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Headings

Title of the work - A work that is devoid of dedication and introduction, as it plunges directly into it due to its significance after all these years.

The title "Enclosed Land" is mentioned in the eleventh story, a term taken from a Chinese general who lived between the 5th and 6th centuries BC. It signifies besieged land that becomes a battleground when escape becomes impossible. The only glimmer of hope is to fight to the death. This very much mirrors what the author faced in his life confronting the hardships and sufferings, where he addressed it in his own way.

This is what the cover suggested to me. Written by Omar Abu Al-Qasim Al-Kekly, then an image of life in its absurdity followed by the inevitable end for anyone living on the enclosed land.

The subheadings are mesmerizing, making you contemplate them before reading the stories, and they gain a new dimension during reading, ending with an appreciation of their quality and precise selection.

Order Intentional arrangement of the stories.

As in "Mother of Lamps," a legendary tale from Libyan folklore about a cave with a scanty water source, followed by a story titled "A Cold Glass of Water." It transports your mind from a barren, desolate land to a lush, shaded oasis where the hero is a glass of cold water.

The stories of "Virtues" and "The Spilling of Milk"...

He plays on the reader's imagination, as if studying their expectations, deceiving them when talking about a young girl selling books at a book fair with a balanced physique. She smiled, giving him a book on the virtues of marriage by Al-Suyuti, saying, "Cheers," accompanied by their laughter. Then comes the next title, "The Spilling of Milk."

The spilling of milk was nothing but the fall of a milk cup from Afraa's hand when she mourned for Urwa bin Hizam. It might also symbolize the death of Urwa and his burial under the soil, leaving her alone with an empty cup.

Description In the story "Sweetness"... Her light, drowsy-colored dress seemed languid on her body when she came to swim in the evening. He then describes her:

"Carried on a cloud of music and fluttering butterflies."

In "My Mother's Blanket," he describes his mother's blanket as having wings that exude the warmth of motherhood. It generously warmed consecutive generations for five decades until it ended up piled on the floor, stained with dirt.

This humiliated patience, resilience, tenderness, and wounded the dignity - the dignity of my mother.

He speaks of the harsh social reality through his mother's blanket.

In "Outer and Inner," he felt the creeping of anxieties, so he likened the creeping of anxieties into his soul to the slow, continuous, and spreading crawl of ants.

From his magnificent expressions... "Bound by Suffering," his life was suffering.

He uses the local dialect to transport you to the depths of the myth and the absences of the cave. Even if you haven't lived that heritage or believe in it, the dialect you read, voiced by Hajja Mubarakah Bint Ali Al-Saghir, will transport you to a level of certainty in the myth. As in "Mother of Lamps."

He uses common terms in novel and unique derivations, liberating you from the mundane to a new lexicon formed by what the ear and emotions capture.

In the story "Moist Decision"... The 'sap' is a liquid that travels between cells carrying salts and nutrients for the plant. He likened desire, as it moves in the veins and arteries of his beloved, to reach every cell in her, to this sap.

Repetition is frequent, intentional, and endearing, adding new meanings and creating evolving sensations.

Author's Thought He always looks for the luminous point amid the dark cosmic matter.

In "Realizing a Dream," he talks about a fridge that rarely contains ripe and tasty food. Its contents are mostly what quenches thirst and fills the stomach. But the dream of having a small fridge of my own came true.

In "My Mother's Blanket," when talking about his mother's simplicity and her effort in making the blanket...

It wasn't due to a lack of ambition or surrender, but rather it expresses the power of triumph over an impossible reality with a spirit of resistance and reconciliation, as he called it. Her method was deception and resistance, and her weapon was endurance and reconciliation.

In "Moving the Cow"...

He rejoiced in discovering that his father had feared his intervention in the conversation and his potential denial. By remaining silent, he had rendered a service to his father, and by his silence, he was freed from the embarrassment of not telling the truth.

Among the features of Omar Al-Kekly's narrative...

He switches between different narrative types; linear, fragmented, and alternating, like in the stories "Settling the Covenant," "Outer and Inner," and "Attempt at Romance."

Sometimes he uses a self-narrator, and sometimes an omniscient one.

However, you'll realize that it's Al-Kekly who writes, no matter the method, as his spirit completely dominates the text.

He often establishes a dialogical state with the implied reader he imagines, as in the story "Two Bodies."

In "The Chair's Building"...

He distinguishes between the pleasure of reading and the pleasure of knowledge, which he likens to enduring pain for the pleasure that emerges at its end.

And the pleasure of knowledge and the pleasure of creation, referring to reading and writing.

He also differentiates between professional conscience and moral conscience, as in "Settling the Covenant."

He says: "We don't know the pangs of conscience. Our conscience is professional, not moral. It's known that every profession has its ethics."

His immersion in his environment Through subjects, language, and the details of its terms, like the "Basho frog" in the story "Sweetness" and the "Fakaki bird" in the story "The Chair's Building."

And the role of folk proverbs in the dramatic structure, such as:

"A sieve that doesn't tilt doesn't sift." "Don't hit the dog until you know its owner."

Some might criticize him for explaining the meaning and symbolism of the chair in "The Chair's Building," saying he didn't leave room for the reader's freedom of analysis and interpretation, opposing the reception theory. However, this approach is appropriate for the semiotic method he explains, using the chair as an illustrative example.

Here, I imagine both Hans Jauss and Wolfgang Iser as implied readers. If they reviewed this short story collection, they would say:

"Omar Abu Al-Qasim Al-Kekly is undeniably Omar Abu Al-Qasim Al-Kekly."