The politics of food and memory in Diana Abu-Jaber´s Crescent

Abstract

This study discusses the fictional representation of food and memory in the novel Crescent (2003) by Jordanian-American Diana Abu-Jaber. The novel presents a rich depiction of food intertwined with memory and provides the ground for the discussion of ethnicity and political issues. In general, I argue that the restaurant chef Sirine and her food work as an ethnic bonding agent drawing different ethnicities of Arabs and non-Arabs together in the space of Nadia's Café, the locus where a heterogeneous diasporic community comes into existence. The café has a strong role to play as it is the space where characters make revelations concerning their fears and their past experiences, thus, it becomes a powerful site of memory to use Pierre Nora's term. In addition, I discuss the significance of photographs and other objects, especially a scarf - as they too operate a kind of return to the past, making early experiences surface in the present and therefore constituting as well a site of memory.