الحيوات الملوّنة تختفي وراء المنعطف، والرواية قادرة على جرّ خطونا لكشف تلك الحيوات المخبّأة، والقراءة هي وسيلة الكشف الأجمل لعالم تلك الحيوات الساحرة!«راوي حاج، كاتب لبناني كندي، ولد في بيروت، وترعرع بين بيروت وقبرص. ثم انتقل إلى نيويورك عام 1982، وبعد إنهاء دراسته في معهد نيويورك للتصوير، انتقل إلى مونتريال، حيث درس الفنون، واستقر هناك» في روايته «لعبة دي نيرو»، يكشف راوي عن حياة جيل من الشباب اللبنانيين الذين عاشوا ضياع وموت الحرب الأهلية، واضطر بعضه إلى الهرب من لبنان بغية البعد عن الموت المجاني البشع، وبحثاً عن سماء تنتثر عليها النجوم، ولا تهمي منها القذائف.منذ الصفحات الأولى، يدرك القارئ أن راوي حاج حكاء ماكر، يعرف تماماً كيف يُحيك ثوب الحكاية من تفاصيل الواقع الصغيرة، وربما الصغيرة جداً، فتمسك بالقارئ وتأخذه إلى عوالمها بسلاسة دون أن يستطيع منها فكاكاً. «كان مذياع والدتي دائراً. لم يزل كذلك منذ بداية الحرب، مع بطاريات «رايوفاك» التي تعيش آلاف السنين، وغطاء بلاستيكي رخيص، أخضر اللون، تعلوه الثقوب وما علق من طبخ على أصابع أمي، وغبارٌ تغلغل بداخل مفاتيحه فقبع هناك».«لعبة دينيرو» رواية كابوسية، ترصد لحظات الحرب اللبنانية الأهلية من خلال عين وصوت الرواي الأوحد في الرواية الشاب «بسام»، الذي أخذت الحرب والده، وعاش مع ولدته إلى حين موتها، متحدياً فكرة الهرب من الموت، ورافضاً النزول إلى الملجأ حين يحتد القصف، مصرّاً على البقاء مدداً على سريره وفي غرفته.بسام، عامل التحميل في الميناء، شاب مثل آلاف الشباب اللبناني الذين احترقوا في تنور الحرب الأهلية، وذابت أحلامهم الإنسانية، حاملين مسدساتهم تحت قمصانهم، والموت تحت خواطرهم. والرواية إذ تقوم على سرد يوميات بسام في محيطه، وعلاقته بصديقه «جورج» وحبيبته «رنا»، إنما تقدم وصفاً دالاً ومؤلماً لسنوات الحرب التي جعلت من الضياع ملجأً لأحلام الشباب، وصار لون الدم القاني، لون اللحظة العابرة.بسام الشاب المسيحي الهادئ المنطوي على نفسه، يبدو عازفاً عن المشاركة في الحرب، معرضاً عن قتل الإنسان، وهو إذ يعيش في دائرة القتل، ودائرة السلاح، ودائرة الفراغ، يعيش بهاجس الخروج من لبنان إلى روما، ويعمل ما أمكنه لكسب بعض المال ليمكنه من تنفيذ فكرته. وهو في سعيه لتحقيق هدفه يرى ويعيش ويلات الحرب، وكيف أنها قادرة على تغيير أخلاق البشر، وطحنهم بماكينة عنفها المجنون، حتى لتغدو اللحظة الطبيعة أصعب ما يمكن مصادفته.رنا صديقة بسام تخونه مع صديق طفولته جورج، الشاب الطموح الذي لا يتوانى عن الاتصال بالإسرائيليين والتدرب في معسكراتهم بصفته مسيحياً، بغية الانتقام من أبناء وطنه، وهزيمتهم كونهم من ديانة أخرى. وبسام إذ يسعى إلى هدفه يشتغل في تهريب الويسكي المغشوش، كما أنه يعايش تعاطي المخدرات والجنس الرخيص، لكنه يبقى بنأيه وصمته، وحين يتهم بقتل العجوز «لوران» وسرقة الألماس، ويخضع لتعذيب يكاد يقضي على حياته، تنقذه «نبيلة» خالة جورج، فيعيش أياماً بين الحياة والموت، إلى حين يسترد صحته، ويقتص ممن عذّبه.بسام، بعد عملية سرقة كبيرة، يُكتب له الهرب على ظهر سفينة إلى فرنسا ليصل إلى باريس وهناك تساعده أخت جورج من أبيه، لكنه يكتشف أن الفرنسيين جزء من لعبة الحرب في لبنان، وأنهم جندوا جورج للذهاب إلى إسرائيل، ولحظتها يداهمه حلمه بالذهاب إلى روما.«لعبة دي نيرو» رواية تستحوذ على القارئ وتضمن لاسم مؤلفها راوي حاج مكاناً ومكانةً لافتة على ساحة الرواية العربية والعالمية.
The book ended. That was the only disappointing thing about it. I enjoyed reading this book so much to the point where I subconsciously impeded reaching the last chapter. Every time I come to exhaustively describe a war -the drastic change in the atmosphere that makes the country seem like a whole other one which we are not familiar with, how mothers, children, and fathers feel when they lose a loved one- , I render myself speechless. But the fact that Rawi Hage is able to depict the war with such vivid descriptions and imageries that no one would think of using to describe a war, is what makes this novel a great one. I think that this portrayal of the war can be attributed to the fact that Hage is a photographer and I think that he made his view on photography clear to readers through Rhea, a minor character in the book, when she said, “Photography is about death. It preserves the illusion of a past moment that can never be re-enacted.”“But in the absence of an initiative by the Lebanese government to preserve a memory of the war, it was artists and writers who took it upon themselves to create and recreate these events.” said Hage. And this is exactly what he did when he wrote this novel. It is not only the description of the setting, the atmosphere, and the characters that contributed to the brilliance of depicting the war, but also the omniscient third person point of view that the story is written in is what helped the reader feel exactly what s/he would feel if s/he were in a war. Having access to all of Bassam’s thoughts and his great desire to leave the country and get away from everything puts the reader in a place where he is agitated too if one of the characters dies or if something does not go according to plan.Rawi Hage said in an interview, “I emphasized absurdity in my writing. Absurdity is one of those indefinable ambiguities that lingers between violence, humor, apathy, loss, and even sympathy and hope. War is certainly an ultimate act of absurdity.” And this is what you will find in the novel. All of the aspects that exist in our everyday life are beautifully crammed into this novel. Whether the characters feel it or not, you will definitely get in touch with violence, humor, apathy, loss, and even sympathy and hope while reading this book.As for the style of writing, I absolutely loved the unconventional ways that Hage used to write the dialogue. Neither quotation marks nor indentations were used and this is what makes the dialogue seem so realistic. It is illustrated as it really is: An uninterrupted conversation between two people who do not have an audience to care about. Also, Hage rarely uses the terms, “sighed, shouted, told…” and leaves it up to the reader to infer what tone the characters adopted while speaking to each other. Also, we become well aware of the fact that Bassam can speak more than one language but Hage leaves it up to us to decide whether Bassam is speaking in Arabic, English, or French. I also loved the scattered slips of Lebanese words and well known, hilarious Lebanese phrases and swear words. In addition to that, the different allusions to the Lebanese culture in general are what I think help a Lebanese reader get in touch with his roots. Finally, the open end is one of my favorite things in the book. Although this contradicts my opinion of open endings to brilliant novels, I think that Rawi Hage could not have ended the book in a better way. I won’t say anything else about this point because I don’t want to spoil it for future readers.I highly recommend this book to every reader who is willing to put the teenage, fantasy, lovey-dovey books aside and read something mature which will contribute to his/her intellectual standards. But I also recommend getting familiar with the events of the Lebanese war before because Rawi Hage admitted himself that he wrote the book assuming that the readers would be aware of the Lebanese war and its events.So there you have it, a brilliant book which unfortunately ended.
What do You think about De Niro's Game (2006)?
Hage's first novel won the 2008 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for Canada's two most prestigious literary prizes, the 2006 Giller and 2006 GGs for its treatment of the Lebanese civil war. The first two sections of the novel deal with the brutality of "home" that Bassam tries to escape in the third act, but a lifelong exposure to war and violence makes this impossible. What interests me is a moment in the third act when Canada is painted as the safe haven for this potential refugee. To be explored...
—Jason
De Niro's game reaches right into the heart of war. What strange bedfellows a tragic series of events can make. In war there is both the inner and outer destruction that takes place. The psychological undoing of people who are in a war ravaged country is really what this story is about. Rawi Hage takes us to the limits of destruction as he gets inside the mind of Bassam the young man and main character in De Niro's Game. Bassam sees the world from a traumatized state of mind; he truly believes that to survive in war one must use any means necessary even if those means are violent. War creates a barrier, no one can be trusted, and you must be on your guard at all times. Bassam and his childhood best friend George are set on two different roads that intersect and ultimately show how war cannot but change the way we live. I may not be able to relate to this on a personal level, but from a perspective of humanity I ultimately feel that war is a destructive force in the lives of those who are taking part and as we see it on our television or computer screens it damages all of us. Rawi Hage is a powerful writer and some of what he presents to us is not a pretty picture. For the most part I do like reading to take me to a place of escape, however there is a part of me that likes to be grounded in the real world and to be awakened to that.
—Andrea
First time I encounter this author, and I`m astonished of his work. His sentimental narrative style with a pinch of existential philosophy, like Camus, he puts you in a front row of the scene of the real life. Also, like Remarque, he tries to mock the war mongers, by depicting that every single one is a loser during the war times, and the fate will always knock on the door sooner rather than later, so it's better to enjoy life now, than to try to postpone the inevitable. I gave this book 4 stars although I admit it deserves a half of one more.
—Andrei
