Al-Mohaimeed, Yousef 1964- (Yousef Mohaimeed, Youssef Moheimeed, Yousef al-Mohaimeed, Youssef al-Muhaymeed)

PERSONAL:

Born January 31, 1964, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Education: Attended King Saud University and Norwich University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Office—P.O. Box 90521, Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, journalist. Al-Jeel magazine, former cultural page editor; Al-Jeel Al-Jadeed, children's magazine, founder; Al-Yamamah magazine, Saudi Arabia, cultural editor.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Award for creative contribution to Arab culture, Diwan al Arab magazine and the Egyptian Journalists Union, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Rajfat athwabihim al beed (short stories; title means "The Movement of Their White Robes"), Shargiyat Publishing House (Cairo, Egypt), 1993.

La budda anna ahadan harraka al kurrasa (short stories; title means "Someone Must Have Moved the Notebook"), Al-Jadeed Publishing House (Beirut, Lebanon), 1996.

Fikhakh al ra'iha, Riyadh Al-Rais Publishing House (Beirut, Lebanon), 2003, translation by Anthony Calderbank published as Wolves of the Crescent Moon: A Novel, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Laghat mawta (novel; title means "The Dead's Gossip"), Al-Jamel Publishing House (Cologne, Germany), 2003.

Al nakhil wa al qirmid: Mushahadat min al Basra ila Norwich (travel; title means "Palms & Brick: From Basra to Norwich"), Arab Studies & Publishing (Beirut, Lebanon), 2004.

Al qarura (novel; title means "The Bottle"), Arabic Cultural Center (Beirut, Lebanon), 2004.

Akhi yufattishuan 'an Rimbaud (short stories; title means "My Brother Is Looking for Rimbaud") Arabic Cultural Center (Beirut, Lebanon), 2005.

Nozhat addolphin (novel; title means "The Dolphin's Excursion"), Riyadh Al-Rais Publishing House (Beirut, Lebanon), 2006.

Also author of short-story collection, Zahira la musha laha (title means "An Afternoon without Pedestrians"), 1989; author of children's stories and a children's play.

SIDELIGHTS:

Saudi author Yousef al-Mohaimeed has written several novels and short-story collections illuminating aspects of life in his native Saudi Arabia. However, because of state censorship, most of his works have been published outside of his native country. His 2003 novel, Fikhakh al ra'iha, the first of his works to be translated into English, was published in 2007 as Wolves of the Crescent Moon: A Novel.

Born in the old Riyadh quarter of Al-Shmaisi in 1964, al-Mohaimeed was the fifth child in the family (seven sisters had come before, but only four had survived). Two other brothers were born to the family after al-Mohaimeed. He suffered numerous sicknesses as a youth, a situation that led to him becoming interested in art and poetry. He at first was attracted to painting, Arabic calligraphy, and photography, but by the time he was a teenager he had turned to writing, publishing stories in local magazines. As a student at the King Saud University he first ran afoul of the government for his part in publishing a student magazine with a poem that called for Muslim women to free themselves from wearing veils. Almost expelled from the university, al-Mohaimeed continued writing short stories, publishing his first collection, Zahira la musha laha ("An Afternoon without Pedestirans"), in 1989. However, as al-Mohaimeed noted on his Web site: "No sooner was it on the market than he received a summons from the Ministry of Information based on a complaint from a well-known religious figure in Al Qasim demanding that the book be withdrawn from the market because it contained immoral stories." Thereafter the author chose to publish his works outside of Saudi Arabia, bringing out several short-story collections. He also became a working journalist, editing a cultural page for a Riyadh magazine as well as founding a magazine for children.

Al-Mohaimeed's first novel, Fikhakh al ra'iha (Wolves of the Crescent Moon), appeared in Arabic in 2003 and was quickly suppressed in Saudi Arabia for its supposedly negative examination of life in that country. Three men, variously injured physically and outcasts in Arabian society, form the core of this short novel. Turad is a Bedouin with a missing ear; Tawfiq is a castrated former slave from Sudan; and Nasir is a one-eyed orphan. When Turad finally leaves a poor-paying job in Riyadh, he sits at a bus station trying to decide where he wants to go. Waiting, he recalls his former coworker, Tawfiq, whose story then is presented. Stolen from his family in Sudan and castrated, he worked as a eunuch until he was too old for such service. The story of Nasir comes to the fore when Turad discovers his discarded official file at the bus station. The child was sexually abused at his orphanage and later was denied his simple dream of serving in the military.

Mostly Fiction contributor Tony Ross described Wolves of the Crescent Moon as a "window into the lives of Saudi Arabia's underclass." Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted the book "beautifully captures the frustrations and resentments of [al-Mohaimeed's] tormented characters." In Library Journal, Andrea Kempf wrote that al-Mohaimeed's "exploration of men who have lost pieces of themselves yet struggle to survive swirls with a richness of language and imagery." Writing in Quarterly Conversation, Scott Esposito pointed out that Wolves of the Crescent Moon "makes no bones about its intent to dissect the nation that produced it." Esposito added, "Shifting its weight nervously between the allegorical and the real, Wolves of the Crescent Moon only seldom finds the balance to stand up solidly and come into its own." Boston Globe contributor Saul Austerlitz found the magical realism employed in the work ineffective; al-Mohaimeed "fiddles with the knobs and presses all the buttons on his new toy, but seems unable to steer the splendid vehicle once driven by [Jorge Luis] Borges and [Gabriel] García Márquez." New York Sun reviewer Benjamin Lytal observed, "In his debut novel, Mr. Al-Mohaimeed has proven that Saudi Arabia is, for the novel, fertile ground." Reviewing the same work in the San Francisco Chronicle, Alan Cheuse termed the novel "a dramatic rendering of culture clash—in particular, of traditional, local Arab culture banging up against modern Western culture," while Arab News reviewer Lisa Kaaki called it an "incisive and touching novel with troubling insights into Saudi society." Harvey Freedenberg commented in BookPage about the author's style: "taut and yet lyrical, evoking the harsh beauty of the desert landscape in spare sentences rich with vivid imagery." Freedenberg further noted, "While his name will be unfamiliar to most American readers, [al-Mohaimeed's] talent deserves serious attention."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, October 15, 2007, Andrea Kempf, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon: A Novel, p. 50.

New York Sun, December 26, 2007, Benjamin Lytal, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Publishers Weekly, September 24, 2007, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon, p. 43.

San Francisco Chronicle, December 12, 2007, Alan Cheuse, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon, p. E2.

ONLINE

Al-Mohaimeed Home Page,http://www.al-mohaimeed.net (October 8, 2008).

Arab News,http://www.arabnews.com/ (August 16, 2007), Lisa Kaaki, "Wolves in the Madding Crowd," review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Banipal,http://www.banipal.co.uk/ (June 29, 2008), Zuzana Kratka, "Three Young Men Take on the Wolves," review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

BookPage,http://bp.booksamillion.com/ (June 29, 2008), Harvey Freedenberg, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Boston Globe,http://www.boston.com/ (February 6, 2008), Saul Austerlitz, "There's Sadness, and Little Magic, in This Tale of Arabian Nights," review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Mostly Fiction,http://www.mostlyfiction.com/ (February 26, 2008), Tony Ross, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

PEN American Center Web site,http://www.pen.org/ (June 29, 2008), "Yousef al-Mohaimeed."

Penguin Group (USA) Web site,http://us.penguingroup.com/ (July 31, 2008), "Penguin Reading Guides: Wolves of the Crescent Moon."

Quarterly Conversation,http://www.quarterlyconversation.com/ (June 29, 2008), Scott Esposito, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Reuters,http://uk.reuters.com/ (August 20, 2007), Andrew Hammond, "Saudi Writer Wins Plaudits with Harsh Bedouin Tale."

San Francisco Bay Guardian,http://www.sfbg.com/ (March 5, 2008), Todd Lavoie, "Yousef Al-Mohaimeed's Storytelling Transcends Bans," review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Three Percent,http://www.rochester.edu/ (June 29, 2008), Chad W. Post, review of Wolves of the Crescent Moon.

Yousef Al-Mohaimeed Home Page,http://al-Mohaimeed.net (June 29, 2008).