Halasa's views awarded him a life of exile, spending many years in Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.
[2] As someone with great command of literary technique and theory, on top of his exceptionally fluid style, Halasa's writings combine smooth reading with complex structuring.
According to comparative literature professor Walid Hamarneh, Halasa wanted to "[utilize] modern and post-modern techniques in novel writing, while at the same time preserving the great insights and creative achievements of the nineteenth-century realists.
Fairly early in life, Halasa began reading books in Arabic, French, and English, while also demonstrating strong writing skills at the Christian Mutran boarding school for boys.
[4] This interest in American literature manifests later in Halasa's life when he translates into Arabic a biography about William Faulkner, and J.D.
[7] After exile from Egypt, he spent time in numerous countries: Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Germany, and lastly Syria, where he died.