Title: Block 82
Author: RH Duncan
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781532074523
Genre:War / Fiction
Pages: 226
Reviewed by: Lisa Brown-Gilbert

Read Book Review

More affecting or frightening than any horror novel one could ever read this Halloween, R.H. Duncan’s Block 82 portrays the raw and visceral drama of the life, love, and death experiences of its war-weary characters, during the Beirut Civil War in the 1980s.

Immediately compelling and deeply stirring, this emotionally tense novel propels the reader into the explosive and ultra-traumatizing world of twenty-two-year-old Nadia Ibrahim and her family and friends, whose daily lives are portrayed through a maelstrom of emotion rending experiences, in a place where death or news of death had become the norm and good news was rarely born.

Initially, we meet Nadia as she finds herself stung by the disheartening news of the death of her brother’s young friend, Sami, somehow yet another victim of the ongoing war. And although death was nothing new to her, the pervading thoughts and feelings of the hopelessness of trying to live a normal life amidst a raging war, seems to follow her as she goes to work, causing her to grapple with her depressed feelings. Living life in constant fear while immersed in sadness and heartbreak on a daily basis, she struggles with not only the wages of war through persistent threats of being blown up by a car explosion or scattered bombings, and most times living without water or electricity, as well as existing on scant diets the crux of which seems to be mainly coffee and cigarettes while also, having to run through the streets just to go from one place to the next, essentially living on tenterhooks from one moment to the next.

Meanwhile, also adding to the heightened tension in her life, due to her culture, Nadia could not openly express her emotions as a woman, as this was looked down on in a society where traditionally where everything was controlled by men. Fundamentally, Nadia desires to leave the violent, rended world of Beirut, but finds herself constrained by a lack of money and obligation to another through an Islamic marriage contract. Although she finds love with another man, Tony, he is not of her faith, thereby creating a situation which bucks tradition, However, Nadia is not a woman of tradition, she seems to be a visionary, who believes people should be free to follow their dreams, especially when it comes to love which is where she finds she is constrained the most, and she wants to be liberated.

Consequently, this results in an engrossing, heart touching story that looks at the triumph of multifaceted love, while steeped in the horrors of war. I was wholly touched by the story while engaged by the characters and found that author R.H. Duncan did a superb job at bringing this narrative to life, via vividly contrasting the beauty of the land, people and love against the bloody horrors of war, thereby producing a work which aptly touches the soul, and culminates into a story that demonstrates the strength of humanity, and the power of love in a seemingly hopeless and inhumane setting. Ultimately, Block 82 is definitely one for the personal library.