The Secret Forest

Abdul Gadir Dagash
“Courage remains a primitive feeling that anyone could own… But boldness is what befits the conversant.” Can we interpret this profound introduction as a revelation that we are reading a spiritual, mystical, or even human novel that talks about human anxiety… Quite possible!
Amir Al-Jak, Nuqud Allah, Al-Nour Amasaib, Mukhtar and Jimmy are men drawn in the novel and were present in the lives of the novel’s female characters, but they do not attract the reader’s attention despite their presence in every detail of the novel and their being part of the tragedy of its heroes.
“Layla Salah” did not just record the emotions of her heroines, but she also focused on the psychological crisis, describing their psychological commotions, “…she was always laughing and I felt that she was hiding her fear, confusion and fragility behind that playful laughter.”
But the depth of the tragedy does not stop at Nashwa’s betrayal of Doria Al-Hajj, for Nashwa herself is prey to something whose features she has not yet identified. She has no merit other than her beauty, and she did not possess the culture of Maria or Doria, and she did not experience life as Maya did: “For ten years I have been wrapped in monotony and boredom,” and boredom and anxiety lead to violent internal destruction, so Nashwa paved a path for herself that does not relieve her of her pain, but makes her forget the monotony: “Nashwa discovered how she could fill the deep, sunken holes within her and fill them with men.”
It seems that the state of searching for something lost is a constant necessity for the heroines of the novel, as they try to get rid of their crises or overcome their fractures and helplessness and then stand up to life, and live in peace and tranquility, but: “Life is a state of deficiency and we are in a constant search for a non-existent completion.” As if a man should accept life on its own terms without complaining: “It became clear to me that a complete break with what actually exists is not a solution, and that the trick of complete identification with it is also difficult, if not impossible.”
The novel moved from the realistic framework that deals with society, the state, the economy, politics and identity issues, to the ideal framework that takes on the great meanings of humanity and the relationship with God and religion and “obsession with the purity of the self” and worship, “Who said that there is one truth that we must express, who said that there is one correct position.”
However, the greater trend that the reader can interpret is the problem of man (himself) his fear, sadness, joy and anxiety that preys on him mercilessly and relentlessly. The person who does not know the truth of things until it is too late. The person seeking freedom “…the most beautiful thing about it is that it is free of the illusion of possession, for I want you without having to own your life, your body, or even your soul in return. I love you and you are free from all bondage. Aren’t the feelings of love themselves slavery?!”
“I have understood that we must live our destinies bravely and accept them, and I do not want to engage in a struggle whose outcome is predetermined?” Is man overcome by his situation and condemned to accept his fate as it were, or is this an inner sign whose signs are feelings and sensations without relying on the tangible material reality, or is it surrender because there is no decisive certainty and nothing that can prevent a person from his inevitable fate or solve the psychological dilemmas that plague him.
Layla Salah did not answer the questions that kept Doria awake all night, and before her, Maria, who abandoned modern world life with all its achievements to return to the most primitive forms of life, and sees in religion with all its obsessions, diseases, plagues and dilemmas a more merciful state than the harsh, cold materialism that envelopes Europe.
Layla Salah did not give us easy answers in “The Secret Forest”, and she did not reveal the secret hidden in the heart of the forest despite her resorting to spiritual vocabulary (as we interpreted it), and resorting to the spirit makes the pains and problems of life bearable and easy, especially after she was exposed to the accident that shook her life and made her discover the triviality of life, “Facing death in an accident made me think deeply about death”… “I have not changed anything and things will remain as they are, taking their time, and I will continue to play the game of compromises until the end… I reached my certainty and got rid of illusions.”
There are challenges that have no solution.. We either leave them to time or completely eliminate them.. And Doria in her settlements game did not reach the final and happy solution.. She did not look back.. She did not tell us whether she would try to rebuild what was destroyed in her life or leave her wall like this on the verge of collapse.. Nor did she tell us whether her mingling with Maria, her soule-mate led to her identification with her in the end or whether each of them kept her elements as they were.. All she said at the end of the novel – which expressed very deep human conditions – was one sentence: I don’t know??