As we finish out Tales of Juha, I realized I am quite disappointed: not with the book, but rather with the fact that we will get no more Juha wisdom or humor from here on out!
Tales of Juha was a wonderful book. The small tales in it were humorous when I understood them, confusing when I didn't, and overall a good shift from the books we had read previously in the semester. The light and comical anecdotes proved to contain nuggets of wisdom and insight into the Arabian culture of the time as well as a good look on the perspective of our own culture. Although the time setting seems different and the modes of transportation are not alike in the least (lots of mentions of donkeys in this book), it was intriguing to see the similarities of our American culture with the Arabic culture. For example, many of the last anecdotes that we read focused on corruption in the government and needless court cases, something that I have seen the American public frustrated about many times before. It seems that Juha's tales are not only meant to be comical, but also to be some sort of political and social commentary about the world around them.
It was also nice to have an easy read that kept me awake while I was finishing it. Tales of Juha was a short, simple read that contained a lot of humor and wisdom inside its lines. The one thing that may have not been so enjoyable was the presence of condescension towards women in many of the jokes; however, when reading a tale about another culture it is important to realize that back then (and perhaps even now) there were different social standards. Arabic culture is heavily male dominated, meaning that many writings, jokes, and traditions that come out of that culture are likely to reflect that idea.
Overall, Tales of Juha was a well compiled book, reminding me a lot of a deeper, Arabic version of Anguished English.
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