The Secret Life of Saeed

Hardcover, 192 pages

English language

Published April 14, 1985 by St. Martin's Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-86232-399-8

(4 reviews)

This award-winning novel-in-translation is clever tragicomedy that demonstrates the complex life of a Palestinian living in Israel.

Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian—no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.

The author’s own anger and sorrow at Palestine’s tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israel’s parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny. Translated by Anton Shammas into Hebrew, The Secret Life of Saeed won Israel’s foremost Prize …

This award-winning novel-in-translation is clever tragicomedy that demonstrates the complex life of a Palestinian living in Israel.

Saeed is the comic hero, the luckless fool, whose tale tells of aggression and resistance, terror and heroism, reason and loyalty that typify the hardships and struggles of Arabs in Israel. An informer for the Zionist state, his stupidity, candor, and cowardice make him more of a victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, he is gradually transformed from a disaster-haunted, gullible collaborator into a Palestinian—no hero still, but a simple man intent on survival and, perhaps, happiness.

The author’s own anger and sorrow at Palestine’s tragedy and his acquaintance with the absurdities of Israeli politics (he was once a member of Israel’s parliament himself) are here transmuted into satire both biting and funny. Translated by Anton Shammas into Hebrew, The Secret Life of Saeed won Israel’s foremost Prize for Literature; a stage version played to great acclaim for a decade.

1 edition

The Weaver Reads reviewed The Secret Life of Saeed by Imīl Ḥabībī

Goodreads Review of The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist

4 stars

This book is absolutely wild, in the same vein as Voltaire's Candide (and explicitly so). Saeed the Pessoptimist experiences a surreal set of events, and is unable to make heads to tails of them. There are multiple "Saeeds" in this book (one of which functions as a foil to our Saeed), multiple "Yuaads," Communist conspiracies, and winding brutality. Our Saeed is a Zionist agent, although he has no idea that he is one (at least, I can't tell if he does). He supports the Palestinian people, he has friends in the Communist movement, but he's an unwitting fool that throws them all under the bus.

For me, perhaps the finest moment of the book is when the 1967 War ends, and Radio Israel demands that Palestinians fly the white flag. Saeed, who is living in Haifa, flies the white flag at his house. He is brought in by the "big …

This book is absolutely wild, in the same vein as Voltaire's Candide (and explicitly so). Saeed the Pessoptimist experiences a surreal set of events, and is unable to make heads to tails of them. There are multiple "Saeeds" in this book (one of which functions as a foil to our Saeed), multiple "Yuaads," Communist conspiracies, and winding brutality. Our Saeed is a Zionist agent, although he has no idea that he is one (at least, I can't tell if he does). He supports the Palestinian people, he has friends in the Communist movement, but he's an unwitting fool that throws them all under the bus.

For me, perhaps the finest moment of the book is when the 1967 War ends, and Radio Israel demands that Palestinians fly the white flag. Saeed, who is living in Haifa, flies the white flag at his house. He is brought in by the "big man" and sent to prison. Saeed is floored by this--I was just doing all that was asked. "No," he is told, "the white flag is for the Palestinians of the West Bank. Flying it in Haifa implies that you see the city as being occupied territory." Saeed insists that this isn't true--he doesn't see it as that way at all, but I'm not sure that I'm wholly convinced.

Emile Habiby manages to maintain the momentum until at the end of the book, which is something that few comedic writers of this style are able to do. For instance, Saeed seems a lot like Hasek's Svejk (in The Good Soldier Švejk), but Hasek is much less capable of carrying it to the end.

This is a must-read of Palestinian literature.