Overview

On the eve of the first Gulf War, an American poet drifts into Tunis-and into a world that refuses to stay ordinary. Dizzier Than Gillespie follows Delilah, a restless traveler and visiting professor, as she navigates friendship, feminism, spirituality, and danger in North Africa, guided (and occasionally derailed) by a scandalous thirteenth-century saint with a taste for gin and tonic. Lyrical, witty, and fiercely intelligent, Sibyl James's debut novel blends political insight with magical realism, tracing women who claim space in male cafés, challenge orthodoxy, and invent joy in the shadow of war. This is a novel about sisterhood and resistance, exile and belonging-where jazz syncopation, desert light, and saintly mischief collide, and where home is found not on a map, but in the act of living fully.

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9781951082987

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Reviews

Dizzier Than Gillespie starts right out with voices of this world and not quite of this world. The writing shimmers with precision and keen observations in what could be taken for a record of an extended stay in North Africa, but actually becomes a vision of a richer world full of simple and complex beauties, constructed mainly by women gathered across time and geography, assembled from the commonest day by day but sometimes necessarily traveling in mind and body to the places of war. Like a dream but too vivid, too tactile, too full of flavor. -Edward Mast, Playwright, Author of The Million Bells of Ocean In her debut novel, Dizzier than Gillespie, poet Sibyl James serves up a rich Middle Eastern feast, dizzying in its sweep of an ancient culture and its history, as seen through the eyes of Delilah, an American writer living in Tunis where she teaches as a visiting professor at a local Tunisian university on the eve of the First Gulf War. More than its vivid evocations of life in Tunis, James' tale centers on her friendships, the sisterhood she forms with her Tunis guide, Melina, and with Laurel, an American poet and UN staffer stationed in Tunis. As a feminist trio, the uppity women challenge the male-dominated world of Tunisia in a small but potent act of rebellion by taking tables in male-only cafes. They draw stares of disdain from the men, looks of curious admiration from a group of passing girls. Then there's Saida, whose identity I won't divulge here, but who adds sparkle and spice to Delilah's life, especially during the harrowing events leading up to the war. Dizzier than Gillespie crackles with verbal panache. It's often funny, more often wise, reflecting a world view that comes hard-earned from lived experience. In Delilah, James has created a character who comes to terms with the nomadic life, who embraces both its uncertainties and its rewards, and who comes to understand that the home she seeks is wherever she finds herself in the world. -Ed Harkness, Author of Creek Water: New & Selected Poems In her debut novel, Dizzier than Gillespie, Sibyl James has created a character, Delilah, a visiting professor in Tunis, who comes to terms with the nomadic life she has chosen, who embraces both its uncertainties and its rewards. And for the reader, the rewards are, thanks to James' vivid chronicle of an outsider's view of an ancient culture, abundant and richly satisfying. -Ed Harkness, Author of Creek Water: New & Selected Poems I *really* like Dizzier than Gillespie! It's a thing of many elements: a novel, travelogue, a cultural chronicle, a history lesson, a critique of the countries that launch wars, a feminist fable, an intro to the Arabic language. At times, reading the pages of dialogue, I could picture your book being a potential screenplay. In Saida, you even blend in a dash of magic realism. What a cool character! And there's the occasional letter from Delilah that makes me think of the time-honored form of the epistemological novel. Wonderful book! -Ed Harkness

Author Information

Sibyl James is the author of fourteen books-poetry, fiction and travel memoir-including In China with Harpo and Karl (Calyx Books), The Adventures of Stout Mama (Papier-Mache Press), China Beats (Egress Studio Press), The Last Woro Woro to Treichville: A West African Memoir (String-Town Press), The Grand Piano Range (Black Heron Press) and most recently The Mother of Invention (a children's book from Calyx) and Plum Blossom Wine (Empty Bowl Press). She has taught at colleges in the U.S., China, Mexico, and-as Fulbright professor-Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire. As writer in residence, she has worked for the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle Arts and Lectures, and the Seattle School District. Her writing has received awards from Artist Trust and the Seattle, King County and Washington State arts commissions.

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