Dominique Eddé Livres

The narrative unfolds a passionate yet tragic relationship between Mali and Farid against the backdrop of the decline of Egyptian-Lebanese society from the 1960s to the late '80s. Rich in character and complexity, it explores themes of social conventions, religious divisions, and cultural clichés, highlighting the tensions between East and West. Through a fragmented narrative and multiple voices, the author examines memory, language, and the impact of war, all while vividly portraying the intellectual landscapes of Beirut and urban life in Cairo, Paris, and London.

Now in paperback, The Crime of Jean Genet is a powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another and one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement. Dominique Eddé met novelist and playwright Jean Genet in the 1970s. And she never forgot him. "His presence," she writes, "gave me the sensation of icy fire. Like his words, his gestures were full, calculated and precise. . . . Genet's movements mimicked the movement of time, accumulating rather than passing." This book is Eddé's account of that meeting and its ripples through her years of engaging with Genet's life and work. Rooted in personal reminiscences, it is nonetheless much broader, offering a subtle analysis of Genet's work and teasing out largely unconsidered themes, like the absence of the father, which becomes a metaphor for Genet's perpetual attack on the law. Tying Genet to Dostoevsky through their shared fascination with crime, Eddé helps us more clearly understand Genet's relationship to France and Palestine, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the theater, and even death. A powerful personal account of the influence of one writer on another, The Crime of Jean Genet is also one of the most penetrating explorations yet of Genet's work and achievement.

An intimate account of Edward Saïd's life and thought Edward Said is a personal, literary portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most influential scholars, written by his close friend and confidante. Here, Lebanese novelist and essayist Dominique Eddé offers a fascinating and fresh presentation of his oeuvre from his earliest writings on Joseph Conrad to his most famous texts, Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. Eddé weaves together accounts of the genesis and content of Said’s work, his intellectual development, and her own reflections and personal recollections of their friendship, which began in 1979 and lasted until Said’s death in 2003. In this intimate and searching portrait of Said’s thought, Eddé continues to maintain their dialogue despite his death, trying to make peace with the loss of a collaborator with whom she still wants to talk and disagree. Bringing together personal reflection and theoretical innovation, reflective mourning and immediate argument, Eddé has written a testament to a great intellectual passion. Both specialists of Said’s work and newcomers will find much to learn in this rich portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most important intellectuals.