Leila Aboulela
Inspired by Farid Ud-Din Attar’s twelfth-century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela tells the story of three Muslim women living in Scotland. They embark on a road trip to visit the grave of Lady Evelyn Cobbold, a Scottish convert to Islam and the first British woman to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The three friends are plagued with doubts about their paths in life. Salma, the self-appointed leader who organizes the trip, is a massage therapist and happily married to a Scottish convert to Islam. When she is contacted by her first love in Egypt, she becomes embroiled in a fantasy world of what might have been had she stayed in Egypt. Moni relinquished a successful banking career to devote herself to the full-time care of her five-year-old son suffering from cerebral palsy. She feuds with her husband about her exclusive focus on their son to the detriment of their marital relationship. Iman, the youngest, has been married three times. In the course of the road trip, her third husband catches up with her and announces their divorce because his parents disapprove of his marriage.
The women spend a week at a resort on the grounds of a converted monastery before heading to Lady Evelyn’s grave site. During the road trip and the week-long stay, they bicker and criticize one another. Each one is wrapped up in her own thoughts. Salma’s phone calls to her former boyfriend in Egypt consume her. Moni is plagued with worry about her son. And without an education or adequate resources, Iman tries to figure out what to do with the rest of her life.
It is at this point the novel delves into magical realism. Iman is visited by a Hoopoe who speaks to her in parables, folktales, and riddles. Moni befriends a young child who reminds her of her son. He inexplicably assumes gigantic proportions and crushes her with his weight. And Salma chases after a man she thinks is her former boyfriend. She travels back in time to Egypt and ends up in her boyfriend’s clinic where he dissects her body. The three women metamorphose into a variety of inhuman shapes and are forced to rely on each other to proceed. As a result of the Hoopoe’s guidance and their collaboration, their human shape is restored and they are able to find their way back. Each woman gains insight and strength as a result of what predictably turns out to be a journey of self-discovery.
The plunge into magical realism is a new element in Aboulela’s writing. Unfortunately, it is not entirely successful. It does not flow organically from the novel and appears contrived—as if the author is trying to bend the narrative to conform to Attar’s poem. What started off as a promising novel about three Muslim woman immigrants and their struggles with relationships and with adapting to life in a western culture veers into the territory of magical realism that is totally out of sync with the novel. In addition, the characters lack depth and nuance; the writing is perfunctory and pedantic.
Recommended with reservations since it is not up to the quality of Aboulela’s other works in either style or content.