Sunset and Writing

In every collection of short stories written by Dr. “Haifa Bitar” We discover deeper meanings of life and a clearer vision, in “Sunset and Writing” readings of human cases, they are more like journeys of varying distances in which the writer approaches the character to reveal to us what the human self hides, gently exposing it and speaking on its behalf, then we soon know that she wants to send us a message that awakens us from our negligence, takes us to safety, and makes us choose one of two things, either to reconcile with ourselves and accept life as it is with its ups and downs, or to choose rebellion and change, and this is the case of the Arab woman for whom customs and traditions have drawn the image of the obedient, devoted, and faithful woman in the service of the husband and children, but in some cases life shocks her with its cruelty and falsehood, as in the story “A Woman from the Clouds”, which is one of her wonderful stories in this collection. This woman chose to remain alone like a cloud that resembles her exactly, as she says, after her husband decided to start his life anew in the middle of his life, “his lifelong companion disowned her and began to move around From Lover to Lover” Here the woman stands perplexed “Suddenly the ember fell from the surface of the disc, alerting her to a truth that had remained hidden from her all her life, as the most important value in her life was the fear of people and the reverence of customs and traditions. Her wounded dignity after her husband’s betrayals pushed her to ask for a divorce, but (…)”. In the story “To the Soul of Ahmed,” the writer warns of the importance of monitoring human lives in government hospitals in most Arab countries. Neglect and disregard for human lives have become a characteristic of middle- and poor-class hospitals. “Farid died at the age of twenty due to a medical error, a trivial death. He had been admitted to the hospital for a hemorrhoid operation. The wretched national hospital did not care about sterilizing surgical tools, perhaps due to the staff’s excessive faith in divine providence. They did not sterilize the tools! Farid’s blood became infected after the operation, and the doctors were unable to save him, so he died three days after the surgery.” In “Sunset and Writing,” our writer tries to ring the bells to tell every person that life has no meaning if we do not leave a mark on it that distinguishes us from others, and that waiting for the unknown is useless. “I am seduced by the art of speech. I know that everything I do has a basic goal, which is to camouflage my feeling that I have no role in life. My days pass by like a clock’s pendulum, neither recording its past nor dreaming of a future (…) The title of my life is waiting. There is something I do not know that I feel I can wait for forever, even my relationship with the people around me is waiting…” A collection of stories that is both enjoyable and meaningful. The more than twenty tales in this novel all depict the bitter state of alienation that has come to occupy a vast space in the Arab psyche. It’s a sensitive and disturbing state: the alienation of oneself and one’s society threatens the very fabric of the Arab family, which must be preserved to build a healthy society with its own unique characteristics and values ​​that distinguish it from false civilizations. It also highlights the necessity of rebuilding the Arab character in a new form that rises above the chaos, both in word and deed, that has become a norm in our contemporary world.