A Voice for Independent Authors

“You can kill a book quicker by your silence than by a bad review.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

REVIEWING TODAY: ARISING HERE, NOW BY NEJOUD AL-YAGOUT

The concise, articulate, and profoundly thoughtful articles included in the far-too-short collection titled Arising Here, Now by Nejoud Al-Yagout are reminiscent of those pamphleteering calls to justice prevalent in pre-revolutionary times. In turn, however, these particularly clear-thinking critiques and observations directed specifically to the author’s home country (Kuwait) are not clarion calls to violent change, but quite the opposite. They call on individuals of all nations to awaken. Not by any prescribed religious doctrine, but by the authentic realization of our natural, spiritual, human origins and most ancient, deeply shared truths. The writer clearly declares the basis on which such clear thinking and action have been historically subverted:

“We have been taught to believe that chaos is a way of life. If it were, then most of us would be slaughtering each other and we would not feel pain at such horror. But this is certainly not the case, because we are taught to kill, conditioned to torture others.”

Nejoud Al-Yagout applies in Arising Here, Now the principles of awakened thinking and a realized clarity of truth to many specific and current outrages occurring in Kuwait, like censorship and stifled human rights and freedoms that are applicable to the whole world as a unified, holistic entity. There are no misapplied religious doctrines volubly espoused here. Rather, using words that are precise, cogent, and undebatably self-evident, the articles included in this powerful conversation are sharply rational, emotionally stirring, and spiritually arousing. Nejoud Al-Yagout establishes herself as a voice of ringing sanity – clear as any bell – sounding forth within the wilderness we inhabit.