The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing, by Darina Al-Joundi
"Born in Lebanon in 1968, Darina Al-Joundi came of age at the height of the Lebanese civil war. Her father initiated his three daughters into not only poetry and freedom of opinion, but alcohol, cigarettes, and erotic independence.
"By the time she reached her early twenties, she had held jobs ranging from TV actress to Red Cross worker, and had seen her native city bombed to oblivion. Al-Joundi's book reconstitutes the misadventures of her youth in a style that is at once heart-breaking and very funny."
—Nancy Huston, author of Fault Lines
Darina Al-Joundi grew up wild in secular Beirut: Baudelaire, Clockwork Orange, dancing all night, fine lovers and finer Bordeaux.
When her father died, she sang Nina Simone's "Sinnerman," per his last wish, instead of the suras of the Koran.
This did not go over so well with her surviving family.
Life turned violent. Bombs started falling in Lebanon's civil war, and fundamentalism took over secular communities. The rest of her family weren’t as liberal as her father had been, and Darina was forcibly placed in an insane asylum.
Al-Joundi survived— and wrote this unforgettable memoir in exile in Paris. She is legendary throughtout the Middle East as a performer, and best known in Europe and North America for her hit play by the same title as the book.
Narrated by Lameece Issaq, with complete panache. This is one of my favorite audio productions of the year!
Willow Pennell and Susie Bright
