.”
This isn’t the reaction I expect when I ask Ahmad Danny Ramadan how he is feeling about the release of his debut novel, The Clothesline Swing. Granted, it is a ‘debut’ in the sense that it is his first novel, but he is established. His previously published work include short stories, regular columns, and articles for reputable international papers. I express my surprise, and Danny expands:
“The anticipation is killing me, but it is the same with every piece that I write because at the end of the day, I am writing in a language I don’t think in. And I am writing to people, coming from a completely different culture to their culture.”
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder MagazineAhmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Danny immigrated to Canada in 2014 after having been a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon. Although Danny tells me that he dreams in languages he doesn’t even speak — “I dream in colour” is his first response — his Syrian identity and the poetry of his first language, Arabic, help to define the eloquence of his speech, his perspectives, and the themes in his writing.
The Clothesline Swing is a fictional story about two gay men who fall in love in a complicated and beautiful Damascus following the Arab Spring, then immigrate to Vancouver’s West End. The men are lovingly haunted by memories of home as they grow older together, finding comfort in the quotidian.
As Danny and I sit at Sunset Beach, blocks away from his West End apartment, it’s impossible to avoid obvious and implied parallels between Danny and his protagonists. I ask Danny why he wrote this book, and his reply is slow and intentional. He explains, “I think I reached a point where I was filled with stories I wanted to tell, filled with issues that I wasn’t aware of how to deal with, and filled with traumas that I wasn’t even sure how to heal. … It was me just writing for the sake of me, for the sake of telling a story that is stuck in my head, and not knowing how to handle it.”
Danny is a born storyteller; like his characters; like many refugees; like many people. Over our conversation, it becomes apparent that there aren’t many instances where Danny and other Syrians are given the opportunity to share their personal stories. The narratives of Syrian refugees — and a lot of Middle Eastern history — have been reduced to shocking headlines and xenophobic assertions. The Clothesline Swing is a humanizing foil to the cold, spoon-fed media coverage of Syria’s political and social unrest. It is a (fictional) document of the honest experiences of queer Syrians abroad and immigrating.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
The Clothesline Swing began as a collection of short stories that wove themselves into a novel when Danny moved to Canada. “I came here and saw how we are all viewed as Syrian refugees, or as queer Syrian refugees, and I started to see the tokenization that happens sometimes — the stereotyping, the misunderstandings between cultures — and started to think that this book should be a true representation of what my culture is like, and what it means to be a refugee, and what it means to be a gay person in Syria.”
Danny describes being queer in Syria as “horrible in so many different ways, but beautiful at the same time.” He continues, “It was so full of joy, and full of secret kisses in the back of taxies, and lovely people that you get to know and they become your chosen family, connections that you never thought you would make in your life — meaningful encounters.”
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
During my first reading of The Clothesline Swing, I write “tender, vulnerable, brutal” in my notes. The story is full of meaningful encounters in exquisite detail, beginning with an affectionate sex scene. Danny describes it as “the first time the two lovers make love. It’s happening, and in the background there are shootings outside. There are actual people killing each other outside.” This prologue sets the motif of Danny’s novel, best summarized by the author himself:
“Survival is not about being resilient. Survival is about finding a way to see the beauty that you have.”
There is another reason why storytelling is so valuable — it allows the teller to begin to process their experiences. It’s important now more than ever that Syrian refugees speak for themselves, rather than have media misinterpret them.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder MagazineAhmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
“The media forgets that each refugee carries their own stories, and carries their own lives, and carries their own professions. Some of them are artists, some storytellers like myself, some farmers, some lawyers,” and through the telling of their stories, explains Danny, “[they are] releasing that sorrow, and realizing the beauty within it.” He reminds the listener to “[accept] that the story isn’t about gaining sympathy, but gaining empathy.”
Asked about the shortcomings of Canada’s current immigration program, Danny replies, “When we bring refugees here, we put the responsibility on their shoulders to integrate into the community. … We get a lot of support from a lot of loving Canadians, which I am thankful for. The lacking would be that we are not a mainstream culture. You don’t see Syrian movies; you don’t know Syrian authors; you don’t know Syrian singers; you have never seen a traditional Syrian dance.”
As a nation committed to welcoming refugees, it is the responsibility of each Canadian to consider how they are welcoming refugees. Danny has some advice: “I think people should listen to our stories and read about our culture. People should try our food, for fuck’s sake it’s really good! … Learn how to say hi to us in our language. Listen to our songs.” (He suggests listening to older music by Assala, Syria’s answer to Cher.)
At some point I realize that Danny and I are only five years apart, but it might as well be a lifetime in experiences, mine so minimal by comparison. I ask one final question, perhaps naively: “What is home?”
“The more I bring over people like me, the more I feel at home,” answers Danny. “In Arabic we say ‘الجنة بلا ناس ما بتنداس,’ or heaven without people is not even worth stepping into.”
X
The Clothesline Swing is published on Nightwood Editions. It launches Thursday, May 4 with a party and reading at The Emerald.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Ahmad Danny Ramadan | Photo by Jen Van Houten for Discorder Magazine
Filed Under:
MAY 2017FEATURES
Tagged:
AHMAD DANNY RAMADAN, BRIT BACHMANN, CULTURE, DANNY RAMADAN, DISCORDER MAGAZINE, IMMIGRATION, JEN VAN HOUTEN, MAY 2017, NIGHTWOOD EDITIONS, QUEER, REFUGEES, SURVIVAL, SYRIA, THE CLOTHESLINE SWING
Issue
May 2017
PDF
QUOTED: "The art of storytelling is embedded in the Syrian tradition and costume; 'Hakawati' is an actual career that some men for centuries in Syria. ... It was also an art of activism; as those stories reflected and mirrored the Syrian people’s struggles against the many nations who occupied their lands; starting with the Arabs, the Ottomans and finally the colonizing nations of both Britain and France. I wanted to honour this tradition in my novel and bring forward that beautiful tradition, showing all the different faces it has."
INTERVIEW: DANNY RAMADAN
SAD Mag
Ahead of Vancouver Writers Fest, SAD chatted with four shining stars taking part in the festival to get the DL on books they're loving, the inside scoop on their works, and to learn about what the future holds! Meet Ahmad Danny Ramadan, who goes by Danny, the first of our four interviewees.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
AHMAD DANNY RAMADAN
SAD Mag: Where are you right now? What are you looking at?
Danny Ramadan: I’m in Kingston Ontario, attending the Kingston’s Writers Festival, and rather happy about it! First time here too, I’m looking at my reflection in a mirror above the hotel room desk, and I gotta say I look a bit tired as I have been hopping around Canada between conferences and writers festival. To my right, there is a small balcony overlooking a calm sea and two pine trees, front to the background of a sky promising a storm tonight. I hear a faint Irish music playing in the background and a dog that can only be yapping at an imaginary raccoon.
SM: What are you most excited about, in this moment?
DR: Margaret Atwood, who I met last week, just tweeted that she is currently reading The Clothesline Swing. I had to remind myself to breathe as I was apparently having a tiny heart attack, then I got quite excited about it and called my boyfriend to gloat.
SM: What are you reading these days?
DR: I’m about to finish Dragon Springs Road by the amazing Janie Chang; I love the magical realism in that novel and quite enjoying the deep research empowering the storytelling and the authentic gaze I’m privileged to get upon the Chinese traditions and costumes. I’m also on the first pages of Fugue States by Pasha Malla, who I met yesterday at Winnipeg’s Writers Festival and fell in love with his style of reading—I’m a bit jealous of how comfortable he is on a stage!
SM: When reading your book I felt there were three main characters: your two protagonists—an elderly storyteller, his dying lover—and Syria itself. What compelled you to write about Syria? What do you hope readers will take away from your book, in terms of their understanding of the country and its people?
DR: I believe that my characters have a longing to a home they once had; an innocent, heartfelt home that meant the world to them, and that they idealized in their own imagination to the point that it’s impossible to be true. Syria is this ideal loving place that once existed before the world became harsh, and rather rude, to their borderline naïve view of life. By being together, they kept that impossible place alive inside of their collective narrative, and now that they’re facing the reality of their departure from one another; they’re clinging to the details of that memory they had.
Those memories narrate the authentic reality of Syrian tradition, Damascene beauty, and innocence of youth they both enjoyed before the world changed upon them and forced them on their unique journey. I’m hoping that the readers will be able to thread that from within their stories and build a more truthful image of Syria than the one we’re seeing right now in the mainstream narrative.
SM: The storyteller from your book, Hakawati, keeps death at bay for his lover by recounting stories through the night. Tell us about the inspiration behind this character.
DR: The art of storytelling is embedded in the Syrian tradition and costume; “Hakawati” is an actual career that some men for centuries in Syria, who would entertain coffeehouse goers with stories of ghouls and witches and mystical birds. It was also an art of activism; as those stories reflected and mirrored the Syrian people’s struggles against the many nations who occupied their lands; starting with the Arabs, the Ottomans and finally the colonizing nations of both Britain and France. I wanted to honour this tradition in my novel and bring forward that beautiful tradition, showing all the different faces it has; entertainment, activism and a close attachment to Syrian culture.
Hakawati is also a departure from the main characters in the queer literature that dominates our readership nowadays. He is nothing like the usual gay lead character in queer novels; he is elder, a person of colour, his stories lack graphic erotica and has a hint of romance; his character shows an intersectionality that I believe to be quite realistic to who we are as a sexuality minority. He is not defined by his queerness; he is empowered by it.
SM: What’s next for you?
DR: I’m quite comfortable being seen as a queer refugee writer; and I will continue to write stories about queer refugees coming to Canada and their individual and unique tales. I’m scribbling on a chalkboard the outlines of the next novel, which will continue to feature magical realism elements, and stories of finding home and acquiring love. The working title is The Rusty Lock—but keep that between us—and all of your readers—for now.
Want to hear more about Danny’s work? Check out his event during the Vancouver Writers Fest: Wednesday, October 18 at 6pm on Granville Island. Tickets are $20 or $15 if you’re under age 30. Learn more plus purchase your tickets here.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan has written two collections of short stories in Arabic and his articles have been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian and Foreign Policy. His personal experiences as a Syrian refugee and his work with organizations in the Middle East inspired his passion for democracy, social justice and LGBTQ rights. He is currently the Community Outreach Coordinator of QMUNITY, a Queer Resource Centre, and was the Grand Marshal for Vancouver’s Gay Pride Parade 2016. The Clothesline Swing, his first English novel, follows two male lovers during the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
أحمد داني رمضان
DannyRamadan.jpg
Author and activist Ahmad Danny Ramadan at the Vancouver Pride Parade 2016 Proclamation event.
Born May 31, 1984
Damascus, Syria
Occupation Author, Activist
Ahmed Danny Ramadan (born 1984) is a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker, columnist, and a gay refugee activist.[1] He was born in Damascus, Syria, and immigrated to Lebanon as a refugee in 2012, before immigrating to Vancouver, British Columbia in September 2014.[2]
Ramadan was picked as the grand marshal of the Vancouver Pride Festival 2016, for his work supporting LGBTQ-identifying refugees and newcomers.[3][4] He was awarded the Social Activist StandOut Award by the Vancouver Pride Society,[5] and was picked as one of the 25 Top Immigrants to Canada in 2017 by Canadian Immigrant[6] He speaks publicly about issues related to gay Syrian refugees[7] and he writes a bi-weekly column for Daily Xtra.[8]
Writing[edit]
Ramadan has translated the work of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to English, released in 2015 by Greystone Books under the title 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think.
Ramadan published two collections of short stories in Arabic while he lived in Egypt. His first collection, Death and Other Fools, was released by Dar Laila in 2004. His second collection, Aria, was released by Dar Malameh in 2008.
The Clothesline Swing is Ramadan's debut novel in English. Inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, the novel tells the epic story of two lovers anchored to the memory of a dying Syria. One is a Hakawati, a storyteller, keeping life in forward motion by relaying remembered fables to his dying partner. Each night he weaves stories of his childhood in Damascus, of the cruelty he has endured for his sexuality, of leaving home, of war, of his fated meeting with his lover. Meanwhile Death himself, in his dark cloak, shares the house with the two men, eavesdropping on their secrets as he awaits their final undoing.
In its review, titled "The Sweetest Taboo", Winnipeg Free Press stated that the author "has crafted a novel that compels readers to share — vicariously, with his characters — the beauty and history of Syria, the horrors of civil war and the joy, release and pain of forbidden love." adding that the novel is "an enjoyable, if challenging, cultural and historical excursion.".[9]
Publishers Weekly called the work "remarkable" stating that "Ramadan’s delicate use of imagery links these narratives, allowing them to reverberate with meaning and emotion.".[10]
"This debut novel from the Vancouver-based Syrian writer reads as many things," writes Kamal Al-Solaylee for Canadian magazine Quill and Quire, "a coming-out memoir, a history lesson, a critique of authoritarianism, a narrative about sharing narratives – but above all, it’s a requiem for a dying country and people." [11] The Globe and Mail called the novel "sombre, fantastical, violent and tender," adding that Ramadan's "English-language debut is a gay son’s conflicted love letter to Syria."[12]
The Georgia Straight called the narration of Ramadan "fragmented, poetic, and rich with magic realism," adding that the novel "is a lesson in both artistic mastery and human resilience. And, unexpectedly: joy." [13]
QUOTED: "I hope that this can push folks to believe in the talents of folks around them. These are the talents of the refugees who come to Canada. Hire them for jobs. Support them as they explore their artistic selves. Try to see them as productive people."
HOW I WROTE IT
How Ahmad Danny Ramadan's experience as a Syrian refugee influenced his debut novel
James Henley · September 29
Ahmad Danny Ramadan is the author of the novel The Clothesline Swing. (dannyramadan.com/Harbour Publishing)
0 comments
In The Clothesline Swing, Hakawati, a storyteller, prolongs the life of his dying partner by telling story after story about his childhood in Damascus. Death joins the couple, eavesdropping on the series of cruel events that have brought Hakawati to love and to Vancouver. The novel is a first for Ahmad Danny Ramadan, who came to Canada as a refugee from Syria in 2014. He's since become well-known for his activism on behalf of LGBTQ refugees.
In his own words, Ramadan discusses how The Clothesline Swing draws from his roots in Syria.
Syrian storytelling
"I've always written in a magical realism style of writing. I've always written about characters that are weird. This is something that is very common in my culture; we have a visual style of storytelling. In Syria, we are a nation of storytellers, so I find I'm not straying away much from what I grew up reading and understanding."
The novel's origins
"When I was 24 or 25, I wrote a short story about a storyteller who is trying to keep his partner, a listener, from passing away by telling him story after story. Death is there mocking the storyteller, until the storyteller surrenders to the fate of his partner and lets go of him. The story felt like a beautiful story that I wanted to evolve into a novel, but I wanted them to share something meaningful, not just fairy tales.
"Then I went through the experience of being a refugee, then I came here to Canada. I think that experience helped me mature and helped me recognise so many different identities that I carried in myself. I found so many unique situations in that perspective that I thought, 'This is exactly the kind of story that I want those two characters to tell one another.'"
Real friends, fictional characters
"I had a lot of friends and met a lot of people and witnessed their stories. I borrowed some aspects of their personalities. You pick and choose the parts that you'd like to tell and you create a dramatic representation of what that story is. I don't know anybody whose brother went to jail and then committed suicide. This is a drama that I created for a character."
Inspiring readers
"I hope that this can push folks to believe in the talents of folks around them. These are the talents of the refugees who come to Canada. Hire them for jobs. Support them as they explore their artistic selves. Try to see them as productive people. Support them as they learn the language here. They bring their art, their skills and their abilities here with them. Maybe that will produce something beautiful."
Ahmad Danny Ramadan's comments have been edited and condensed.
QUOTED: "Ramadan's delicate use of imagery links these narratives, allowing them to reverberate with meaning and emotion."
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The Clothesline Swing
Publishers Weekly.
264.15 (Apr. 10, 2017): p50.
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Full Text:
* The Clothesline Swing
Ahmad Danny Ramadan. Nightwood
(Midpoint, U.S. dist.; Harbour, Canadian dist.), $19.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-88971332-1
This English-language debut from Ramadan, a Syrian journalist and author who previously published two
short story collections in Arabic, showcases the remarkable talent that he brings to his new home country of
Canada. The opening prologue introduces the three central characters in this story--a storyteller (hakaivati),
his terminally ill lover, and Death, who is revealed to have been the hakawati's constant companion since
his first near-death experience--a gay bashing endured at the hands of his friends in Egypt as a young man.
The novel takes the shape of a series of stories told between these three characters about family, friends,
lovers, and demons. Stretching from Damascus to Cairo, Beirut to Vancouver, and populated with
characters who suffer from mental illness, who have lost family or bits of themselves to oppressive regimes,
who faced persecution because of their gender or sexuality, who fled or have endured war, these stories are
woven together with skill and artistry. While each story is autonomous, Ramadan's delicate use of imagery
links these narratives, allowing them to reverberate with meaning and emotion. They call into question the
nature of the memories that inform the stories we all tell ourselves. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Clothesline Swing." Publishers Weekly, 10 Apr. 2017, p. 50. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490319235/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b66a5a09.
Accessed 17 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490319235
QUOTED: "The Clothesline Swing suffers as its author wavers in the interstices between non-fiction and fiction, and turns for the first time to writing in English, after two collections of short stories in Arabic. But while the stylistic lapses occasionally distract, they take nothing from the urgency and power of this book as a whole."
The Clothesline Swing
by Ahmad Danny Ramadan
JuneReviews_TheClotheslineSwing_CoverS
With nearly half a million Syrians dead and an estimated 10 million internally and globally displaced since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011, it’s no wonder that Ahmad Danny Ramadan’s The Clothesline Swing should feature Death himself as a living, breathing, joint-smoking character. This debut novel from the Vancouver-based Syrian writer reads as many things – a coming-out memoir, a history lesson, a critique of authoritarianism, a narrative about sharing narratives – but above all, it’s a requiem for a dying country and people.
In the Vancouver of a few decades from now, two unnamed, elderly lovers begin their long farewell. One is on his deathbed while the other, a Hakawati (fabulist), spins stories – both fairy tales and the all-too-real kind – to prolong their time together. This intimate setting is interrupted by Death, who hangs out with the lovers and expresses bafflement at the storyteller, who has escaped his clutches several times before.
Indeed, as the storyteller recalls scene after scene from his family history in Damascus, the reader wonders how anyone could have survived so much hate, violence, and degradation of the human spirit. The Hakawati’s mother lost her mind while he was still a child and once tried to stab him with a kitchen knife. The father’s retrograde notion of Arab masculinity inflicts physical and emotional pain on his gay, comic-book-loving son. (Those tight, bulge-revealing outfits superheroes wear really do make the father very nervous.) Even when the narrator escapes Damascus for what he believes to be the relative safety of Cairo, he falls victim to a gay-bashing crime committed by his own friends in a textbook case of homosexual panic. Much of this takes place before the Syrian civil war even begins.
What make these stories heartbreaking are the glimpses Ramadan provides of a once-serene Syria, symbolized by a swing made of clothesline that the narrator’s father crafted for his young wife. From the safety of her balcony, she often rocked her son and herself to sleep, unaware of internal and external battles to come. Ramadan also offers insights into the lovers’ early years as refugees in Canada, complete with a swipe at the saviour complex of one of their Canadian sponsors. These moments, while lacking the intensity of the Syria-set recollections, nevertheless document the lives of gay refugees to this country. (Ramadan came to Canada as a refugee in 2014 and is known for his work in activism and journalism.)
It’s in perennially overcast Vancouver that the “crushing weight of so much past,” to quote Gabriel García Márquez – whose words lend the novel its epigram and whose literary spirit haunts the book – catches up with the Hakawati and, unfortunately, also with Ramadan. The novel comes close to becoming a dumping ground of memories. The Death character emerges as the main source of the book’s more leaden dialogue, while the Arabian Nights inspiration of a male Scheherazade feels like a carefully constructed Orientalism intended to draw in western readers.
At times I wondered if The Clothesline Swing wouldn’t have been more gripping as a memoir. I’m not suggesting that everything here is autobiographical, nor do I want to conflate the narrator and novelist, but Ramadan could have handled the lines between the two genres with more care. The gay French-Moroccan writer Abdellah Taïa managed auto-fiction in a shorter form and to a more literary effect in his 2012 novel, An Arab Melancholia. By comparison, The Clothesline Swing suffers as its author wavers in the interstices between non-fiction and fiction, and turns for the first time to writing in English, after two collections of short stories in Arabic. But while the stylistic lapses occasionally distract, they take nothing from the urgency and power of this book as a whole.
The immediacy of the personal stories in The Clothesline Swing serve as testimony and a record of gay life in the Middle East at the turn of the 21st century. I know that culture, and have written about an earlier period of it (the 1970s and early ’80s). I’m tempted to say that Ramadan brings that cultural examination up to date, but, in essence, not much has changed. By committing memories to the page in the form of a portrait of the novelist as a young man, Ramadan reveals how homophobia in the Arab world builds on a toxic social culture that discriminates against women, dissenters, and anyone different.
The book resonates because it’s a story of a man whose past lives come as a shock as much to himself as to the reader: “A man I don’t understand anymore,” the Hakawati reflects about his former self. How do you recount, let alone understand, an ongoing genocide? That the novel’s two refugees are now old folks suggests that neither time nor storytelling will alleviate the pain of this particular moment in history. But we now have a stirring fictional window onto it.
Reviewer: Kamal Al-Solaylee
Publisher: Nightwood Editions
DETAILS
Price: $21.95
Page Count: 288 pp
Format: Paper
ISBN: 978-0-88971-332-1
Released: May
Issue Date: June 2017
Categories: Fiction: Novels
QUOTED: "Ramadan’s account can’t be lauded as entertaining or uplifting. It’s not. That said, Hakawati’s recollections and his take on resettling in Canada is immersive and disarming. And as a glimpse of regions with deep-seated homophobia, the novel’s a bracing reminder of how many forms oppression can take."
Book review: Ramadan's disarming novel reveals many forms of oppression
A look at the new book by Ahmad Danny Ramadan.
Brett Josef GrubisicBRETT JOSEF GRUBISIC
Published on: April 26, 2017 | Last Updated: April 26, 2017 1:00 PM PDT
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The Clothesline Swing
Ahmad Danny Ramadan
Nightwood Editions
Though Vancouver-based Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a journalist and the author of two short-story collections in Arabic, his debut novel showcases a compelling instinct for theatre.
The set-up, in fact, exhibits a fundamentally stage-friendly premise. On the West Coast in the near future, a figure, now and then called Hakawati (the Lebanese word for storyteller), but otherwise unnamed, addresses his restless and dying partner within the West End home they’ve long shared. Nearly 80, the speaker is of questionable sound mind and body: “Maybe, like my mother,” he offers, “I lost my mind at the age of 30 and this whole house — this whole life — is an elaborate vision of happiness I’m experiencing while drooling in a mental hospital bed.”
The narrator also regularly jokes, argues and plays cards with another figure — Death, complete with scythe, hooded black robe and that unquenched thirst for souls. This mischievous entity has the ability to conjure disturbing ghosts from the narrator’s past.
Storytelling consoles Hakawati’s fading partner. Crucially too, the storyteller isn’t ready for Death to claim the man with whom he has experienced so much love and hardship. Taking his cue from Scheherazade, he opts to spin tale after tale. Sensing the limits of his own life, moreover, he is “trying to forget the days of terror back in Syria without losing the memories of the love we built together.” Since in his experience love is tied intimately with terror, the storyteller can’t look at or explain one without incorporating the other; nor can he forget one without forgetting the other.
Following the prologue, Hakawati does what comes naturally: he crafts tales. Set in Damascus, Beirut, Cairo and Vancouver, and mixing together fragments of the fable-like and the autobiographical with the reliable and the wholly fantastic, the stories — with titles like “The Tale of Those Who Left” and “The Concubine and Her Glass Rose” — conjure past decades of tremendous pain and sacrifice, where motes of joy and contentment quickly dispersed in the wind.
Typically, the stories are harrowing or bittersweet.
Besides gunfire, beatings, incarcerations, car bombs, regime changes and increasing militarization as background actuality, Ramadan focuses Hakawati’s stories around family and his ordeal-like experiences as a gay man. For example, there’s his coming-out: “My father punched me in the face, breaking one of my teeth in half.” There’s Hakawati’s first love, as narrated by the man’s ghost: “My wife, who found my dead body hanging from the ceiling, refused to come to the funeral.” Conjoined to the lovely story of his mother’s swing (built by his father of old clothesline and a pillow) is his mother’s fatal descent into schizophrenic delusions and his father’s increasing anger and distance.
Ramadan’s account can’t be lauded as entertaining or uplifting. It’s not. That said, Hakawati’s recollections and his take on resettling in Canada is immersive and disarming. And as a glimpse of regions with deep-seated homophobia, the novel’s a bracing reminder of how many forms oppression can take.
The almost-biological imperative for the story’s gays and lesbians to carry on in the face of oppression is touching. Friendships, drunken parties, nightclubbing, casual hookups and affairs (both overnight and enduring) are scattered throughout the tales, pleasing in themselves, but also potent reminders of survival skills.
Those manifestations of fraternal and erotic love might not stop a bullet or topple a government, but Ramadan’s inclusion of them provides buoyant glimmers that help offset a resoundingly sombre outlook.
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QUOTED: "Though not as artful of a book as expected from an award-winning author, The Clothesline Swing is culturally significant and important, and therefore, the novel should be read."
"The Clothesline Swing helps humanize Syrian refugees by giving faith, hope, and more importantly, a voice to these people."
‘The Clothesline Swing’ by Ahmad Danny Ramadan
Review by Zane DeZeeuw
September 2, 2017
The Clothesline Swing is a beautiful, cultural artifact that gives a rare insight into the world of gay men and women hidden in the Middle East. The first novel of its kind, The Clothesline Swing brings to surface the hardships that gay Syrian refugees experience. The narrator, who is only referred to as Hakawati–the Arabic word for writer, weaves stories of his past life that depict his nostalgia for the Damascus that existed before the Syrian Civil War tore it apart while also unveiling the pain, danger, rejection, and fear he experienced as a gay man in Syria even during the country’s more stable times.
Set in modern day Vancouver, the narrator uses the tactics from One Thousand and One Nights to postpone his partner’s death by telling stories of his life to his partner and Death himself. The tales of his life sift through his early years in Syria, his stint in Cairo, his mother’s emotional decline, his temporary relocation to Beruit, his observations of the war, and his partner and his eventual escape to Vancouver. The content is raw, realistic, and jarring due to Ramadan’s own experience being a gay, Syrian refugee.
However, the novel falls short of being a true masterpiece for a number of reasons. The novel quickly loses hold of its One Thousand and One Nights frame, and because of the frame’s inconsistency, the stories the Hakawati tells lack intentionality and cohesion. The personified figure of Death is whimsical and trite. The sections with Death in the frame story clash with the tone and the beautiful fable-esque language found in the stories the narrator tells of his past. Most of all, the frame falls apart because the narrator hardly reveals anything about his unnamed partner. In order for the love in the novel to be emotionally gripping and believable, the narrator needed to reveal why he loved his partner so much that he was doing everything in his power to postpone his partner’s inevitable death, but unfortunately, the unnamed partner was more of a figure rather than a person.
Though not as artful of a book as expected from an award-winning author, The Clothesline Swing is culturally significant and important, and therefore, the novel should be read. Ramadan documents an unwritten aspect of LGBT history in a world that tries to erase LGBT history. Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo, cities that most people may never visit in their lifetime, become real places rather than unknown foreign entities because of this novel. The Clothesline Swing helps humanize Syrian refugees by giving faith, hope, and more importantly, a voice to these people who, in the midst of the current refugee crisis and chaos, have faced and continue to face unimaginable struggles. Hopefully, Ramadan continues to write stories and novels about these places and the people in them because the stories of LGBT people, Syrians, and refugees need to be told.
The Clothesline Swing
By Ahmad Danny Ramadan
Nightwood Editions
Paperback, 9780889713321, 288 pp.
May 2017
RELATED POSTS:
QUOTED: "Perhaps the most striking aspects of The Clothesline Swing are Ramadan’s determination to draw out the beauty in even the most dire of circumstances, and his faith in the power of stories to heal."
BOOK REVIEWS
Ahmad Danny Ramadan honours resilience in The Clothesline Swing
by Tara Henley on June 7th, 2017 at 1:34 PM
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Vancouver author Ahmad Danny Ramadan’s English-language debut is lush and lyrical, infused with longing for a distant Syrian home.
The Clothesline Swing
By Ahmad Danny Ramadan. Nightwood, 288 pp, softcover
RELATED STORIES
Syrian gay refugee activist Ahmed Danny Ramadan is proud to call Vancouver home
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Qmunity's Danny Ramadan: Our tragedy in Orlando woke up my community
Trauma is a difficult thing to write about. “Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable,” Judith Lewis Herman notes in her seminal work Trauma and Recovery. “Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried.…Folk wisdom is filled with ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories are told.”
Few contemporary CanLit authors tackle this theme with more breathtaking virtuosity than Ahmad Danny Ramadan, a Syrian refugee who was granted asylum in 2014. The Vancouver writer’s English-language debut, The Clothesline Swing, is a lesson in both artistic mastery and human resilience. And, unexpectedly: joy.
The novel follows a gay Syrian couple who, in 2012, escape the violence of both homophobia and civil war to build a new life in Vancouver’s West End. Almost four decades later, one is dying as the other tells him stories in an attempt to keep him alive. All the while, Death, a sinister spectre, plays cards in the kitchen.
Ramadan’s unique voice—fragmented, poetic, and rich with magic realism—lends the narrative the quality of a dream. “There are tremors around us; it’s like an unwritten piece of music,” runs the opening line of the first chapter. “That hidden melancholy is creating a routine for us. Every action we take in our lives is like a gentle touch on the strings of a violin.” His prose throughout is lush and lyrical, infused with a longing for home. The Damascus of days past comes alive on the page: the labyrinth of narrow avenues; the glimmering streetlamps; the rooftop gardens with blooming jasmine—all seen from a makeshift balcony swing, constructed from an old clothesline and a pillow.
There are many things to recommend this read, from its take on the gay experience in the Middle East, to the snapshots of Cairo, Istanbul, and Beirut, to the tenderness of the central love story.
But perhaps the most striking aspects of The Clothesline Swing are Ramadan’s determination to draw out the beauty in even the most dire of circumstances, and his faith in the power of stories to heal. As such, one of the most powerful lines of the novel is its first: the dedication. It reads: “To the children of Damascus, This is what I did with my heartache… What about yours?”
JOIN THE DISCUSSION
The Clothesline Swing, Ahmad Danny Ramadan
The narrator of this book is a hakawati, a storyteller, and he addresses his dying partner in their home in Vancouver, where they have lived since they left a dying Syria in 2012, almost 40 years before. Like the great Persian storyteller, Scheherazade, the elderly hakawati entertains his beloved with stories of growing up in long-ago Damascus, where being gay was forbidden. This lyrical first novel situates the ancient tradition of storytelling within a decidedly modern context. Ahmad Danny Ramadan is a Syrian refugee and this is his first book in English. He was grand marshal of Vancouver’s Pride Parade in 2016.
QUOTED: "Ahmad Danny Ramadan has crafted a novel that compels readers to share—vicariously, with his characters—the beauty and history of Syria, the horrors of civil war and the joy, release and pain of forbidden love."
The sweetest taboo
Myth and Mideast serve as backdrop for forbidden love story
Reviewed by: Gord Arnold
Posted: 06/24/2017 3:00 AM | Comments: 0
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In his new novel, Vancouver-based author Ahmad Danny Ramadan draws on his own experiences as both a gay Syrian and a refugee.
Mike Carter photo
In his new novel, Vancouver-based author Ahmad Danny Ramadan draws on his own experiences as both a gay Syrian and a refugee.
Ahmad Danny Ramadan has crafted a novel that compels readers to share — vicariously, with his characters — the beauty and history of Syria, the horrors of civil war and the joy, release and pain of forbidden love.
The Clothesline Swing, Ramadan’s first novel in English, is both a lament for Syria and a gay love story — mostly tender, sometimes bittersweet — which unfolds against the backdrop of the Arab Spring and Syrian civil war.
The author, who now lives in Vancouver, left his home in Syria to escape persecution after he came out as gay. For eight years, he travelled throughout the Mideast before emigrating to Vancouver in 2014. The Clothesline Swing draws on his experience both as a gay Syrian and a refugee.
Ramadan patterns his novel after the classic Arabian tales of One Thousand and One Nights. His three principal characters are the storyteller (known as a Hakawati in Syria), his aging lover and Death. The Hakawati is in a tug-of-war with Death for the soul of his dying lover.
Death challenges the Hakawati’s motive. "You are not telling the stories to keep him alive… You are telling the stories because you don’t want to face life without him."
For Muslims, "The soul is the glue that holds the body together," one of the Hakawati’s lovers tells him. Despite thinking this idea is "rather cartoonish," the Hakawati frequently uses the soul to spin out his stories.
Death tries to force the Hakawati to face his past "to see the beauty in it." But his stories are haunted by personal demons. He was savagely beaten by his father when he came out as gay and his mother, plunging into madness, tried to kill him.
"She dipped her face into the dark water of her fantasies and never came back," the Hakawati says, fearing he is following her into that same dark water.
There are fond recollections of preparation for the nightly feasts when a day of Ramadan fast has ended, balanced by bitter memories of gay-bashing.
On rainy Vancouver nights, where the lovers have finally settled, Death plays games with the souls of the dead. Once, he brings the soul of former Syrian leader Hafez al Assad for an exposition on his dreams for the country.
Under Assad’s rule during the 1960s, Syria enjoyed prosperity. But there were no civil rights protecting gays. "For us foreplay wasn’t sweet touches and soft kisses; it was finding a place where no police officers, angry parents or nosy neighbours would find us," the Hakawati reminds his lover.
The civil war period was "a busy time," Death says. "I was hired by lunatics… They throw their bombs. I collected their souls. The hundreds of thousands of them. I worked hard." Yet, Death brings a sense of humour to his job. If you die while you are stoned, your soul will taste like blueberries, he says.
There is a tinge of bitterness in the Hakawati’s stories about Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Driven out of their homes by the Israelis in 1948, a whole generation of Palestinians "grew up inheriting the keys to homes long destroyed in their grandfathers’ land."
Stories of refugees’ struggles adapting to life in Canada are a timely reminder of the cultural chasm that must be bridged. Sometimes, social cues are missed; Canadians talking about the weather leaves refugees feeling they are being pushed away. That’s how the topic is used in Syria.
The Clothesline Swing is an enjoyable, if challenging, cultural and historical excursion.
Gordon Arnold is a Winnipeg writer.