A Doctor’s Diary

Description

“My childhood was lost in a struggle against my mother, my brother, and myself. Science and medical books devoured my adolescence and the dawn of my youth… All I knew at that time was that I was a girl, as I heard from my mother. A girl! And the word ‘girl’ had only one meaning for me: that I wasn’t a boy, that I wasn’t like my brother!”

When a person lives through their pain, when the wounded chronicle the years of their suffering, when life is punctuated by tender moments that quench the thirst of a wasted childhood, rescuing that dreamy, rebellious, resilient girl from the blows of her painful reality, “A Doctor’s Diary” becomes an autobiographical narrative that transcends the boundaries of fiction to embody a unique human experience. Dr. Nawal El Saadawi poignantly portrays the suffering endured by every girl and woman who grows up surrounded by ideas and customs that stifle her love for life, herself, and her family, driving her to hatred and resentment toward a society devoid of hope—a society where the dreamy, delicate, and innocent girl is transformed into a fearful, violent individual, suspicious of everyone, near and far.