Fencing with the King by Diana Abu-Jaber

This story is a fictional telling of a family from the middle east, with roots throughout the region. The author starts and ends the book with assurances that the story, while similar to her family’s, is a true fictional tale.

As the story opens, Amani and her father are at an exhibition of falconers for the King of Jordan’s 60^th birthday. Falcons had been used by the Bedouins to hunt as they migrated throughout the middle east. These falcons have become symbols of good luck, excellence and inner strength. They are seen as spiritual messengers, asking you to pay attention to your intuition and focus on what is important.  They remind you to look at things from a different perspective and forgive yourself for your past. Being on the alert for possibilities, to be decisive in decisions and actions, and to adapt to change are especially important to the context of the story. These lead the way into the heart of Amani’s story.

Amani is a woman living in two cultures – America of her birth and upbringing, and Jordan of her ancestry. Her father Gabriel (Gabe) came to America by chance to work with his hands in carpentry and construction, while his brothers stayed in Jordan. His older brother Hafez has become a trusted adviser of the King of Jordan after studying in Syracuse, NY. He has risen in power and is in charge of arranging the King’s 60^th birthday celebrations. He asks his brother Gabe to return to the land of his birth after 40 years to reprise his role as fencing partner to the King. Gabe does not want to return, but his daughter Amani wants to return to learn more about her grandmother, whom she has been told she resembles by all in the family. She persuades him by with a letter she finds from her grandmother.

Amani and Gabe stay at his brother Farouq’s guest home. Her cousin Omar becomes a close confidant. As she searches for answers about her grandmother, you see she is enamoured with Hafez. He and his wife try to take her in hand as if she were their heir. But when Amani begins asking questions, they put her off. Unknown to Amani, Hafez has ulterior motives for asking Gabe to come. Hafez believes that a family heirloom knife that his father gave to Gabe should be his and has asked that it be brought on the trip for him to see it one more time. The more complicated reason is not revealed until later in the story.

As the falcon introduction suggested, Amani comes to accept her past and looks to her own future. She searches for the family’s past, and is able to find joy and forgiveness in doing so. It also brings truth to the family and consequences for the person that started the family down a dark path. 

Throughout this family story are facts about those that settle in Jordan – and what makes a real Jordanian. It outlines the refugees from the Ottoman empire to the present, including the fact that the King was selected by the French. It is with true compassion that these are facts interwoven in the story but not used to accuse anyone person or culture.

This was a truly beautiful book about family, self-awareness, consequences, and forgiveness.