Iraqi writer Zuhair al-Jazaeri discusses memoir on Najaf and the 60s

KARBALA — Iraqi writer Zuhair al-Jazaeri on Saturday evening discussed his latest book, Rebounding Waves: Najaf, Childhood, and the 1960s, at a cultural gathering in Karbala’s al-Hussein neighborhood, reflecting on memory, politics and the inseparability of personal experience from social history.

Speaking at Café Ibn Ridha Alwan, al-Jazaeri described the book as “a personal and social memoir,” stressing that “no individual biography is entirely separate from society.” He said the work traces three main phases of his life: his childhood and youth in Najaf; the experience of the 1960s generation, including engagement with the Palestinian cause and the Lebanese civil war; and his years working at Tariq al-Shaab, the newspaper of the Iraqi Communist Party.

Al-Jazaeri told 964media that the third section focuses on “the period of attacks on the Iraqi Communist Party and the emergence of Saddam as a dictator,” situating his own experiences within broader political repression and transformation in Iraq.

He said he is currently preparing three additional books that will extend the Rebounding Waves project into the post-Saddam era. The forthcoming volumes, he said, are written in diary form and are scheduled for publication later this year.

Abdul Jabbar al-Ali, one of the attendees, told 964media the event aimed to highlight al-Jazaeri’s willingness to revisit his life candidly. He said the author recounts his experiences with their “mistakes and obstacles, both inside and outside Iraq,” and praised his ability to engage critically with memory.

“I believe al-Jazaeri succeeded in doing that,” al-Ali said, referring to the balance between personal reflection and collective history that shaped the discussion throughout the evening.