CHICAGO: “The Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor” is the exceptional debut novel by Rana Haddad. Satirical and witty, Haddad takes the reader on a journey with Dunya Noor, a young photographer who lives in Syria in the 1980s. Dunya Noor lives among the highest echelons of society in Latakia, Syria, until she decides to make a decision for herself. Then chaos ensues.
Haddad has worked as a journalist for the BBC and Channel 4. She grew up in Latakia and moved to the UK as a teenager. Haddad is also a published poet and, in 2018, her first novel was published by Hoopoe, an imprint of the American University in Cairo Press.
Along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea sits a harbor city known as Latakia, “a satellite beach resort of neo-Stalinism.” The seaside city is home to heart surgeon Dr. Joseph Noor, his English wife Patricia and their daughter, curly-haired Dunya Noor. They look like the perfect family, but Dr. Noor believes his country is the best in the world, Patricia wants to go back to England and Dunya is just looking for the light. She falls in love with photography at the age of eight and is told that buying a camera “was like buying an oud, but instead of playing with musical notes, one needed to learn how to play with light.”
Years later, Dunya moves to England and meets Hilal, an astronomer who is the son of tailors from Aleppo. They fall in love and ten years after leaving Syria, they decide to journey back. But the Syria they love and the families they left behind are no longer the same.
At the heart of the book is Dunya, her romance and a mystery, but there is also a skillful lightness to Haddad’s writing, even when she writes about dense ideologies, such as misogyny and patriarchy. Her prose is clear and her wit is sharp. Haddad tells a story without embellishment or subtlety — her charm lies in her ability to write about the nonsensical motivations of power-hungry people and the consequences that befall ordinary people in an entertaining way.
Book review: A witty story of love in the upper echelons of Syrian society
Book review: A witty story of love in the upper echelons of Syrian society
What We Are Reading Today: A Guide to the Anolis Lizards (Anoles) of Mainland Central and South America
Author: Steven Poe
Anoles are highly visible and aesthetically pleasing lizards that are abundant throughout Central and South America.
The subjects of countless evolutionary and ecological studies that have advanced our understanding of basic principles in biology, these colorful reptiles are notoriously difficult to identify, and species names are often confusing and inconsistent.
“A Guide to the Anolis Lizards (Anoles) of Mainland Central and South America” is the first book to enable the identification of all known species of anole in the region while establishing baseline knowledge for further research.
REVIEW: ‘Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster’ offers reanimated chaos in 4K
LONDON; The “Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster” has arrived, breathing new life into Capcom’s iconic open-world zombie classic.
Almost 20 years after the original’s release, this version strikes a fine balance between a remake and a remaster, modernizing visuals, controls and gameplay while retaining its chaotic charm. With 4K resolution, smoother frame rates and gameplay improvements, “Dead Rising’s” latest iteration has, in a sense, grown up with its audience — although “grown up” might not be the best description for a game where a cactus can be a weapon.
The remaster brings you back to Willamette, Colorado, where you play as the cocky, wise-cracking photojournalist Frank West. His mission? Survive a 72-hour real-time, in-game clock ticking down inside a mall overrun by zombies, with missions to complete, bosses to fight, and absurd items to wield.
The day-night cycle brings shifting challenges and horror-movie ambiance that change the feel of each hour. You’ll often find yourself toggling between planning missions and impulsively grabbing whatever is in sight to fend off the undead. The remaster’s refined graphics and 60fps frame rate make both these approaches more fluid, whether you’re grappling with zombies or sneaking a killer snapshot.
And yes, Frank’s camera skills still matter. In addition to navigating an endless crowd of brain-hungry zombies, the game rewards you for snapping high-quality photos, encouraging you to capture the grotesque and hilarious. This adds an amusing layer of strategy and humor to the game, which doesn’t take itself too seriously. The absurd world of Dead Rising still allows you to dress Frank up in a range of ridiculous costumes, turning him from a somber zombie slayer into a comical hero fighting against the cathedral of consumerism — the mall itself.
As you progress, Frank’s skills evolve, allowing you to transform him into a near-indestructible wrestler, body-slamming zombies and crowd-surfing his way to safety. Missions often involve rescuing NPCs and escorting them to safety, and a roster of larger-than-life “Psychopath” bosses keeps the action intense. Beneath the mindless zombie slaying lies a satirical critique of American consumerism that resonates more with time; the remaster’s updated look adds to the commentary, making the mall’s neon lights and cluttered shelves all the more biting.
Of course, not all issues have been exorcised in this remaster. Some glitches linger, like the odd lift button bug that can render what should be a deadly encounter into an easy escape. Plus, it’s a shame that Capcom didn’t implement a co-op mode — a feature that could have elevated the chaotic fun to new heights.
Ultimately, “Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster” is as humorous as it is brutal, blending laughs with thrilling tension. The game continues to draw players into Frank West’s absurdly dangerous world, now rendered in beautifully gruesome detail. It’s a fantastic journey back to a familiar, zombie-filled playground — ideal for longtime fans and newcomers alike who are ready to face the horde.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Algorithms for the People’ by Josh Simons
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping our world. Police forces use them to decide where to send police officers, judges to decide whom to release on bail, welfare agencies to decide which children are at risk of abuse, and Facebook and Google to rank content and distribute ads.
In these spheres, and many others, powerful prediction tools are changing how decisions are made, narrowing opportunities for the exercise of judgment, empathy, and creativity.
In “Algorithms for the People,” Josh Simons flips the narrative about how we govern these technologies.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Physical Nature of Information’
Author: Gregory Falkovich
Applications of information theory span a broad range of disciplines today.
It teaches the tools universally used by physicists working on quantum computers and black holes, engineers designing self-driving cars, traders perfecting market strategies, chemists playing with molecules, biologists studying cells and living beings, linguists analyzing languages, and neuroscientists figuring out how the brain works.
No matter what area of science you specialize in, “The Physical Nature of Information” unlocks the power of information theory to test the limits imposed by uncertainty.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Organic Line’
- Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge
Author: IRENE SMALL
What would it mean to treat an interval of space as a line, thus drawing an empty void into a constellation of art and meaning-laden things? In this book, Irene Small elucidates the signal discovery of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark in 1954: a fissure of space between material elements that Clark called “the organic line.”
For much of the history of art, Clark’s discovery, much like the organic line, has escaped legibility. Once recognized, however, the line has seismic repercussions for rethinking foundational concepts such as mark, limit, surface, and edge.
