Arabian Jazz
Diana Abu-Jaber
 The novel focuses on the happenings of the Ramoud’s. The widowed father of the family, Matusseum Ramond, lives with his two daughters and was accompanied to America with his sister and brother-in-law. Matusseum and his daughters reside in a middle class house in the midst of a run-down, low class neighborhood. Their environment mimics that of a hazardous dumping ground, with their house being surrounded by broken down cars and trailers that have neither running water nor a proper sewage waste system. Diapers and garbage liters their backyard providing the ideal tone for the family’s mixed emotions and values. Matusseum’s American-born daughters are older, but both seem to still struggle with their identities, contemplating their roles in American culture versus Middle Eastern culture. Aunt Fatima, Matusseum’s devoted Islamic sister, desires for the two daughters, Melvina and Jemorah, to follow the conventions and traditions of their motherland – Jordan. Fatima concerns her new, American life with the local gossip and obsesses over Melvina and Jemorah’s dating life. Fatima is disgraced that both of her nieces are not yet married; she makes it her life mission to find suitable, affluent suitors for them. Melvina, the younger of the two daughters, has found herself successful and happy in her career as a nurse; yet, her older sister Jemorah has yet to find a satisfying career path and struggles throughout the novel with her cultural and career oriented identity. Her father is clearly Middle Eastern and still has a stronghold in the traditions of the east, but her deceased mother merged well within western culture and trends. Thus, Jemorah feels stuck in the middle, not quite Arabian and not quite American. Her aunt clearly desires for her to conform to the traditions and customs of Jordan, but Jemorah finds that those conventions neither fill her cultural void nor feel natural and comfortable. Matusseum is too struggling simultaneously along with his daughters, attempting to discover his new place in America devoid of his loving wife. Unlike Melvina, he does not find comfort in a career, but rather feels most at peace making jazz music on his drum set. It is only when he is playing this music in the local bar that he forgets about the death of his wife and the personal crisis that was created through his immigration. Both his daughters and his sister find this hobby bizarre and somewhat embarrassing. It is only after Matusseum journeys back to Jordan that his daughters are able to find themselves and their place within culture. This journey too has a similar effect on Matusseum, allowing clarity to his thought process and his actions.