Home is where The hell is. The naming of Writers Unlimited's programme sections leaves little to the imagination. And listening to the opening of this particular section, writer Maaza Mengiste is not one to leave us with pleasant thoughts either. She has plunged literarily into the plight of refugees trying to come west from Ethiopia, and in her descriptions of the hell they have to go through, she goes a bit further than Dave Eggers did in 'What's the What?'.
She shows scenes in which children watch their parents being raped and literally torn apart, and children horribly killed. Whether this bothers her, asks Manon Uphoff, moderator in this meeting with Mengiste, David Grossman and Jennifer Clement. 'At first, yes,' Mengiste explains, 'at first I felt guilty, but when I saw the images of Abu Ghraib, I knew it was my job to show these scenes correctly.' For Mengiste, describing horror is a political statement.
In fact, the same is true of David Grossman. This Israeli writer is controversial in his own country for opposing the fight against the Palestinians. His book is less graphic in its description of violence, but the passage he reads is deeply moving. It is a story in which a little boy, by asking too many questions about the political situation of his homeland, slowly learns about the fear that assails him in his own home.
'An almost cheerful conversation, but with a leaden charge,' sums up Manon Uphoff. 'For me, Israel is still not the home it should be,' Grossman declares. 'Israel will never be our home until the Palestinians have found a place there.'
Why he doesn't leave Israel, Uphoff asks. 'I feel I have been in exile my whole past. I have a huge need for a real home, a solid foundation. And Israel is the place where that can be found. But it's not there yet.'
Even more fear and trembling at home is in Jennifer Clement's work. She reads an excerpt in which a girl is made ugly by her mother for fear of the drug mafia hunting for pretty girls. 'The first time I hear that breaking your children's teeth is described as an act of love,' Manon Uphoff responds. Why such a rock-hard slant, she wants to know from Clement.
For the Mexican-born writer, it is the way to tell how she lost her home.
East, west, hell best. In the work of these three writers, home is considered the most dangerous place in the world. Not nice, we understand by now.
'Home is where your acquaintances are, that's the only reason we want to go there. No matter how big hell is there." Is the concluding text with which moderator Uphoff sends us home. Verily, that will be a pleasant walk.
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