Santa Claus in Baghdad

Marston, E. (2008). Santa Claus in Baghdad and other stories about teens in the Arab world. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-22004-2

Why read this book

Do you worry about terrorists and religious fundamentalists taking over the Middle East? Read these stories to meet young people from the region who are more like you than you might have imagined.

Plot summary

This collection features eight short stories set in eight places in the Arab world. In Baghdad, a high school student learns the beauty of generosity even as her family’s material well-being diminishes during the international sanctions imposed in the 1990s. In Damascus, a 12-year-old boy says good-bye to his mother as his father reclaims him for life in his father’s new household with a new wife. In Lebanon, a Syrian teenager working as a maid faces a choice between returning to her village to marry a well-off older man or trying to make a life of her own. In Palestine, a boy who has lost his brother and his best friend to the Israeli occupation learns that there are more ways to resist than throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers. In Egypt, a daughter of a middle-class public servant learns the pain of class divisions when she befriends a classmate from a farmer’s family. In Tunisia, a boy who sells souvenirs at a Roman ruin re-imagines his future after befriending an artist. In Jordan, in the most harrowing of these stories, two classmates from different sides of the fundamentalist divide find common ground when the cousin of one is threatened with an “honor” killing because she has spoken in public with a man. In a lighter-hearted final story, a high school student in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon schemes to introduce his older brother to his beautiful new art teacher.

Critical evaluation

These are quiet, mostly small stories of everyday life that provide an important alternative to the stereotypes of life in the Middle East that emerge from most western media. As short stories, the character development is limited, yet we quickly come to see that the protagonists are thoughtful young people who draw on the cultural traditions in which they have been raised to confront difficult circumstances. The conflicts in these stories arise from divisions within society that the protagonists must negotiate. Most dramatic is the division based on religion in the story about “honor” killings in Jordan, but more common are divisions based on politics (Baghdad, Palestine, and the Palestine refugee camp) and class (Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia). Most intimate is the story from Damascus in which the boy confronts the division of his family following his parents’ divorce. The strength of the stories is that they provide the “heightened sense of awareness” that Stephen Roxburgh describes when explaining why it is important that we read stories set outside the United States (2004, p. 50). As in, “So, in Syria the father usually takes custody of the children after a divorce, and the children must bond with a new mother. That’s interesting. I wonder how that works.”

About the author

Elsa Marston was born in Massachusetts in 1933 and spent her youth in the Boston area, where her father was a professor of English at Northeastern University. She earned a B.A. in American civilization at the University of Iowa, an M.A. in international affairs at Harvard University, and an M.S. in art education at Indiana University. She studied Middle Eastern history at the American University of Beirut and lived in the Middle East for many years. She writes mostly for younger teens, and her works include fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Her non-fiction includes both history (ancient civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean) and contemporary topics (Women in the Middle East: Tradition and Change, which she wrote with her son Ramsay M. Harik). She currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana (biography.jrank.org, n.d.; Elsa Marston children’s author, n.d.).

Genre: Contemporary life, International

Curriculum ties

Modern world history, international relations — Santa Claus in Baghdad would be a good introduction to a unit on the contemporary Middle East. The stories put human faces on the political, social, and economic issues of the region, and the notes at the end of the book provide an introduction to particular issues that are referenced in the stories.

Book-talking ideas

• Show a clip from the film version of the short story Santa Claus in Baghdad and invite students to read the original.

• Read short excerpts of the various conflicts that the protagonists confront, such as Aneesi’s desire to make a life for herself in Beruit rather than marry a man in her home village (“The Hand of Fatima”) and Yasmine’s dilemma about whether to tell her journalist mother about the danger that her classmate’s cousin faces (“Honor”). Point out both similarities and differences in the lives of these teenagers and the lives of the potential readers.

Reading level/interest age

Although most of Elsa Marston’s work is for younger readers, Santa Claus in Baghdad is listed as teen fiction in the San Francisco Public Library catalog. The reading level is suitable for many middle school students, but the contemporary issues embedded in the stories would be of interest to high school students.

Challenge issues

Given the political climate concerning Middle Eastern issues, any stories set in the region might be controversial for some library patrons. Some supporters of Israel might object that the Israeli view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not presented. Some Moslems might feel that centering one of the stories on “honor” killings contributes to stereotypes of Arab culture.

Responses

• Remind the challenger of the policy (in the case of the San Francisco Public Library) to present “all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

• Point out that the stories present multiple perspectives on the issues that they raise, such as the Israeli soldier who sympathizes with the teen who is resisting the destruction of the village’s olive trees.

• Remind the challenger of the importance of people in the United States understanding all sides of issues in the Middle East, where United States foreign policy is a significant factor in many economic, political, and social developments.

Why I chose to read this book

As a world history teacher and an internationalist, I am interested in stories that explore life outside the United States. I prefer stories written by people who live where the stories are set, but there aren’t a lot of choices.

References

biography.jrank.org (n.d.). Elsa Marston (1933 – ) biography – personal, career, member, honors awards, writing, sidelights. Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1090/Marston-Elsa-1933.html

Elsa Marston children’s author (n.d.). Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://www.elsamarston.com/index.htm

Roxburgh, S. (2004, January). The myopic American. School Library Journal 50(1), 48-50. Retrieved on September 6, 2009, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e4741fae46b91d0b76b0b548d3b3b9feacaae1a7be962700181f025e7d59f1416&fmt=