Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Editor)

Bani Adam is a member of "a minority of a minority of a minority"; an Alawite Shi'ite living in Sydney's Western suburbs. When Bani forms a liaison with a Christian girl, his father and his community condemn him, and insist that he choose a bride from within "the Tribe"; this is a rigid custom born of the fear that the Alawite minority might die out if not preserved.

Bani enters upon a series of attempts at arranged marriages, and eventually chooses a bride, with disastrous results.

Reading this book straight after Alice Pung's One Hundred Days was interesting; on the surface, they have so much in common. Both protagonists are first-generation children of strict and traditional immigrant parents. Both have a forbidden love affair. In both books the narrator is telling the story to their child. They even both cite the same verse from The Prophet. In Pung's novel though, there is a claustrophobia and tension that builds throughout, as Karuna tries to deal with her situation alone. In this book, Bani is surrounded by a community that he loves but needs to find some accommodation with to just be himself.

This book was at times amusing and at times sobering. The Arab community in Sydney is portrayed in a loving and self-deprecatory fashion, and Bani uses racial epithets that they would commonly use amongst themselves, but may be offensive to some readers.… (mais)

http://shawjonathan.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/western-sydney-on-western-sydney/

Western Sydney is often characterised in the press as all about drugs and violence, especially sexual violence. Islamophobic stereotypes and class-based contempt often enter conversation about the region.

Westside Publications exists to create a counter-narrative: to provide a platform for Western Sydney voices and, at least in part, to undermine the stereotypes, less by denying them outright than by seeking to paint a fuller picture. ‘I don’t mind a story that makes us look bad,’ writes Michael Mohammed Ahmad, chief editor of Westside, in his introduction to On Western Sydney, ‘so long as it’s honest and complex.’

On Western Sydney is their twelfth anthology featuring established and/or emerging writers and artists connected to the region. It’s a good read, and not at all the dry sociological collection the title might suggest. It includes short stories, poetry, absurd parables, a photo essay; there’s lyricism, satire, rap, stinging social commentary, domestic observation, fantasy, memoir (I think), travel writing … from as culturally diverse a bunch of writers as you’re likely to find anywhere.… (mais)