MOTHER OF ALL PIGS By Malu Halasa 259 pp. Unnamed Press. Paper, $16.99. Image “It has always been the same — what men enjoy, women endure.” So says a character in this microcosmic portrait of the contemporary Middle East, where the generational shifts among the members of one Jordanian clan showcase a patriarchal order in slow-motion decline. Halasa’s pungently witty and occasionally uneven novel contrasts the ways in which the women of the Sabas family embrace or push back against tradition.
