The Warm Wind of Palestine

The Warm Wind of Palestine, Scott S. Crye, Athena Press, 2004

Jenna Haabeb is a strong-willed young woman living in the middle American town of Springfield. She is a highly respected doctor and medical researcher working at the local hospital. However, she is also a Palestinian in post-9/11 America, a place of hostility and suspicion toward an unknown part of the world.

She has made many friends, including the Larsens; Catherine works in the same department at the hospital, while Jack is retired and independently wealthy. They begin to fill the void in Jenna's life left by the death of her family due to a "mistaken" bombing by the Israeli army.

Jenna is a devout Christian who attends daily Mass, and still dresses modestly, including wearing a headscarf at all times. There are occasional get-togethers of all the women in Jenna and Catherine's department at the Larsen's pool, in which Jenna is encouraged to "let her hair down." An old friend of Jenna's from way back, a Frenchman named Paul, comes to visit, and Jenna turns into a giddy schoolgirl. He invites Jenna and the Larsens on a month-long trip to France.

These bonds are severely tested when Jenna is badly injured in an auto accident. A man running from the police hits her car head on at a high rate of speed. Jack stays at her bedside for several days, feeling that someone should be there when Jenna wakes up.

This is a pretty "quiet" novel about American cultural misperceptions. It is possible for a cultural reconciliation amidst fear and ignorance about the unknown. It's an easy read that is very much worth the reader's time. Check it out.