1. When Diana Abu-Jaber started writing Arabian Jazz, she hadn't
intended to write a humorous novel, but by the time she finished the first
couple of chapters, she realized that it had turned out to be funny on its
own. There is a grand tradition of "ethnic humor" in the United States. What
are its positives and its negatives? Is there something about different
ethnicities or culture clashes that is naturally humorous? Do you find that
the immigrant Arab community is treated more lightly than the local one? If
so, why? Does humor help us somehow to "survive" the dissonance of being
between two cultures?
2. Jemorah lives in two very separate worlds: her Jordanian family and the
born-and-bred Americans she went to school with. How do the lifestyles,
relationships, families, and destinies of the members of these two communities
differ? What is their common ground?
3. Melvina, though she is the younger sister, is very mothering to Jemorah;
to her lover, Larry Fasco; and, at times, even to her own father and to aunt
Fatima. Aunt Fatima, who has no children of her own and was forced to bury
her parents' unwanted babies, claims to be acting as a substitute mother for
her nieces. Dolores Otts, mother of an uncertain number of children, kills
herself by trying to have an abortion when she is not pregnant, and her only
worry on her deathbed is the future of her younger sister, Peachy. How do
the different characters experience parenthood? How do they experience
brother/sisterhood?
4. Aunt Fatima is one of the most colorful characters in the book. She is
sentimental, loud, irrational, and melodramatic. Is she just a cartoon or do
you know people like her? If we all have "Aunt Fatimas" in our lives, can we
ever explain or cope with them?
5. Compare the men who are offered to the girls in marriage to the ones they
find for themselves in the neighborhood. On the one hand we have the
Arabs—balding professorial types and the girls' wild Jordanian cousins;
on the other are Gil Sesame, Larry Fasco, and Ricky Ellis. Who, among these
men, would you want your daughter to marry? Why?
6. What does Melvina's secret relationship with Larry Fasco reveal about her
character? Though members of her family must somehow be aware of this
relationship (Jemorah sees them dancing together in the garden one night),
they seem to ignore it. Why?
7. During a 3:00 A.M. phone call with her father in Jordan, Jemorah agrees
to marry her cousin and childhood friend, Nassir. What were the factors that
finally led her to say yes? Were you pleasantly surprised or disappointed
with her answer? When we meet Nassir a couple of chapters later, did you
change your mind?
8. Diana Abu-Jaber was first inspired to write this story when she was out
running. She started thinking about the town where she grew up, Euclid, and
all the strange characters who lived there. Suddenly she ran into a public
building pulled some advertisements off a bulletin board and wrote almost ten
pages, sitting there all sweaty. Do you think this sudden, intense
inspiration can be detected in her writing style?
9. The book ends with Jemorah hearing Arabian jazz through Ricky's chest as
they dance to her father's music. What do you see in this final image? Do
you think she will find a way to reconcile the two worlds she belongs to? If
so, how?
10. One reviewer referred to the book's "chiaroscuro" quality of mixing light
and dark elements, yet felt the book's comedy was too boisterous to support
its more serious themes. Do you agree? Would you rather the story were more
strictly serious, or more simply comical? If so, why? What would be gained
or lost by shifting the balance?