A review by Jean Hashem for Al Modon, September 22nd, 2022
The title of Khalil Al-Rez’s recently published novel, Strawberry-spotted handkerchief, is not a casual detail taken from a fleeting idea, a flash of inspiration, or a striking image along its course. Rather, through the meanings the author imbued in these two words—drawn from literature, history, and the customs and traditions of various peoples—it forms the foundation upon which the novel is built and from which it launches, delving into the depths of the human psyche and examining its most intimate and specific interactions.
The events of the novel begin with the three strawberries that Raya, the narrator’s beloved, leaves for him in his room along with a note—a message giving him a meeting outside the shared building in Moscow where they live. Gradually, the narrator, the novel’s first-person protagonist, discovers the meanings and symbolism of the strawberry plant—its leaves, flowers, and fruit—culminating in a detailed exploration of its historical and symbolic significance through the voice of one of the novel’s characters, Maksim Vadimich, during a celebratory session dedicated to strawberries at Nona’s grandmother’s house, an invitation the narrator accepted.
In this occasion, the scene unfolds, dialogues occur, and news about strawberries is exchanged, as if we are watching a play expertly directed by Khalil Al-Rez. Volodya, Nona’s lover, washes his beloved’s feet with the strawberry juice in the bowl he brought to crush the fruit in preparation for making wine. He recalls his father’s saying: “Wine tastes best when the fruit is crushed by the feet of a woman you love on her birthday.” The scene continues against the backdrop of Maksim Vadimich recounting the evolution of strawberry symbolism through the ages, from the Middle Ages back to Roman and Greek times. The strawberry symbolized perfection, integrity, chastity, and virtue—so much so that in the Middle Ages it was used as a decorative symbol in depictions of saints and the Virgin Mary, with the plant appearing in the arms of the holy child. Its three leaves represented the Holy Trinity, and its five petals symbolized the five wounds of Christ. Conversely, among various writers and artists, its significance ranged from goodness, beauty, fidelity, and loyalty in love to betrayal, seduction, pleasure, lust, and arousal, culminating with Gogol, who attributed a “licentious” meaning to it. In some cases, it even becomes a motive for murder (e.g., the story of Othello and Desdemona).
The question remains: why did Shakespeare choose the strawberry for Desdemona’s handkerchief rather than cherries or grapes? The answer lies in his desire to avoid limiting it to a single meaning, reflecting his inclination toward the complexity and ambiguity of ideas, which are difficult to control. Between positive and negative connotations, he wanted to give the strawberry a third dimension, open to all possibilities: a symbol of chastity and fidelity in Desdemona’s hands, yet of seduction and betrayal in Cassio’s, with all the ensuing confusion, doubt, and temptation, accompanied by the “wildness of imagination.” In essence, the handkerchief with strawberries allows for “endless possibilities” in the relationship between man and woman.
Thus, the name naturally asserted itself as the novel’s title, and the three strawberries that Raya left with the note became a key symbol of the passionate and turbulent love relationship, full of all these emotions and states, whose events we follow in Khalil Al-Rez’s masterfully structured plot. The novel reveals the hidden recesses of the human psyche in all its emotional fluctuations, delving deeply into their analysis and depiction. Strawberry-spotted handkerchief can be described as a novel of diverse human characters, whose stories the author recounts, portraying their relationships and interactions, including with the narrator, whose personality is shaped by these different human models. While it seems he invents them at will, they simultaneously shape and constitute his character to some degree.
The novel is fundamentally about human relationships—love and friendship. Accordingly, the six chapter titles are proper names of the main characters or names of people and places associated with them: Raya, Salem, Nona, Raya’s husband, at Nona’s grandmother’s house, at Salem’s house.
The narrative begins with the revelation of the complex romantic relationship between the narrator and Raya, close to and witnessed by Abdoul, his flatmate and opportunistic Azerbaijani film critic, who obtained, through Raya’s husband, a monthly television program on cinema in Moscow. Suspicious that a relationship might exist between the narrator and Raya, Abdoul feels—or so it seems to the narrator—it is his duty to inform her husband to preserve his honor and loyalty as a man and as an Azerbaijani.
The real or imagined events revolve around this relationship—from Abdoul potentially seeking revenge with the help of fellow Azerbaijanis to the possibility of her influential husband arriving to punish both. Amid these anxieties, the narrator–lover experiences longing and passion for Raya and concern for her, especially as she initially appears fragile due to her epilepsy. Yet we soon discover her to be a strong, confident person, capable of confronting her husband with the truth when she visits the narrator’s apartment to prove her lover’s devotion.
From this complex yet simple relationship, the narrator’s imagination unfolds, visualizing his journey to Baku in Azerbaijan, where Raya returned to her husband. Here again, Khalil Al-Rez demonstrates his skill in constructing complex scenes, imagining and depicting the extraordinary, almost supernatural, with interwoven events across time and space. We see the narrator, eager to rescue his beloved from danger, willing, like all lovers, to sacrifice for her, traveling in his imagination by all possible means, especially by train, depriving himself of comfort and sustenance as if subjecting himself to self-imposed torment. He becomes a multifaceted character whose life story incorporates the participation of others (his friend Salem or strangers such as an old woman on a train) to help complete his tale of love, transforming into a narrative or theatrical figure reminiscent of famous historical lovers: “I multiply myself in a crowd of guilty lovers crawling from all corners of the map to Baku for Raya.” At other points, through his thoughts and phone conversations with Raya, the author illustrates the human mind’s ability to transcend time and space, compressing past or future events into a fleeting instant.
Perhaps the love story, and other relationships in the novel, are secondary to the author’s main purpose. If the novel is a novel of characters, it is because the author wants to show that the “other” is, in some way, constructed according to the image we form of them in our minds, just as we shape our own self-image. From the beginning, the narrator states that, like some great writers (Dostoevsky, Alexander Blok), he imagines that buildings, animals, and objects have lives, often inventing histories and events for them, endowing them with thoughts and opinions. The same occurs when he imagines the life of a girl he encounters with her mother, abandoned by her father, and follows that father’s life in Chile, guided by his imagination.
The narrator is not alone in this practice. His friend Salem narrates his own life, adding to his past events he neither experienced nor remembers, attributing specific qualities to himself to strengthen his resolve and morale: “… now he fabricates me in the most believable way…” and “…he directs my personal narrative before us…” At the novel’s end, the narrator observes Salem’s behavior as if it were happening inside him: “…Salem follows with clear curiosity what I was experiencing inside, away from him…” Thus, characters take turns narrating their perspectives on others, suggesting that the other exists only as a product of our perception, a model we shape in our minds, a “puppet” on which we project our desired traits, feelings, and emotions. This idea is reinforced through the non-human character of Raya’s doll, left behind when she is forcibly transferred to Baku. The narrator clings to it, treating it as a part of Raya herself, while Nona insists that he bring it to her grandmother’s house. They attribute feelings and emotions to it, raising the question: do humans in our environment become puppets onto which we project our selves? Or are they invented or manufactured characters, as the novelist generally treats his creations? This, perhaps, is what Khalil Al-Rez intends to convey.
The narrator sees himself through the eyes of others, just as he sees others through his own perspective. Considering that the novel takes place in Moscow during the final stages of communist rule, in a building inhabited by people of diverse ethnicities and nationalities, the author may intend to explore the convergence or clash of cultures, shared principles, and differences, as well as the compatibility or contrast of cultural and civilizational heritage. Salem is at peace with himself and loyal to his roots, Raya is strong and capable of confronting challenges, and Nona is delicate, soft, and freely open to others. The narrator, however, searches for his self in a world not his own—a world of his imagination—which inevitably collapses, being a product of his own fantasy. The author emphasizes cultural differences and resilience, as seen in Nona’s birthday celebration at her grandmother’s house, the enjoyable strawberry-crushing scene, and the lavish Syrian-Arabic dinner, which ends in intoxication and unconsciousness for the narrator and Salem. Is this the fate of Arabs, wherever they are, to remain isolated and bound to a heritage that harms them? Perhaps.
In any case, the novel portrays a human being lost in the search for self, attempting to complete himself through others’ perceptions and ideas of him. It depicts a person striving for a world he desires, which is realized only through imagination; even then, it quickly dissolves, leaving the hero captive to his own illusions, fragmented within himself and across time and space. The final passage illustrates this vividly: “At seven o’clock on Wednesday evening, inside myself, I wandered with Nona in the botanical garden, ate stuffed grape leaves with Raya in her friend Annoush’s apartment, and thought of fixing my broken bicycle at the distributor so we could ride it—myself and the doll—because the weather was so beautiful that evening.”
Technically, Khalil Al-Rez employs a linear structure in which events accumulate around a single axis: the narrator himself, his relationship with Raya, and potential resolutions with her husband. In the imaginary narrative framework, however, the events reach an ambiguous and open-ended conclusion, leaving the reader to envision possibilities, mirroring the narrator’s own potential for transformation and development as perceived by himself and others.
Throughout the narrative, the author engages in introspective and dialogic discussions, examining prevailing concepts from multiple perspectives. For example, the analytical debate between the narrator and Salem about beauty—its types, the difference between ordinary beauty and exceptional beauty—is elaborated. The narrator also reflects on preparing for a possible confrontation with Raya’s husband, describing the “monster” awakened within him, and the temporary irrelevance of culture in restraining this destructive force. Nona also discusses neglected objects and the need for care, ultimately realizing her own need for attention. Furthermore, the narrative explores human contradictions, such as the abrupt shift from violence to absurd laughter.
All of this is presented in a refined, smooth, and elegant style that enhances reader enjoyment and suspense. However, minor linguistic, spelling, or typographical errors appear, which is natural for any writer; responsibility primarily lies with the publisher’s editing and proofreading departments. Another stylistic note involves reported speech: in some instances, verbs of saying are placed after the dialogue (following French or English convention), which is not natural in Arabic and may confuse readers, especially when poorly executed.
Nonetheless, Strawberry-spotted handkerchief remains an engaging, suspenseful, and profound novel. It is a novel of the human quest for self-understanding and construction, and the relentless pursuit of happiness that is harder to attain than many believe. It addresses human and national concerns that Khalil Al-Rez consistently seeks to explore.
