A heartfelt, lovely novel. There were moments I was laughing, and moments I was in tears. The author’s descriptive writing style is so powerful and picturesque; the reader is able to experience every moment along with the characters.

Didn't finish

This book gets an extra star (its fourth) for telling a story of a fair, blond iraqi-american woman born and bred in L.A., working an Arab kitchen in Tehrangeles.

There are few, very few, pieces of fiction of second-generation arabs/persians/muslims in the states. (lots of memoir, yes, - and some crap, like roth's lovely little take - but very little fiction) So this gets extra points for filling a deep whole on the shelf. Also gets that extra star for repping us halfies! Another deep hole on my shelf. I'm a fair/blond iranian-american second-genner, and I have *NEVER* seen a story about someone like me in that regard. It was like reading candy and gulping water all at once!

Loses a star because the narrative/writing are a little loose; like reading a good draft that still needs a revision or two and a good editor. Kinda weird cuz it's really good in a lot of respects and then it'll lose its way for a few pages or a paragraph of over-description. But it kept bouncing back, and I kept caring more and more about the characters despite the text's flaws. And it had so much love; so much love for these characters and the community and the depths of the pain of exile and family distance and war and horrible geographies. It was all there, with love and a healing touch. So thank you Diana Abu-Jaber, I'll have to check out your earlier novel "Arabian Jazz".

(because of the loose writing, folks who don't have a topical interest may lose interest reading this one. but if you have an interest it'll probably keep you going, like me)

Medley story, centering around Sirine and Hanif— one an Iraqi-Am, the other an exile of Iraq itself.

Set in Westwood CA, where I’ve walked a million times in Little Tehran bc that’s where some kin live. Exciting to see the Village highlighted, etc

I wasn’t enthralled by the way the plot went—-the Aziz byline— Nathan.. meh. And the ending—- as exciting as the last 5% of the book, wasn’t a fan of Abu-Jaber’s plan.

Love all the cooking food bits!

Reading books that share food always makes me hungry for that type of food! Well written, almost poetic at times and the characters seem so real. I usually enjoy this author’s books.

This has been on my shelf for YEARS, but I've never gotten around to reading it. Because April is Arab American History Month it was available for free from my library as an audiobook. It is a lovely story set in the warm kitchen of a sweet Iraqi/Middle Eastern restaurant at the heart of a community. You can smell the saffron rice and the various foods as they are described. Definitely a good read for those who love a kitchen setting or a sweet love story.

A forty-year old chef, half American-half Iraqi falls in love with an Iraqi-exiled professor. The book is set in the Arab-American community in Los Angeles, and dances around some very complex family dynamics, love, and Arab culture. I found the book to be very slow at times, but liked the focus on Arab food/recipes and the differences highlighted among various Arab cultures. Chef Sirine and Professor Hanif made some poor decisions. Also, I found the Arab fable at the beginning of each chapter to be more annoying than interesting despite its mysticism.

I preferred Pauls Toutonghi's Evil Knievel Days, which had similar themes.

Favorite irreverent quote: In reality, dogs are only reincarnated monks who didn't say their prayers right."

Argh this book was SO bad I don't even know where to start....In a word, this book is glib. It talks and talks and talks and says NOTHING.

Okay let's start with the main character: Sirine. Somehow she's supposed to be the heroine of the story, but she doesn't do anything. Like, quite literally, she does NOTHING in this book. I don't know what she contributes to the plot (not that there's much of that either). She cooks a bunch, that she does. But she never has anything interesting to say, or even think. And men seem to fall for her, for mysterious reasons that Diana Abu-Jaber doesn't share with her readers. There is absolutely ZERO substance to Sirine. There is not an iota of information in the book that actually gives her some personality (minus the constant references to her hair). The synopsis on the book cover says that Sirine "finds herself questioning...her own torn identity as an Arab-American" - but there is no torn identity in this book. Sirine doesn't speak Arabic, and doesn't give off any airs that she wishes she had learned. She has no desire to travel beyond her small neighbourhood, let alone another country - even one that might help this so-called "torn identity" Abu-Jaber claims her main character suffers from.

We barely even get a physical description of Sirine, beyond "skin so pale is has the bluish cast of skim milk...wild blond head of hair...sea-green eyes." We don't know how tall she is, her body build, nothing descriptive. Not that this is necessary, but it just illustrates how little we know about the protagonist. (But we do know she keeps a spare swimsuit in the trunk of her car...just in case?! Wtf...)

Then there's this silly character, Nathan. He's some kind of photographer who is obsessed with Sirine's boyfriend, Hanif. He's been to the middle East so he possesses a deep knowledge of the world which he carries on his shoulders. I knew SO early on in the book that Nathan's Iraqi love would be Hanif's sister, it was almost painful. Gah, so obvious. Then theres the fact that he's a creepy stalker who follows Sirine around and takes pictures of her with men. And he lives in a derelict "shack"...I mean...seriously?!

And of course we have Hanif, who is supposed to be this kind of demi-god, all "chocolate voice" and "cocoa skin" and "nutmeg scent" and of course there are strands of hair always falling over his forehead. And of course he's broken and wounded inside and can't fully show himself to Sirine. He at least has slightly more substance, and the love for the country that he's been torn away from is actually quite touching!

Moving on, there's Rana - the silliest character in this ridiculous novel. She's an American-Saudi woman who is a student in Hanif's class and who Sirine's thinks is in love with Han. Of course Rana is also unbelievably gorgeous and smart and young. She really serves no purpose except to provoke feelings of unease in Sirine. She invites Sirine to a Women for Islam meeting, which Sirine attends, but then that little plotline fizzles out quicker than it started. Now THAT would have been interesting - Sirine converts to radical Islam!!! Next time we see Rana, she cuts in between Sirine and Han during a dance, and Sirine, overcome with jealousy, thinks Rana stole the scarf Han gave her. So Sirine pulls off Rana's headscarf, only to realize it's not the same scarf...then she runs away. Somehow Rana is cool with this (ummm what?! Last time I checked it was extremely offensive for a veiled woman to have her headscarf ripped off...) and then explains to Sirine her child-marriage which she ran away from and how she likes to chase men down until they sleep with her. And that's the end of Rana's character.

Who's next? Okay, there's Um-Nadia and Mireille, more characters with zero personality who work in the restaurant with Sirine.

How about Aziz, the silly poet. His role is to chase after Sirine, who eventually gives in to him, not once but twice - first kissing outside her house, and then SLEEPING WITH HIM (what?!?!) after a concert. And both of them kind of brush off this incident, even though Aziz claims that Han is one of his best friends, and Sirine claims she loves Han. Right...

Now then there's the annoying stories that begin each chapter. Some silly tale of Abdelrahman Salahadin. What is the purpose of these snippets?!

Finally, there's the prose. Now, don't get me wrong, I like good descriptive language as much as the next person, but honestly there comes a time when it just gets pretentious and annoying. Here are some examples:

"The day is a sunburst of smog and mist; it shines in the straight-arrow streets and brown wandering canyons and azure reflecting pools. It's in the wild-field spindles of lavender and heather. It touches the baking rooftops, scaly chicken-foot streets. The spiked plant growing in ditches and open fields. Yellow things sharp as skeletons and horned devilish plants and hard blue scrub gnarled as knuckles. It rises and crosses a semi-lunar horizon, great open page of sky, faintly salty, traces of fruit, citrus, water in the wind."

"...the sound that contains the scent of berries, chocolate, and mint, that tastes of salt and oil and blood, that sounds like a heart's murmur, the passage of clouds, the call to praters, the beloved's name, and a distant ringing in the ears."

And there are so many more passages that I can't quote right now....but it's especially the ones to do with either describing Han or talking about cooking that are the most annoying. Han always smells like nutmeg or clove or orange blossom or lightly scented jasmine. And in the cooking there's always saffron and sage and pepper and chocolate and roasted herbs and pickled lemons and on and on and on. It just gets a bit much after a while!!

All in all, this book is a waste. The only reason I read it to the end (and that was after skipping over several large chunks) was to confirm my initial suspicions about Nathan and Han's sister.

Also, as soon as I read "Sirine's uncle" for the first time, I knew we would never find out what her uncle's name was. And we never did!

The only reason it gets two stars is because it made my mouth water with all the discussions of delicious middle Eastern food. And because there are a few recipes in the back of the book. A very small redeeming quality to an overall disaster of literary fiction.

This was a truly singular reading experience, one that's very hard to describe. It's about passion, loss, guilt and forgiveness. Iraq, Los Angeles....and food. All wrapped up in one hazily romantic, yet laced with foreboding package.

I'm a plot-driven kind of reader, but if I'm going to spend time reading a character-driven book, it better deliver in another kind of way. This one overflows with atmosphere and emotional tension.

I loved LOVED this book. There was so much in it, from history to forgiveness, to love and death and cooking and wonderful story-telling. This author has such a beautiful way with words and she uses every sense to tell the story, every single one, including the sixth sense. I fell in love with every single one of the characters, but my favorite is the uncle. A beautiful, sensual, haunting novel.

CRESCENT is one of the best books I've read in a long, long time. It has everything I love: gorgeous, vivid prose, a world you can get lost in, and a story where nothing is what it appears to be. An incredible, can't-put-it-down read that I cannot recommend highly enough. Brava, Diana Abu-Jaber! A beautiful story flawlessly told. I can't wait to read more of her work!

4.5
One thing I love about Diana's books is they never go how you think they're going to, but in a good way. And no one, I mean no one writes about food and cooking like she does. It's impossible to read this book and not be starving by the time you put it down.

Sirine is a 39 year old Iraqi-American chef who's never been in love. Once a handsome Iraqi professor rolls into town her life changes in more exciting and complicated ways than she could have imagined. This is a book about belonging, family, Middle Eastern identity, and the terrifying feeling of falling in love.