Muddy People is a hilarious, heartwarming memoir of growing up and becoming yourself in an Egyptian Muslim family in suburban Brisbane.
Sara, known to her family as Soos, is coming of age in a household with a lot of rules. No bikinis, despite the Queensland heat. No boys, unless he’s Muslim. And no life insurance, not even when her father gets cancer.
Soos is trying to balance her parents’ strict decrees with having friendships, crushes and the freedom to develop her own values. With each rule Soos comes up against, she is forced to choose between doing what her parents say is right and following her instincts. When her family falls apart, she comes to see her parents as flawed, their morals based on a muddy logic. But she will also learn that they are her strongest defenders.
Sara El Sayed has been featured in the anthologies Growing Up African in Australia and Arab, Australian, Other. Her debut memoir Muddy People is her story of emigrating to Queensland from Alexandria, Egypt, as a small child with her family, and of growing up and finding her place. It’s an illuminating book, filled with warmth and laughs.
El Sayed tells her story in simple yet impactful prose. Many readers with migrant backgrounds will relate to her descriptions of feeling different at school, of being made to feel different. She transported me right back to school playgrounds, swimming carnivals and band practice – those formative environments where we are moulded. She eloquently writes about the experiences of young girls – confusing moments of puberty, changing bodies, changing friends – trying to figure it all out while wearing the right clothes and sitting with the right people. Millennial readers might also reminisce alongside El Sayed about hours sitting at the computer playing The Sims.
Muddy People is written in short chapters, each focusing on particular moments from El Sayed’s childhood, as well as insights into her parents and grandparents backgrounds. Chapters are titled with the rules that governed her house, such as ‘Rule #1: Don’t Touch Alcohol,’ ‘Rule #2: Good Girls Don’t Wear Bikinis,’ ‘Rule #3: Always Tell the Truth,’ and ‘Rule #4: No Moving Out Without a Husband.’ El Sayed unpacks each of these rules through the eyes of her younger self, coming to terms with what the rules meant and why her parents were so strict about them. This is a poignant coming-of-age story of a young Muslim Australian, both entertaining, informative and incredibly important, as such stories often go unheard.
Muddy People is a delightful and engaging read, and an incredibly impressive debut from El Sayed, a young Australian author to watch!
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