No one crosses the river of oblivion: Reading the narrative experience in Kareem Ketafa’s works

Abstract

A review of the works of Iraqi writer Kareem Ketafa identifies a common thematic invocation of fleeing, widely shared across the characters developed in each novel, that situates them all as at the indeterminate liminal line between forgetting past lives and embracing the memories those lives invoke. By centring Ketafa’s Iraqi origins the focus on its role in his literary imagination and ability to invoke the reality of past suffering and intense personal pain in how they shape character. This reading allows for an engagement with the arc of Ketafa’s plots, where actions allow for movement beyond individual flight and a familiarity with the fourth dimension that contributes to shaping one’s life story.