Cockroach By Rawi Hage Pdf To Word

Cockroach is as urgent, unsettling, and brilliant as Rawi Hage's bestselling and critically acclaimed first book, De Niro's Game. The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described thief has just tried but failed to commit suicide. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend ses Cockroach is as urgent, unsettling, and brilliant as Rawi Hage's bestselling and critically acclaimed first book, De Niro's Game. The novel takes place during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless immigrant community, where a self-described thief has just tried but failed to commit suicide.

Book Cockroach Rawi Hage PDF. We Would Like To Show You A Description Here But The Site Won't Allow Us. Route ~ The Word Blog. Lexical Vexations Rout 1. A Terrible Defeat; 2. A Rabble Or Mob; 3.

Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naive therapist. This sets the story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky emigre cafes where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but wilfully blind, citizens who surround him. In 2008, Cockroach was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award, and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. It won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, presented by the Quebec Writers' Federation. This answer contains spoilers [ The way i see it is that he was put in therapy after he tried to commit suicide by hanging himself. We read later that he goes back to the tree and The way i see it is that he was put in therapy after he tried to commit suicide by hanging himself. We read later that he goes back to the tree and inspects it for coackroach bites.

He did shoot Shaheed and this completed his transformation to the coackroach that he is. Notice that his development was built gradually through the book. Once that development/transformation ended, he slipped into the underground. Whether he was jailed or not, to me, is unimportant and not the point. Seeing as immigration is an integral element of the Canadian landscape, it should come as no surprise that authors might seek to dip into this cultural stew for dramatic purposes.

Very few, however, would likely seek to add the phantasmagorical and hallucinatory elements that Rawi Hage’s novel Cockroach brings to the recipe. The Canadian author arose seemingly from out of nowhere in 2006 when his debut novel De Niro’s Game was rescued from the obscurity of the slush pile at House of Anansi Press. Seeing as immigration is an integral element of the Canadian landscape, it should come as no surprise that authors might seek to dip into this cultural stew for dramatic purposes. Very few, however, would likely seek to add the phantasmagorical and hallucinatory elements that Rawi Hage’s novel Cockroach brings to the recipe. The Canadian author arose seemingly from out of nowhere in 2006 when his debut novel De Niro’s Game was rescued from the obscurity of the slush pile at House of Anansi Press. The novel was immediately deluged with plaudits and awards, culminating in his recent win of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the largest English literary prize on the planet.

No one could blame Hage for any perceived degree of tentativeness in his approach to his sophomore novel. Yet while it contains many of the same themes as his first, Cockroach proves that Hage is not content to rest on his laurels.

Leaving behind Game’s war-blighted Lebanon, Cockroach sets itself in the more overtly familiar surroundings of Montreal. But while the country may be considerably dissimilar, Hage continues his penchant for bleak poetic atmosphere, transforming the bustling metropolis into an alien topography of menial jobs, mysterious accents, insect infestations, and class hostilities. Cockroach is first and foremost a character study of a stranger in a strange land.

A very strange stranger at that, an individual who possesses the odd habit of imagining himself at times to be a cockroach; “Other humans gaze at the sky,” he explains, “ but I say unto you, the only way through the world is to pass through the underground.” Hage has more on his mind than allusions to Franz Kafka, however. Like Kafka’s many baffled protagonists, Hage’s anti-hero may be bewildered by the machinations of the world, but he is no mere observer, taking pains wherever and whenever he can to make his presence felt. Similar to the leads in De Niro’s Game, the narrator is not so much a hero as he is a survivor, but with a far bleaker approach to life. Unlike the start realism of the former novel’s, the narrator of Cockroach may or may not be on the brink of insanity, adding a surreal aspect to many of his daily encounters. Cockroach’s unnamed narrator is an immigrant to Canada, an man who ekes out a living through a combination of odd jobs, threats, and surreptitious thievery. After a haphazard suicide attempt, explained as being “a challenge to nature, to the cosmos itself, to the recurring light,” he is ordered to attend therapy sessions to assess his mental competency.

The narrator is not having an easy time of it living in Montreal, the clash of cultures altering the man he perceives himself to be. “[H]ere in this Northern land,” he laments, comparing his new life to his old, “no one gives you an excuse to hit, rob, or shoot, or even to shout from across the balcony, to curse your neighbours’ mothers and threaten their kids.” Alongside a gift for breaking and entering, the narrator prides himself on his ability to lay bare the true natures of those who surround him. “I see people for what they are. I strip them of everything and see their hollowness. I strip them, and they are relieved of the burden of colour and disguise.” Hage writes his tale in short, declarative sentences, capturing the despondency of a life of potential trapped in a world as similarly rigid in its caste structure as the land that he left.

The narrator grimly acknowledges himself and his acquaintances as “the scum of the earth in this capitalist endeavour,” and it becomes readily apparent that Hage did not have to trek too far to revisit the themes of isolation and pain that suffused the pages of Di Niro’s Game. Like that novel, Cockroach occasionally betrays a wicked wit beneath the pathos, manifesting through the narrator’s inserting himself into the lives of those he watches.

“I was part of their TV dinner,” he writes after one young couple watches him as they would watch a reality television show, “I was spinning in a microwave, stripped of my plastic cover, eaten, and defecated the next morning just as the filtered coffee was brewing in the kitchen and the radio was prophesying the weather, telling them what to wear, what to buy, what to say, whom to watch, and whom to like and hate.” Despite its many admirable qualities, Cockroach is not flawless. There is an abrupt switch at the halfway point as a more formalized plot begins to force its way onto the page. The ending, involving a weirdly-played subplot of a mysterious figure who draws the attention of the narrator’s friends, feels rushed and incomplete. Cockroach is also, like its hero, a supremely frustrating creature, alternately fascinating and confused. By the finale, the skill of Hage is readily apparent, but there is a maddening sense of incompleteness to the whole of the novel, an impression exemplified by the narrator’s frequent digressions that entertain and provoke but don’t linger in the mind, a dilemma De Niro’s Game so effortlessly avoided.

Nevertheless, Cockroach reveals Hage to be no mere fluke, but a fearless talent with his best years ahead. Regardless of its shortcomings, Cockroach exposes a world so otherworldly to most Canadians as to be near-unimaginable, and reveals an author on the cusp of greatness. Less of what I liked so much about his first in the way of sweeping, poetic language to describe a world of hallucinogenic brutality, and more focused on an internal world of delusion, trauma and sadness. The central character here is a soul in great pain, but the first two-thirds of the novel don't plumb those depths except by inference. The superficiality of the court-assigned psychotherapist's intervention compared to the gradual revelation of what caused the 'cockroach's' flight Disturbing.

Less of what I liked so much about his first in the way of sweeping, poetic language to describe a world of hallucinogenic brutality, and more focused on an internal world of delusion, trauma and sadness. The central character here is a soul in great pain, but the first two-thirds of the novel don't plumb those depths except by inference. The superficiality of the court-assigned psychotherapist's intervention compared to the gradual revelation of what caused the 'cockroach's' flight and descent into crime and mental breakdown is the framework for the central dramatic tension, and I thought very effective. But it takes a while to unfold and Hage's style I found here to be almost too complex for telling a personal story (compared to providing overall atmosphere/scene-setting, as in ). This is a tough read, very intense and immersive, and there's not a lot of relief. Actually, there's no relief.

Given the story it tells, this is probably exactly as it should be. Cockroach is an engaging character: thief, suicidal, obsessed with the underbelly of life, hating his new homeland and the people who live in it (why did he come, I wanted to ask), supposedly illiterate but wonderfully articulate and poetic, especially when he runs off into stream-of-consciousness ramblings on the state of his mind and of the nation. There is also a trend in writing, which I recently tried to address in a blog article, and I call it 'let-it-all-hang-out writing,' which Hage seems Cockroach is an engaging character: thief, suicidal, obsessed with the underbelly of life, hating his new homeland and the people who live in it (why did he come, I wanted to ask), supposedly illiterate but wonderfully articulate and poetic, especially when he runs off into stream-of-consciousness ramblings on the state of his mind and of the nation. There is also a trend in writing, which I recently tried to address in a blog article, and I call it 'let-it-all-hang-out writing,' which Hage seems to capture extremely well. I don't necessarily agree that this level of detail on the human condition is required in literature. But when a narrator talks about 'not washing his hands after pissing, extracting sweet nectar from between women’s legs, examining used condoms, and eating shit' I think we are in the zone of 'extreme shock value.' It's as if the writer has no confidence in using less graphic prose to draw his reader in.

Then there is another form of writing that frankly irritates me: the lack of punctuation and quotation marks. I know that we are in an age of experimenting with various new writing forms and older practices are being dropped - all part of continuous improvement - but when there is a story within a story and both narrators are 'I,' for instance, the lack of quotation marks can be quite misleading, and it happens quite frequently in this novel.

I think punctuation and quotes were invented to overcome the shortcomings in straight prose and to discard them arbitrarily shows a lack of respect for those 'who have gone before.' As for the plot, in this novel, it seems to develop midway.

What was initially a character story about the aimless ramblings of our Cockroach, becomes a crime/espionage story in the end, as if an editor said, 'this is not good enough, brother - kick up the action' and our unwilling author, not wanting to screw up his sophomore novel, complied half-heartedly. For all the graphic descriptions in the first two-thirds of the novel, the ending was minimalist and disappointing. Despite all these shortcomings, Hage opened me to the inner lives of Iranian and Middle-Eastern immigrant groups operating on the fringes of Montreal society.

One wonders whether these immigrants were better off in their homelands, despite the threat of physical torture and incarceration they faced there. In their new homeland in Canada, they are eternally condemned to marginalized lives, poverty, identity-crisis, the bitter cold of winter (a form of torture to those improperly clad and from warmer countries - Cockroach is jubilant when he steals a pair of boots that finally warms his feet from the cold), and hope that can only to be found in the underground, into which our resilient Cockroach finally descends. They are also not absolved from the proverbial bullet that they dodged for so long in order to get to our perceived 'safe shores.' Yes, I completed the book yesterday afternoon and attended the discussion at the library last night. We had a good turnout there, more than expected, the weather being cold and wet. Feelings on the book were mixed, not so much around the table, but within ourselves as individual members. We all agreed on it being a good book, in that the author's characters, including the protag were exasperating people.

And nobody can figure out what his name is - feels sorry for himself due to his 'p Yes, I completed the book yesterday afternoon and attended the discussion at the library last night. We had a good turnout there, more than expected, the weather being cold and wet. Feelings on the book were mixed, not so much around the table, but within ourselves as individual members. We all agreed on it being a good book, in that the author's characters, including the protag were exasperating people. And nobody can figure out what his name is - feels sorry for himself due to his 'poorness'.

Some agreed with me that there are people worse off than him. He's an immigrant, albiet a seven-year resident in Montreal, who is having problems adjusting. He seems to expect the world owes him a living, and a mighty fine one at that. He has mental problems; that's a given - he thinks he's part cockroach!

And he's cold, lonely, even though he does have a handful of friends who infuriate him when he cannot easily manipulate them into doing his bidding. There's a therapist - Genevieve - who is typical of the complacent social worker who becomes totally exasperated with the young man when he admits to his wrongdoings, his seeming to think his poorness and other people's apparent abundance fully justifies his penchant for break-in and theft. The story ends in a bizarre act of violence that does not ring true to anyone's mind.

Yet when you really think about it, it's entirely possible. I recommend this read, as well as the author's other novel, De Niro's Game. You may not like the book simply because of the characters who seem to have few redeeming qualities. But I have often maintained that if an author can make you dislike and sometimes even hate his characters with a passion, then that writer has done his/her job. Turn the pages of this book and you will see. What a fresh approach to dealing with issues of exile. I had begun to despair that Arab writers could do it, could write novels that could be taken seriously aesthetically and also pay homage to the issues-political and social- that must dominate the psyche of all Arabs.

What was impressive was how effortlessly the writer moved from West to East, from describing the banal, self-absorbed existence of people in the West to describing the hysterical, emotionally-loaded and usually desperate realiti What a fresh approach to dealing with issues of exile. I had begun to despair that Arab writers could do it, could write novels that could be taken seriously aesthetically and also pay homage to the issues-political and social- that must dominate the psyche of all Arabs. What was impressive was how effortlessly the writer moved from West to East, from describing the banal, self-absorbed existence of people in the West to describing the hysterical, emotionally-loaded and usually desperate realities of the East. It was interesting here to see a Lebanese writer not obsessed with writing about the Lebanese in the West (narrator excluded), but focusing mainly on other immigrant communities- Algerian and mainly Iranian. Lebanon is never named in the novel, although there are enough clues provided to warrant the conclusion that the narrator must be from civil-war Lebanon. Most Lebanese writers are obsessed with their Lebaneseness.

It is refershing to see Rawi Hage able to wrangle himself from it all and locate his issues in the wider socio-political realities of all exiles leaving their dangerous shores only to descend into a cold, vast landmark-less land that freezes everything except their memories. Dark, cold, unsettling, and yet familiar; the half-cockroach narrator of the book feels real. He is haunted by his past though he does not admit it.

He reveals his story through conversations with a therapist. He stalks and steals and hallucinates, and drags the reader with himself the entire time.

I enjoyed the passages where he talks about his cockroach side, especially where he followed a couple, entered their house and then inside their dreams. I don't think this book has any resemblance with Dark, cold, unsettling, and yet familiar; the half-cockroach narrator of the book feels real.

He is haunted by his past though he does not admit it. He reveals his story through conversations with a therapist. He stalks and steals and hallucinates, and drags the reader with himself the entire time. I enjoyed the passages where he talks about his cockroach side, especially where he followed a couple, entered their house and then inside their dreams. I don't think this book has any resemblance with Kafka's Metamorphosis, expect for a symbolic insect featured in the two stories maybe. The contemporary Montreal winter here is cold and harsh, but nothing like a maze in a world by Kafka.

I strongly recommend this book and look forward to reading other works by Rawi Have. A couple of details here, like the main character being a Lebanese immigrant in Montreal and have gone through traumatized past of civil war and domestic violence, reminded me of my favourite Denis Villeneuve film “Incendies”. Needless to say, the common grounds are approached entirely different by both creators. While the film director’s efforts are concentrated almost entirely in retrospectively exposing the past of his character and involving the viewer more into the regional conflict, Rawi H A couple of details here, like the main character being a Lebanese immigrant in Montreal and have gone through traumatized past of civil war and domestic violence, reminded me of my favourite Denis Villeneuve film “Incendies”. Needless to say, the common grounds are approached entirely different by both creators. While the film director’s efforts are concentrated almost entirely in retrospectively exposing the past of his character and involving the viewer more into the regional conflict, Rawi Hage positions his cockroach wannabe hero in a cold white winter in Canada and focuses on the messed up mental adventures he experiences in the present. Hage is a master of metaphor, his writing is addictive and expressive.

His character is extravagant, bright and quite insightful man living on social assistance, whose unsuccessful suicide attempt leads us to enter and explore his wounded psyche through his eccentric thoughts. Surviving on weekly routines of breaking people’s homes to thieve food and secrets, occasionally bussing tables and visiting his state appointed therapist, the cockroach doesn’t follow any particular direction in life. Only until he meet the Iranian woman he madly falls in love with and figures out his insect skills might find their purpose. This novel is well worth the read. This novel feels true. It happens in my city but it is not of my culture, and yet the author put me right in there, experiencing the struggle to survive. I felt the empty belly of having no food, no money and nowhere to turn when you are hungry and cold.

I felt the total alienation from the mainstream, the hierarchy within the immigrant community, the weight of emotional baggage that an immigrant may bring with him. Canada, land of welcoming arms and opportunity? Maybe if you come with This novel feels true. It happens in my city but it is not of my culture, and yet the author put me right in there, experiencing the struggle to survive. I felt the empty belly of having no food, no money and nowhere to turn when you are hungry and cold. I felt the total alienation from the mainstream, the hierarchy within the immigrant community, the weight of emotional baggage that an immigrant may bring with him. Canada, land of welcoming arms and opportunity?

Maybe if you come with money and position. Calling himself cockroach is like calling oneself 'loser' or 'a-hole', a coping mechanism that seems to serve him well. He despises the cockroaches he lives with while admiring their ability to survive anything except the bottom of his shoe. No matter how many he manages to kill, there are always plenty more. Even when he doesn't see them, they are there, hiding in the dark just waiting to come out from the cracks.

What I read was a story of someone who is angry, disillusioned, marginalized, scraping by on wits and putting no value on his life. He takes beauty or pleasure in any moment that offers itself, without scruples. But somehow it is not all bleak. I can't explain why. It is just a snapshot of someone's reality. I had a hard time reading the first half, wondering if I would finish it. For the second half I was really into it and it was all making sense and being real.

September 2014, I add the following after listening to an audio version of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The Metamorphosis deepened my understanding of Cockroach. I picked up on elements that were not immediately obvious to me. Hage's writing never fails to seduce. His protagonist is not particularly appealing in the usual way, but I began to care for him even as he stumbles through life, seemingly unable to have normal relationships with those around him. Much of the novel takes place in a Montreal winter and our immigrant cockroach avoids the sun, stumbles along the frigid streets, bumming cigarettes and food, and stealing. He is (I believe) unnamed in the novel.

So why did I care? Because there is some damaged core to Hage's writing never fails to seduce. His protagonist is not particularly appealing in the usual way, but I began to care for him even as he stumbles through life, seemingly unable to have normal relationships with those around him. Much of the novel takes place in a Montreal winter and our immigrant cockroach avoids the sun, stumbles along the frigid streets, bumming cigarettes and food, and stealing. He is (I believe) unnamed in the novel. So why did I care?

Because there is some damaged core to this character. A childhood of violence and hunger in his homeland.

A suicide attempt for which he is receiving free psychiatric out-patient care. Cockroach expresses his love for those around him in sometimes (very) inappropriate ways, yet we understand him, and want the best for him. This is not a pretty story. But it is reality for those who live on the margins.

Hage has captured these lives in previous novels and hits it out of the park with this one. First, you will care about Cockroach (in truth, no name is given, but he sometimes envisions himself as a cockroach), despite his B & E, his theft, and his less than attractive habits. This is a story of emigres in Montreal. One of the cover blurbs refers to the tale as a 'hypnotic journey, taking us to the dark and mad underside of exile.' Another refers to this as a 'Dostoevskian fable, which lowers the reader into the sewers of immigrant Montreal to confront an underground world teeming w First, you will care about Cockroach (in truth, no name is given, but he sometimes envisions himself as a cockroach), despite his B & E, his theft, and his less than attractive habits.

This is a story of emigres in Montreal. One of the cover blurbs refers to the tale as a 'hypnotic journey, taking us to the dark and mad underside of exile.' Another refers to this as a 'Dostoevskian fable, which lowers the reader into the sewers of immigrant Montreal to confront an underground world teeming with sex, crime, and greedy insectoid life.' I certainly can't say it better than these folks did. I don't recall the narrator's (Cockroach's) origin ever being specified, though he hangs with Iranian emigres; the author hails from Beirut, emigrated to Canada, and lives in Montreal, if that's any help. Hage presents a powerful story. He is also one hell of a writer.

This is dark and disturbing; it grabs you by the throat from the beginning and does not let go. There is a lot packed into this book. It is hard to separate my feelings for the main character and my feelings for the book. The book is at its core about a marginalized immigrant who has a failed suicide attempt, and his interactions with the few other human beings in his life.

I found the books comments on society's and other people's views of the main character more interesting than his own thoughts. He is someone who is marginalized by society, and one of those whom many would not even noti There is a lot packed into this book. It is hard to separate my feelings for the main character and my feelings for the book. The book is at its core about a marginalized immigrant who has a failed suicide attempt, and his interactions with the few other human beings in his life.

I found the books comments on society's and other people's views of the main character more interesting than his own thoughts. He is someone who is marginalized by society, and one of those whom many would not even notice, or if they did, they would avoid. The therapist employed to help him, is woefully unequipped to understand where he is coming from and the day to day realities he is facing. The book does a great job of bringing the reader along for a walk in the main characters shoes. Although he is not a likeable character, I hope everyone who reads this book, will take at least a few more minutes when they encounter struggling and marginalized people in their life.

Rawi Hage’s second novel “Cockroach” is an absorbing story, told through the eyes of Lebanese immigrant living in Montreal. The unnamed narrator (fittingly unnamed as one would not name a cockroach) is the anti-hero of this tale of survival without hope, which takes place during a extremely harsh winter in Montreal, a city known more for beauty than the lowlife activity which occurs in this story. The narrator associates himself with cockroaches, an association that started with an innocent earl Rawi Hage’s second novel “Cockroach” is an absorbing story, told through the eyes of Lebanese immigrant living in Montreal. The unnamed narrator (fittingly unnamed as one would not name a cockroach) is the anti-hero of this tale of survival without hope, which takes place during a extremely harsh winter in Montreal, a city known more for beauty than the lowlife activity which occurs in this story.

The narrator associates himself with cockroaches, an association that started with an innocent early childhood memory of playing with his sister, but that self-image evolves from that point to fit his current life and environment. There appears to be no escape from this frozen prison, as even his attempt at suicide fails to release him from his circumstances, though he doesn’t appear to even consider escape as a goal. Like a roach, the narrator scavenges for food, can find his way into anyplace (which makes him successful in stealing), and is looked down upon with disgust by most of the other characters in the book. Those feelings are returned by him to almost all the other characters, with the exception of Shohreh, an Iranian immigrant whom he his in love with. Other than her, he uses and abuses others for his own purposes. He has no use for the other emigrants, especially those who try to elevate themselves, nor does he have any liking for those Canadians who like to pretend to appreciate the culture that the immigrants have brought with them, but who distance themselves when they find some other area of interest.

The story is told through the eyes and the stories of the narrator, often going back to talk about his past in Lebanon. He shares with Shohreh horror stories from their lives in their home countries, and they both have to deal with horrible people from their past who have come over to Canada and still lead lives of privilege, looking down on the lower members of where they have come from. It is this shared circumstance, and his love for Shohreh that leads to his only act which is not just in his self-interest.

This is not a book which ordinarily would catch my interest, but I am glad I read it. It is dark and course, and probably not everyone’s ideal read, but I found it difficult to put down and the characters to be interesting, even if it is difficult to like them. I would definitely recommend this, and would like to read Hage’s first book. Rawi Hage has said that he writes without a plan.

He's not one for detailed outlines; instead, he writes himself into a situation and then turns around and writes his way back out of it. And this approach is evident in his novels. De Niro's Game was a two-part novel in three parts: Hage seemed not to notice that he had already reached a plausible conclusion, and tacked on a contrived plot to bring things to a close. And it felt contrived, improbable, implausible, as we went from being just some k Rawi Hage has said that he writes without a plan.

He's not one for detailed outlines; instead, he writes himself into a situation and then turns around and writes his way back out of it. And this approach is evident in his novels. De Niro's Game was a two-part novel in three parts: Hage seemed not to notice that he had already reached a plausible conclusion, and tacked on a contrived plot to bring things to a close. And it felt contrived, improbable, implausible, as we went from being just some kid getting by in the violent streets of civil-war Beirut to dealing with Mossad agents in Paris.

Hage has the same problem here. Having evoked a wonderful character who is simply struggling to get from one day to the next as an unemployed (or barely employed) immigrant in the dead of a Montreal winter, he runs out of ideas and moves us into a revenge plot with diplomats and bodyguards and former torturers. It's all rather improbable; if this were the immigrant experience in Canada, we'd all be stepping over bodies in the streets. (Equally improbable is the sexual prowess of Hage's characters; no matter how old and crusty their socks, no matter how unwashed they may be, Hage's protagonists never find difficulty in seducing women.

But I digress.) But. Hage is nonetheless an impressive writer, an original voice with a sharp, observant eye. In Cockroach, he reigns in the worst excesses of his style -- a tendency to unleash torrents of cascading images that overwhelm the page -- and writes in a more restrained, mature way. It's as if, with the first novel out of the way, he no longer feels the need to pull out all the stops, and Cockroach is a consistently better-written book than De Niro's Game. Whatever the flaws of Hage's plotting, anything he writes remains worth reading.

This is a book about justice or perhaps revenge, though you wouldn't think so from the start. At first I wasn't sure what to think about the novel and I didn't like it at first. From the book jacket it sounded like a story about a weird loner, but that isn't what the narrator is at all, well, at least not in the way I was hoping for. The first third of the book was depressing, bleak, and seems to go nowhere, but the author has this way of drawing you into the narrator's life, making you want to This is a book about justice or perhaps revenge, though you wouldn't think so from the start.

At first I wasn't sure what to think about the novel and I didn't like it at first. From the book jacket it sounded like a story about a weird loner, but that isn't what the narrator is at all, well, at least not in the way I was hoping for. The first third of the book was depressing, bleak, and seems to go nowhere, but the author has this way of drawing you into the narrator's life, making you want to see what he's going to do next. The narrator is interesting, because he's definitely mentally deranged, definitely a petty criminal, but he isn't dangerous and there is something compelling about his views, warped as they are.

And then the book gets serious and political. And it starts addressing the concept of justice and revenge and justification for violence. The story is told in a great way, because the narrator doesn't explain a lot about his past and why he has mental issues, but he explains it to his therapist, so we get his experiences, but we don't know whether they are true or not, which coincides with the sociopolitical aspect of the story. The reader is left to make their own conclusions about the narrator and the concept of justice. Overall, a good book. I'd like to give it a 3.5/5.

Just to qualify, there was a time part way through the book that I thought I didn't want to invest any more of my time reading it. But, I persisted, mainly because it was one of the Canada Reads picks for 2014. My preconception of the book was that the character would be identifiable in the 'there but for the grace of God go I' and I could gain empathy for the refugee/immigrant plight.

How narrow minded and naive of me. The book was unsettling and yet by the end I could appreciate how very well Just to qualify, there was a time part way through the book that I thought I didn't want to invest any more of my time reading it. But, I persisted, mainly because it was one of the Canada Reads picks for 2014. My preconception of the book was that the character would be identifiable in the 'there but for the grace of God go I' and I could gain empathy for the refugee/immigrant plight. How narrow minded and naive of me. The book was unsettling and yet by the end I could appreciate how very well crafted it was. Very well crafted indeed.

The protagonist was a product of his situational circumstances but also his biological circumstances. This is a story as much about mental illness (environmental and biological causes) as it is about 'a survival existence' in a foreign environment.

The author wrote with an authentic voice. A male writing about a male, someone familiar with living it the setting and an immigrant perspective.

I appreciated how he depicted the various characters and feel he did so very very well. They weren't 'cookie cutouts', they were diverse but not at all difficult to keep track of. By the final quarter of the book my rating moved from barely a 2 star to 3 stars. There's a cool interesting story in Rawi Hage's Cockroach. His underlining premise in regards to immigration and the starting over of uprooted displaced people.

Of what someone fleeing political persecution, or those that grew up in an urban wartime battlefield bring with them to the new country. How being ill prepared to exist, emotionally damaged, as well as being unwanted in this alien environment could possibly raise comparison to common household bugs that people tend to dislike, yet somewh There's a cool interesting story in Rawi Hage's Cockroach. His underlining premise in regards to immigration and the starting over of uprooted displaced people. Of what someone fleeing political persecution, or those that grew up in an urban wartime battlefield bring with them to the new country. How being ill prepared to exist, emotionally damaged, as well as being unwanted in this alien environment could possibly raise comparison to common household bugs that people tend to dislike, yet somewhat tolerate, and absentmindedly kill. Like the cockroach, which is everywhere.

There is nothing anyone can do, but they don't have to like it. So instead they're ignored, becoming almost invisible – even to themselves. I understand Hage's analogy, I mean who wouldn't, but I found it got in the way. He has great insight into the subject matter – yet constantly relying on his protagonist's mental metamorphous into a cockroach felt like overkill. Yes, he is nothing, less than a bug and people do not see him as a human – as I said I got the point.

But I found it annoying and skipped ahead whenever it happened. The rest of the book was amazing, as Hage's writing is beautiful, and that for me would have been enough. The author definitely has a good grasp of language and is quite skilled with the art of description, but I found the story to be extremely fractured and choppy. I had a hard time finding any kind of sequential order to the plot. Perhaps this is what the author intended in order to illustrate the mental state of the unnamed main character, who was in therapy for a suicide attempt that was triggered by what, surely must have been either PTSD, from his years in war-torn Iran, or by his struggle wit The author definitely has a good grasp of language and is quite skilled with the art of description, but I found the story to be extremely fractured and choppy. I had a hard time finding any kind of sequential order to the plot.

Perhaps this is what the author intended in order to illustrate the mental state of the unnamed main character, who was in therapy for a suicide attempt that was triggered by what, surely must have been either PTSD, from his years in war-torn Iran, or by his struggle with sociopathy. His existence, at present, is a struggle in which he sees himself as vermin, crawling through life's alleyways and sewers, gaining access to the lives of whomever he sees as a threat or as superior in any way, which isn't hard to be, if he is a lowly cockroach. The rambling text and fragmented story finally comes to a weak climax in the final three or four pages and leaves no room for any kind of denouement, blessedly.

On the whole, I found this novel to be odd, dark and unsatisfying. 'You know, we come to these countries for refuge and to find better lives, but it is these countries that made us leave our homes in the first place. These countries we live in talk about democracy but they do not want democracy. They only want dictators.

It is easier for them to deal with dictators than to have democracy in the countries we came from. I fought for democracy. I was tortured for democracy.' This passage stands out the most for me. This book is a powerful look into the life of a 'You know, we come to these countries for refuge and to find better lives, but it is these countries that made us leave our homes in the first place. These countries we live in talk about democracy but they do not want democracy. They only want dictators.

It is easier for them to deal with dictators than to have democracy in the countries we came from. I fought for democracy. I was tortured for democracy.' This passage stands out the most for me. This book is a powerful look into the life of a refugee in Canada.

Salame Ishq Meri Jaan Mp3 Free Download Songspk. The cab driver who was tortured for fighting for democracy, the waitress who was brutally raped every day for years in jail, while her torturer now has diplomatic immunity in Canada, the bus boy with PTSD over the death of his sister. All of these people are displaced and trying to come to terms with living in a new country with a new language and unspoken codes of conduct. I do wish that the author had spent more time development some of these characters but overall this book showed me a glimpse into the struggle of immigrants in Canada. A really enjoyable, snarky-but-not-misanthropic satire of multiculturalism and poverty in montreal.

The rambling narrative follows a troubled, brutally honest, occasionally hilarious arab immigrant who has recently attempted suicide. We watch him as he attends therapy sessions, strong-arms his friends out of money, washes dishes, breaks into multiple apartments and eventually falls in love. For its first two thirds, cockroach maintains two contradictory accomplishments - in one sense, it's an ex a really enjoyable, snarky-but-not-misanthropic satire of multiculturalism and poverty in montreal. The rambling narrative follows a troubled, brutally honest, occasionally hilarious arab immigrant who has recently attempted suicide. We watch him as he attends therapy sessions, strong-arms his friends out of money, washes dishes, breaks into multiple apartments and eventually falls in love.

For its first two thirds, cockroach maintains two contradictory accomplishments - in one sense, it's an experimental interior monologue that never grows tiresome, in another it's a page-turner. The 'page-turner' sensibility wins out in the final act, which involves a tragedy that i found out-of-sync with the intimate realism that precedes it. Otherwise, this is an intriguing portrait of a city and the interesting people who have been pushed to its peripheries due to race, ethnicity or simply circumstance. Following an impoverished Lebanese immigrant in frigid Montreal, Rawi Hage's 'Cockroach' is a grim story of survival, trauma, and life underground. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The narrator is a suicidal thief who fantasizes and halluncinates that he is a cockroach.

The bleak writing is effectively dirty and unsettling, but the plot's payoffs don't appear until far too late in the novel for them to hold my attention. The objective of 'Cockroach' is clearly not to entertain, but co Following an impoverished Lebanese immigrant in frigid Montreal, Rawi Hage's 'Cockroach' is a grim story of survival, trauma, and life underground. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The narrator is a suicidal thief who fantasizes and halluncinates that he is a cockroach. The bleak writing is effectively dirty and unsettling, but the plot's payoffs don't appear until far too late in the novel for them to hold my attention. The objective of 'Cockroach' is clearly not to entertain, but considering the lack of tolerance I have for a lecherous and manipulative man's POV, I wished I was reading something else from practically the first page. If you have the patience for descriptions of what every female character's ass is doing at all times, then maybe you'll have more luck with this than I did.

“I waited, hesitant to go out into the cold again. It was one of those days that have no mercy on your toes, that are oblivious to the suffering of your ears, that are mean and determined to take a chunk of your nose. It was a day to remind you that you can shiver all you want, sniff all you want, the universe is still oblivious. And if you ask why the inhumane temperature, the universe will answer you with tight lips and a cold tone and tell you to go back where you came from if you do not like it here.” —.

2016 Words Jul 9th, 2013 9 Pages Al-Hakim’s Fate of a Cockroach was first published in 1966. In my opinion, al-Hakim asserts that man has no control over his own fate as the central theme of his play. The belief that one can control his or her fate consequently leads to an obsession with attaining knowledge and power. Through his male characters, Al-Hakim intended to describe the nature of man as presumptuous, self-centered and obsessed with scientific pursuits. Alternatively, the women in his play closely epitomize the humbling phenomena of nature.

Within the play, the Queen cockroach and Samia are characterized as ego effacing in events of their husband’s self-aggrandizement. Similarly, we are all confronted with our insignificance in the world when the powerful hand of. Though seen as inferior to cockroaches, as stated by the Savant because they are solely concerned with acquiring food, the ants pose the greatest threat to the existence of the cockroach. When a cockroach slips onto it’s back, the ants immediately attack and carry it away to be stored for food.

I find this to be ironic because even though the ants are seen as insignificant in the cockroaches’ world, they prove to be integral components in deciding the fate of the cockroach. After the Minister announces the death of his son, it is the Queen who asserts that a solution to the problem of the ants must be pursued and the King who says that no solution exists. Again the King’s significance is undermined as he cannot rise to this challenging occasion or “fulfill [his] official functions”(pg.8). As exemplified throughout the play by the cockroaches, an air of superiority keeps them from adapting the ways of the ‘inferior’ ants and, in turn, possibly finding a solution to their problem. In a moment of clarity, a suggestion is made by the Minister, “Armies.

[The ants] attack us with huge armies. Now if were able to mobilize ourselves and assemble in great numbers we’d find it easy to attack them, to scatter and to crush them under our great feet.”(pg.9) Immediately the King applies his ‘authority’ and rebukes the Minister’s notion, cutting him down because it is a “stupid” idea; in the “long history” of. 3973 Words 20 Pages non-reality of the atmosphere in this Theatre of the Absurd style involving extensive passages of non-communication between husband and wife.

El-Hakim continued to write plays during the 1960s, among the most popular of which were Masir Sorsar (The Fate of a Cockroach, 1966) and Bank el-Qalaq (Anxiety Bank, 1967). Influence and Impact on Arabic Literature Tawfiq el-Hakim is one of the major pioneer figures in modern Arabic literature. In the particular realm of theatre, he fulfils an overarching role as the. 1670 Words 8 Pages Doctor Faustus in Shakespeare’s and Marlowe’s plays come from the characters themselves or whether they were following a predetermined fate. In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, each character’s destiny, or fate, seems to be predetermined by the supernatural and unpreventable by any actions meant to stop it from occurring. The concept of fate is a large component in many Aristotelian Tragedies, such as Macbeth.

However, in the tragedy, The Tragicall History of the Life and. 2082 Words 10 Pages Romeo and Juliet, how they met and why, their falling in love and their ultimate sacrifice for each other’s love, their actual lives. Fate has complete control, is a theme that is riddled throughout the text written by Shakespeare. It is essentially pointing out the view that everything we do or will, is at the mercy of fate, and whatever we do to counteract it, fate still holds the final judgement over our lives. This theme is also prevalent in cinematic codes written into both the visual representations. 3196 Words 16 Pages “Kalamansi and Onion Extract as Cockroach Killer“ ‘FIRST FRUITS CHRISTIAN ACADEMY’ Subject English lV Girlie Y.

Quilla Kenneth Gedeon A. Ramada February 2014 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Cockroaches are common pests in the tropics.

They have been known to cause allergic reactions to most people and chew holes on clothes.They have been known to contaminate food at the same time infect It with the bacteria they carry. The bacteria they spread in food can cause food poisoning. 1323 Words 6 Pages Rawi Hage’s Cockroach focuses on an unnamed immigrant of unclear, perhaps Lebanese, origin as he struggles to fit into his new life in Canada. The protagonist throughout the novel struggles to assimilate into Canadian culture, undermining people’s desire for him to integrate through imagining himself as a cockroach that scurries beneath society. By doing this, and through showing memories of his character’s traumatic past, Hage signifies the struggles, which many immigrants from warring countries.

537 Words 3 Pages The American cockroach was introduced to the United States from Africa as early as 1625. They belong to the Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Insecta (Insecta: Blattodea: Blattidae), Order: Dictyoptera, and Family: Blattidae. Its common name is American cockroach and scientific name is Periplaneta Americana (Linnaeus). American cockroaches are normally between one and one and a half inches in length. They are oval shaped and reddish-brow with yellow fringes on the area of the body behind. 1496 Words 7 Pages Character is Fate – Essay “A man’s character is his fate” once said the Greek philosopher Heraclites.

By this he meant that our personalities and actions shape the outcomes of our lives and therefore our destiny. This statement opposes the traditional view that man’s fate is determined by an external force (name it god or even chance). This argument is basically one of faith: do you believe we shape our own futures by how we act, or are our lives programmed in a certain unchangeable way? 963 Words 4 Pages drunk could have just said fate was the real thing because he had a buzz going. Now if fate is actually real, it could be many things.

It would be the food you eat, the playfulness you experience everyday, or the gifts you recieve for Christmas. Fate is the ones you love, what you plan and determine to do with your life, and the idea of TRUE friendship. Fate is what happens to us, what determines your own well being most likely. Death for example is joined with fate. Death happens without notice. 1424 Words 7 Pages “Malunggay Leaves (Moringa Oleifera) and Chili Fruit (Capsicum Frutescens) as Cockroach Killer” A Thesis Presented to 'Teacher' By Daniel February 2014 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Pesticide is a broad term that refers to any device, method, or chemicals that kill plants or animals that compete for humanity’s food supply or are otherwise undesirable.

A pesticide chemical can rarely be used as originally manufactured. The pesticide must be diluted with water, oil, air or chemically inactive. 962 Words 4 Pages This denial would sprout into an utter defiance of fate by Oedipus and the final result would not be in his favour. Wisdom is an attribute that can be utilized in numerous ways.

The most important aspect of the usage of wisdom is whether it benefits or harms the user. During the play a key line is said by the character Tiresias, the local prophet. When called upon by Oedipus, Tiresias states, “Wisdom is a dreadful thing when it brings no profit to its possessor”.

This is a very significant statement.