52 pages • 1 hour read
Diana Abu-JaberThe Language of Baklava
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “A House and a Yard”
Back in Syracuse, New York, after over a year in Jordan, the family moves into a big suburban house. Diana initially misses Jordan’s sounds and smells but soon memories of America take over. She meets the neighbors: a daughter of Italian immigrants named Mrs. Manarelli, who bonds with Bud over their shared love of food and cooking; and a new best friend named Sally Holmes, a “real American” girl whose mother’s chocolate pudding “tastes like burnt plastic” (73).
Winter comes and Diana skates on Sally’s homemade ice rink. She catches frostbite and the family are terrified for her frozen toes. Bud calls Aunty Aya in Jordan, and she tells him to make a soup of herbs and fruit. Diana drinks the soup and bathes her feet in it. They recover miraculously.
Diana describes the neighborhood children in Syracuse: “soft and babyish” yet “deliberate, remorseless, and exacting” (78). She compares them to the “good-times kids” she played with in Amman and reflects that society and life in the US are generally more rigid than in her father’s homeland (78). A recipe for “‘Distract the Neighbours’ Grilled Chicken” precedes an anecdote about a picnic (79). One bright spring day, the family decides to have a barbecue in the front garden so that they can share food and “gossip with the neighbors, as [they] did in Jordan” (80). However, this behavior scandalizes some of the neighbors, who explain in shock that barbecuing in public view is not done in this “nice neighborhood” (81). Bud is equally scandalized by the neighbors’ behavior. Diana’s mother uses her authoritative height and demeanor to reassure the neighbors: “There’s no trouble here” (81).
News of the incident spreads through the suburb and reaches the parents of Jamie, a companion on Diana’s school bus. The girl warns Diana that eating in your front yard is an “unholy disgrace” and that their family may be removed from the neighborhood if they “don’t know how to behave” (82). Diana is filled with shame.
After this, Diana barely speaks for a week, and her feelings towards the neighborhood change: It looks “hard and squat and drudgy” (82). Mrs. Manarelli manages to cheer her up with her fragrant home, her lively manner, and (most of all) her cooking—in particular “Mrs. Manarelli’s Civilized Panna Cotta” (86-87). When Diana tastes this dish, she feels she “want[s] to laugh or sing or confess [her] sins” (86). Diana tells Mrs. Manarelli all about her experiences in Syracuse since returning. Mrs. Manarelli is enraged by the barbecue story and recruits Diana and her mother and sisters in an act of defiance: They take a picnic out into the front yard again and wave at the cars passing by, “five queens drifting over the suburbs on [their] own private float” (86).
Chapter 5 Summary: “Madama Butterfly”
The 10-year old Diana introduces another important character in her life: her maternal grandmother, Gram. This feisty elderly lady has a complex and contradictory character, heavily defined by her professed hatred of men. She cooks American recipes without enthusiasm or flair, and they turn out poorly. She clashes with Bud over food—one of the many ways in which they differ. However, she has an interest in new cuisines and suggests to Diana that they try “Oriental Food” (91).
The event that they plan begins with dressing up in Gram’s fake-fur coats and taking the bus to Manhattan. On the journey they meet a smartly dressed older gentleman who takes a shine to Diana and charms and flirts with Gram. He reveals many secrets about himself, including that he has had his teeth removed so he no longer has to chew. The recipe that follows this story is for “The Tenderest Angel Food Cake—For those who don’t like to chew very much” (96). The “distinguished gentlemen’s” attention seems to be working until he leers inappropriately at Diana (94), inciting Gram’s disgust.
Diana and Gram go to watch Madama Butterfly (an opera set in Japan) at the opera house in Manhattan, but Diana is too excited about the chance to try new food to follow the story. They then dine at the Imperial Palace restaurant, which is staffed by Chinese servers. Gram impresses the elderly waiter with talk of the opera, leading him to believe it was Chinese, as she herself seems to believe that “Or-i-en-tals” are all the same people (101). The waiter serves them dishes more authentic than they had ordered in deference to Gram’s supposed love of China. Diana learns to use chopsticks and finds the food exquisite, which impresses the waiter further: “So you come from food” (103). Diana remembers reading somewhere about the war between China and Japan and starts to feel mortified. Gram continues to praise Asian men, who she claims are “dear and lovely” and “really not like men at all” (104). Diana hopes to escape the restaurant before the waiter realizes Gram’s mistake, but they are delayed by the offer of fortune cookies. Diana and Gram finally return on the bus, Gram’s faux pas undiscovered. The final recipe is for “Gram’s Easy Roast Beef” (109), a simple one that reflects her unenthusiastic cooking.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Mixed Grill in the Snow”
Diana, now 11, and her family spend New Year’s Eve at her Uncle Hal’s big country house. They drive there through a blizzard, along with several of her uncles’ families. Despite the freezing weather, Hal barbecues outside; Diana provides the recipe for “Barbaric Lamb Kofta” (114). Diana, her sisters, and their many cousins enjoy the evening, eating and playing while Bud and his brothers complain about America. There is also jealous sniping between some of the women. One of the rivalries is about whose knaffea (a sweet pastry filled with sweet cheese) is the best. The recipe for “Mad Genius Knaffea” follows (120), its name referring to Diana’s adored, independent, and creative Aunt Rachel.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Magloubeh and the Great Diplomat”
This chapter details another meeting of all the cousins and their parents, this one including Gram. Food is at the center of the gathering, and Diana provides the recipe for “‘Start the Party’ Hummus” (125). The children play and laugh at the adults while listening to their comments and arguments about history, international and Middle-Eastern politics, and Jordanian identity. The latter is represented by the dish magloubeh, which Diana dislikes. Uncle Jack, a Cornell professor, is the “Great Diplomat" and supposedly destined to be an international peacemaker and TV pundit since he “works in politics” (125). Gram has little time for him, and when she discovers the children playing over him as he naps after lunch, she is secretly pleased at his undignified position. The chapter ends with the recipe for “Diplomatic Magloubeh” (132).
Chapters 4-7 Analysis
Diana describes how she and her family felt on returning to the US from Jordan, as well as how (in their own way) they eventually fitted back in; the difficult adjustment to American life further develops the theme of The Places, People, and Feelings that Constitute Home. The characters taking center stage in this section illustrate The Power of Women in Diana’s childhood.
On returning from Jordan, Diana feels unsettled, at first missing the sounds and scents of Jordan and then the lively, warm society and the freedom of her friends in Amman. The incidents with the barbecue in the front yard and the subsequent rejection by the neighbors and a classmate illustrate the sharp contrasts between Jordanian and US culture. Having adapted to Jordanian life, Diana finds becoming American again more difficult. She has even forgotten American food and now finds it distasteful, though she concludes, “I don’t like it, I think, because I’ve somehow forgotten it. I must remember” (73). The relationship between memory and Chosen and Unchosen Identities becomes prominent in this section, as Diana’s life grows to include more episodes and experiences.
The first of the strong female characters introduced in Syracuse is Mrs. Manarelli, whom Diana depicts as having an expansive, fiery Italian character that contrasts with the bland and repressed American neighbors. Soon after, Diana mentions Aunt Aya. She becomes more prominent later on but is already portrayed as a fount of wisdom, saving Diana’s toes from afar. Gram is the most forceful new female character of all, and her influence on Diana is huge, despite or because of her clashes with Bud. Like the other women, she creates a counterweight in Diana’s life to her sometimes overpowering father. Finally there is Aunt Rachel, whom Diana admires for her love of literature and her insights into great authors’ lives. The portrayals of these women contrast with Diana’s depiction of the “Great Diplomat” Uncle Jack, who comes across as irritating and buffoonish.
Diana’s long and detailed descriptions of huge family gatherings show how much the children enjoy them and the freedom they are allowed during them. This suggests these gatherings’ importance to Diana and her family settling back into the US. The family get-togethers emphasize family and Arab culture and traditions, with food at the center; they bring a bit of Jordan back into the lives of Diana and her immediate family.
Food remains at the heart of every story in the memoir. Diana, despite her age, is eager to try new and unknown dishes, including the Chinese food she has with Gram. Food is excitement, mystery, and a door into other cultures and minds: “The menu is a treasure map that takes me on its dotted line over snowy mountains, through hushed trees, past jade lakes” (98). The new female characters in her life all impress Diana with their recipes or shared meals. Food has many powers: It can cure (as with Aunt Aya’s soup), it can transport you as if to a dream (as with knaffea), and it can even divide rather than unite (as with magloubeh, a dish that children do not enjoy unless some ingredients are exchanged for others).
