{"id":216157,"date":"2019-06-19T16:07:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T19:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=216157"},"modified":"2019-06-21T18:11:20","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T21:11:20","slug":"lebanese-descendant-talks-about-immigration-in-new-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/lebanese-descendant-talks-about-immigration-in-new-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese descendant talks about immigration in new novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Last Tuesday (18), second-generation Lebanese descendant author and psychanalyst Betty Milan<\/a> has published her new novel, Baal, which talks about immigration. The author of the bestseller \u201cParis Never Ends,\u201d Betty has sold the rights of two of her books to the cinema. In her new book, Betty narrates through the voice of Omar, a Middle Eastern man who moved to Brazil fleeing a war.<\/p>\n

The character Omar endured prejudices and hardships as an immigrant and a traveling salesman but manages to become rich. Baal is the name of the small palace Omar built for his daughter Aixa. When he dies, however, his family and palace start to fall apart. Her grandchildren move Aixa to a tiny room together with the maid and the dog. The narrator Omar realizes he was mistaken and regrets not making his daughter his successor.<\/p>\n

Betty Millan brings much of her own personal story to her books. In an email interview to ANBA, she tells the inspiration for the book came from the demolition of the small palace her Lebanese grandparents built in the neighborhood of Bela Vista in S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cLike I say in the novel, it was \u2018an Eastern jewel in the West.\u2019 My grandmother sheltered many immigrants there,\u201d she says. The small palace should have been made into a memorial to immigration but was demolished.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The book was published this month<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The author doesn\u2019t specify a home country for Omar in the book precisely to talk about the drama of every immigrant. \u201cJust like him, others are forced to become their own saviors to avoid death. Just like him, they are victims of xenophobia, that is, the fear of the foreign,\u201d she says. Another famous novel by Betty, \u201cThe Parrot and the Doctor\u201d, also talks about diaspora and prejudice against the immigrant.<\/p>\n

Her sister Denise Milan is also an artist and a public figure. Their mother\u2019s family came from the regions of Zahl\u00e9 and Baalbek, Lebanon, while their father\u2019s family came from the village of Mount Lebanon. Just like Baal\u2019s Omar, they started their lives as traveling salesmen and were very successful. Betty studied Medicine but devoted herself to psychoanalysis \u2013 having even worked with Jacques Lacan in France \u2013 and writing, in newspapers and literature.<\/p>\n

Her published works have many references, direct and indirect, to her Arab family. In her memoirs \u201cCarta ao filho\u201d [Letter to My Son], Betty talks about her grandmother making Arabic bread, her aunt that danced dabke and reminded her of Saraghina from Frederico Fellini\u2019s \u201c8\u00bd,\u201d and the stories she heard around her family. It is clear in the book how she admired her mother, who became the head of the family after her father died, when she was still very young.<\/p>\n

Betty first went to Lebanon with her parents when she was 14 and then went back this year to participate in the Lebanese Diaspora Energy<\/a>, a conference held in the country to bring together Lebanese and descendants living around the world. The author visited the main sights and says her trip was an extraordinary experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cLebanon is a jewel, a heritage of humanity, but it’s going through hard times now. Besides the war in Syria and the refugee presence, it has very serious ecological problems. I think the next diaspora conference should focus on the environment,\u201d Betty says. In the conference this year, she was honored for her collaboration and commitment with her family’s home country. The initiative came from Lebanon\u2019s consul to S\u00e3o Paulo, Rudy El Azzi.<\/p>\n

While talking about her love for storytelling, she remembers her grandfather, who she describes as a great storyteller. \u201cHe told them in Arabic and Portuguese,\u201d she says. The novel Baal also includes storytellers, the so-called hakawati. \u201cOmar\u2019s best friend was a storyteller that talked about Sinbad the Sailor, who is a kind of patron of the novel. Just like the traveling salesmen, Sinbad travels to work,\u201d says Betty.<\/p>\n

Just like Baal is connected to her Arab background, so is \u201cCarta ao filho.\u201d It is a letter she wrote to her son, the filmmaker Mathias Mangin, who she had with her late French husband Alan Mangin. Directed to her son, the book tells her life, including personal reflections on her background, such as being the first daughter and a woman in an Arab family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell the real story of my paternal grandparents, who came from a village in Mount Lebanon over a century ago. I was there and was thrilled because the stone walls of the house were conserved by the descendants and because I saw the mountain they went down to reach the sea. The immigrants are true heroes and should be treated as such,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Parrot and the Doctor,\u201d there are also references to her family. The book is inspired by the psychoanalysis Betty did with Lacan. In the novel, Lacan is the imaginary ancestor of the female lead, who can only set herself apart from him by evoking her Lebanese ancestors\u2019 story. \u201cIn Parrot, I focused mainly on my father\u2019s family, while in Baal on my mother\u2019s,\u201d she says. The rights for \u201cThe Parrot and the Doctor\u201d were acquired for a cinematic adaption in the United States. Milan\u2019s book \u201cThe Eternal Mother\u201d had its rights acquired for an adaptation in Brazil.<\/p>\n

The book \u201cThe Parrot and the Doctor\u201d was translated into French, Spanish and English. \u201cThe Eternal Mother\u201d was translated into European Portuguese and Spanish, while her bestseller \u201cParis Never Ends\u201d was translated into French, English and Chinese. \u201cNow we need to translate the novels about the diaspora into Arabic,\u201d Betty says.<\/p>\n

She believes that, if they are translated into Arabic, the books may help the Middle Eastern residents know the problems of immigration, resulting mainly from the war. \u201cThe novels may have a peacemaking effect, as well as liberating women. Both books are appropriate for that,\u201d Betty says about \u201cThe Parrot and the Doctor\u201d and \u201cBaal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty Milan doesn\u2019t work as a therapist anymore but talks as a psychoanalyst at congresses and conferences in Brazil and abroad. She says she intends to devote herself mainly to literature and theater from now on. Betty wrote seven plays and one of them, \u201cGoodbye Lacan,\u201d will premier at Teatro Eva Herz in S\u00e3o Paulo in September featuring actors Ricardo Bittencour and Bianca Bin.<\/p>\n

She is married with the author Jean Sarzana. He traveled with her to Lebanon this year. Her son Mathias Mangin has recently launched one on his movies in Brazil, \u201cHor\u00e1cio.\u201d Mangin directed other movies too, including \u201cDona Rosa,\u201d based on his grandmother\u2019s story, which has also inspired Betty. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done none of it if it weren\u2019t for my mother\u2019s support,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Fact sheet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Baal
\nEditora: Record
\nPrice: 49,90
\nISBN:\u00a0978-85-01-11635-2
\n1st edition, 2019
\n224 pages<\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lailson Santos<\/div>\n
Reproduction<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betty Milan released the book \u2018Baal\u2019 to tell the story of the character Omar, who came from the Middle East, faced prejudices, made a fortune, but couldn\u2019t prevent his family from falling apart. She has published over 20 books and is inspired by her own Lebanese background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":216152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[9179,9178,41153,9206,9185,9186,9208,9187,6637,9188,4450,9209,9210,9207],"class_list":{"0":"post-216157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-baal","9":"tag-betty-milan","10":"tag-imigracao-libanesa-en","11":"tag-immigration-middle-east","12":"tag-jacques-lacan","13":"tag-lacan","14":"tag-lebanese-background","15":"tag-lebanese-diaspora-energy","16":"tag-lebanese-immigration","17":"tag-mathias-mangin","18":"tag-milan","19":"tag-paris-never-ends","20":"tag-psychoanalysis","21":"tag-the-parrot-and-the-doctor"},"wps_subtitle":"Betty Milan released the book \u2018Baal\u2019 to tell the story of the character Omar, who came from the Middle East, faced prejudices, made a fortune, but couldn\u2019t prevent his family from falling apart. She has published over 20 books and is inspired by her own Lebanese background.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}