The two posts of Al-Jamal

Author's name: Salim Barakat Publisher: Al-Jamal Publications for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2017 Literary classification: Biographies and Memoirs Because there is no single meaning of life, but only the subjective meaning of life, the writer of "The Two Lives," the novelist Salim Barakat, presents to us his self-awareness open to his childhood in real spaces he lived in, and a pattern of life was imposed on him, through which he established the spaces of writing later... The writer of "The Two Lives" begins by interpreting the meaning of childhood and its relationship with reality and imagination according to a philosophical artistic vision: "There is no childhood except in forgetfulness, what you declare is a gift of forgetfulness, what is hidden from you is a gift of forgetfulness, what happens to you in the twilight of your early age happens there, far from my hope, and what happens to you in the dusk of your second age happens here, far from certainty..." With this introduction, Salim Barakat expresses a life experience, and a writing experience, especially knowing that "The Two Lives" contains two old texts previously published by the author between 1980 and 1982, during the early stages of his creative journey. These are a collection of two books: the first titled "The Iron Grasshopper," and the second "Shout Loud, and Raise the Alarm to the End." Returning to "The Two Lives," it appears to the reader as the origin of the writer extending from the body of the Syrian eastern geography, where he was born, with detailed depth, to the childhood of the "Kurd," which Barakat built on painful nostalgia wires, surrounded by barbed wires placed by elders in an attempt to escape from them, but through writing... Thus, the narrator of "The Two Lives" recounts his stories in a tender confession, with events rushing and ongoing incidents, and heroes without end. So what next? He asks, "What does the northern 'Kurd' pull out of his bag, and he is exhausted before the eyes of the iron grasshopper?" What is he talking about? About the dog Nosi or the one-legged bird... or about Stefano crossing the road naked, or about Jassouno who was raped by the porters? ... About the dogs with human heads? About the lightning of the North? With this satirical critical style, the author monitors the patterns of human life in his north, and has made his free style the main basis for forming a special literary genre, which imposes defining the identity of the self through writing, a writing that resembles only its creator, who distinguished himself with it and will continue. It can serve as a model for other writers to emulate.