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Lebanese Jabbour Douaihy (1949-2021) gifted his readers with the most human of lessons fromÌýthe Ìýthrough his . Despite his stories being set against a backdrop of violence and conflict, he alwaysÌýsucceeded in extracting what was shared and human, celebrating the values of friendship, love and peace.

Stories woven from Lebanese life

Douaihy's writing is woven from life, harmonising all of the strands and complexities of a country constantly on the brink of explosion. He depicts his characters as though they are about to leave, despite their deepÌýconnection to the place. When they do manage to leave they can't help but return; unable to leave somewhere that reflects their own fragility and need for somebody to stay, support and fight for it.

Maybe it is the place that has passed its sicknesses on to them, or maybe humans are the ones who change their fanaticisms as they move from place to place. His characters are either returning to Lebanon in search of an old inheritanceÌýor bygone days of glory, or they wander between hotels looking for love.

He portrays his characters as wanting deeply to live, but unable to do this in the face of death, theft, crime and sectarian exploitation. Douaihy built his fictional world with delicacy and gentleness, using characters who knew and felt everything happening around them but could not bear to acknowledge it. Then he would unravel their reticence with vivid scenes evoking death, sex and separation.

Despite his stories being set against a backdrop of violence and conflict, he nevertheless succeeded always in extracting what was shared and human, celebrating the values of friendship, love and peace

Themes of identity and fanaticism

His novel Shared Al-ManazelÌý(The Vagrant,Ìý2010) is an allegorical story about the Lebanese civil war. The main character, Nizam, belongs to a different religion than that stated on his ID. Muslim by birth but Christian by baptism, he grows up in the care of a Christian family who showers the Muslim boy with love. When he goes to study in Beirut, his rented apartment is transformed by Douaihy into a laboratory showcasing all the contradictions faced by his generation.

Then war breaks out. Nizam has always worn two chains around his neck: one for his Christian identity and the other for his Muslim roots - in this way Douaihy mocks identities. When Nizam loses his ID papers he feels as though he has been liberated from the falseness of affiliations. However, in breaking free of the bonds of identity in the war he seals his fate – death.

For those who remained in Lebanon, Douaihy implies, it was impossible to ensure their survival ofÌýthe war. Within the unusual situation which he carefully and captivatingly constructs, he portrays a nostalgic vision of Beirut which did not last long before it was engulfed in the furnace of the war. He also points to the human ability to cancel each other out and when Nizam dies, it signals the human susceptibility to yield to hatred and fanaticism.

Family strife against aÌýbackdrop of war

In his novel Ain WardaÌý(2002) Douaihy centres the story around a property dispute between a group of Druze families who are fighting over inheritance rights to a house. On a road sign on the path up to the house is written 'Leads Nowhere'. Douaihy uses this 'Nowhere' which the characters are fighting over as the setting in which to introduce Reza – a strange and solitary character.

What unfolds is an innocent love story thatÌýflourishes through mutual readings of books and intermittent phone calls, before disappearing into the all-consuming darkness of the war. The house, 'Nowhere', which signifies Lebanon, is also the scene of electoral conflicts in which the Arabs are used. We see Reza's motherÌýcontemplating her son,Ìýwho has finally fallen in love withÌýan Arab girl, as sheÌýcontemplates the destruction.

Reza shows how Douaihy uses humans allegorically to reflect the state of place and fate. Douaihy hints more than once that he is writing from experience about placesÌýthe destruction of which he has an intimate knowledge and which he cannot leave.

As for the war, the most profound scene in this novel is when he shows the characters huddled around the radio, eavesdropping on the phone call of theÌýmother pleading with her son to resist death.ÌýIn this way war is present in Douaihy's novels, in the anticipation of those watching it approach, in the anxious expectation which eats away at the characters, rendering them submissive to their fates.

In his novel The King of IndiaÌý(2017), the characters'Ìýconflict is over a piece of land. ZakariaÌýreturns to Lebanon, a country immersedÌýin theÌýfeuds which rage between different sects and families, and ends up dead – possiblyÌýkilled, or perhaps by suicide – Douaihy leaves the readers ignorant as to his exact fate. Douaihy creates charismatic protagonists, which the reader cannot help but love, then kills them, without the love which they attract being able toÌýsaveÌýthem.

In this way war is present in Douaihy's novels, in the anticipation of those watching it approach, in the anxious expectation which eats away at the characters, rendering them submissive to their fates.

Writing grounded in reality andÌýimmersed in history

Douaihy used historical fact as a basis for his novels, like the Christian-Christian fighting that broke out immediately after the electoral tensions of 1957, events around which he wrote June RainÌý(2006) and which he regarded as a warmup to the civil war, which broke out soon afterwards.

However, Douaihy remained a hostage to reality and theÌýendings to his storiesÌýreflect this. He simply tookÌýevents andÌýrevealed them usingÌýthe language of one who had witnessed them bring them into the imaginary fabric of writing. He used simple, unpretentious languageÌýwithout embellishment – his writing is directÌýand intimate.

Douaihy wrote many novels against the backdrop of the war; consideringÌýwriting about it to be a form of retaliation. He also consideredÌýidentity conflict, with its roots inÌýrival groups'Ìýdistrustful view of one another,Ìýas having nourished his writing.

Within what the owner of The American QuarterÌý(2014) calls "the Museum of Fanaticisms"Ìýwe see him preoccupied with an attachment to humans in order to extricate them from the desires of groups which push individuals towards their own destruction to continue the violent spiralÌýof death. Douaihy’s novelistic stance positions him ultimately in opposition to theÌýfate these factional groups are preparing for their children.

Jabbour Douaihy had a BA degree in French Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature. He worked for many years as a professor of French Literature at the Lebanese University and translated a large number of French works into Arabic. He also supervised two 'Horizons'Ìýworkshop sessions on writing novels out of which severalÌýArab names have emerged.

Among his works are Death in the Nu'as FamilyÌý(1990), Autumn EquinoxÌý(1995), Riya Al Nahr'(1998), and Printed in BeirutÌý(2016). He also wrote the children's story Spirit of the ForestÌý(2001) in French. He won a number of prizes, and some of his works have been translated into several languages. His latest novel, Poison in the AirÌýwas published by Dar al SaqiÌýlast June.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article click