Posted in: Yemen Observer
Written By: Raghda Gamal
Article Date: Dec 27, 2008
In her first collection of stories, Sereen al-Odainy has released a book called Cup of Coffee which comprises about twenty short stories, including romance, comedy, drama, and even tragedy.
The collection of stories carries the same name as the first story in the collection, which is actually unjust to the other stories as the first is a very traditional and predictable story which discusses a flat character meeting his friend or beloved in a cafe after spending a year away. The protagonist describes his feelings and the tension he feels during their reunion.
It appears as though the writer has arranged the stories according to when they were written; perhaps this is why the latter stories are much better than the initial ones.
For instance the 19th story Coming back home is one of the most important and mature stories in the whole collection, and describes a Yemeni emigrant living in Japan who decides to return to his homeland on a visit for three months with his Japanese wife and child. The story uses a lot of Yemeni details in a comedic way, for instance the reactions and the comments that his wife receives when they walk the streets, or his wife’s reactions towards Yemeni eating habits- and finally her amazement at the strange plants Yemenis chew all day.
One of the story’s more memorable sentences is the Japanese wife comment to her husband that one shower per a day is not enough in this country; though one would be interested in knowing how she would react if she knew that there is not enough water in this country for one shower per week! The sentence where he describes how thin his wife has become was also very funny, making for a very amusing final paragraph.
In only seven pages, the writer discusses a lot of important issues in the Yemeni society, unfortunately the rest of the stories in the collection don’t have the same maturity as this, and maybe this is why what shocked the readers most is that the person who wrote this collection is a doctor, not a teenage girl.
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