Book Review: Henna House

The book club I'm in usually has a hard time deciding between books. I tend to suggest a lot of books via e-mail between each of our meetings. Recently, I came across Henna House by Nomi Eve, perhaps through an Amazon ad or something along those lines. The synopsis drew me in and sounded perfect for my club to read and discuss. I sent them the suggestion and it ended up being chosen for our upcoming meeting. I'm so glad it did, as it was a moving and powerful story about women, family, and Judaism.

Nomi Eve’s vivid saga begins in Yemen in 1920, when Adela Damari’s parents desperately seek a future husband for their young daughter. After passage of the Orphan’s Decree, any unbetrothed Jewish child left orphaned will be instantly adopted by the local Muslim community. With her parents’ health failing, and no spousal prospects in sight, Adela’s situation looks dire until her uncle arrives from a faraway city, bringing with him a cousin and aunt who introduce Adela to the powerful rituals of henna tattooing. Suddenly, Adela’s eyes are opened to the world, and she begins to understand what it means to love another and one’s heritage. She is imperiled, however, when her parents die and a prolonged drought threatens their long-established way of life. She and her extended family flee to the city of Aden where Adela encounters old loves, discovers her true calling, and is ultimately betrayed by the people and customs she once held dear. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)

Oddly enough, even though I suggested Henna House for my book club, I was initially hesitant to read it. I don't normally read historical fiction unless there's a blend with a modern day story. However, seeing that it was compared to The Red Tent moved me to give it a try. Once I did, I was immediately grabbed by the story and didn't want to put it down to get back to real life. It had a Khaled Hosseini feel and reminded me of A Thousand Splendid Suns in some ways. I could see why it was compared to The Red Tent though. While it wasn't biblical in nature, it was still about female rituals and one woman's journey toward love and redemption. Adela was so easy to relate to and I felt like she and I were the same person when I was reading the story. She made me see what she was seeing and feel what she was feeling. While some parts of the story were either gruesome or disturbing, it didn't keep me from reading on to find out what would become of Adela.

The only critcism I have is that there were too many characters to keep up with between all the brothers, sister-in-laws, cousins, etc. I kept mixing everyone up and also couldn't remember why I had heard certain location names. This didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. I've been recommending it to everyone and even purchased Nomi Eve's debut novel, The Family Orchard. While I've been to a Hindi wedding, I've never been to a henna ceremony and after reading Henna House, I'm interested to observe one in person. In the meantime, I can't wait to discuss it with everyone at the next book club meeting and chat with Nomi via Skype during that time.

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