Book Jewel of the Month: Road to Damascus (E. Imady) - The Road Less Traveled
What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that.
This month's book jewel is Road to Damascus by Elaine Imady.
Description:
Recommended by US Review of Books and First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Awards legacy competition, Road to Damascus describes the Middle Eastern journey of an American who meets and falls in love with a Syrian when they are both attending school in New York. Giving up her country and her religion to follow her husband back to Syria, Elaine Imady has made a life that has successfully bridged two cultures and two continents. Raising three bi-cultural, bilingual children, Elaine has important insights to offer to readers from either the West or the Middle East about how we can all not only get along with each other but learn to love each other. Her life is symbolic of the best of what can be when two cultures come together.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review of Books
Amazon review by E. Whiting -
The Road Less Traveled
"In the mid-1950s, young American women were on the borderland of change. Ahead lay the upheaval of the women's movement and behind lay the landscape of their mothers. Girls were encouraged to get an education at moderate cost and a husband at all cost. Into this mix came Elaine Rippey, already somewhat of an activist and a student at New York University in 1955. She arrived from Palisades, NY for an education and within a short time left with an unlikely husband and a future no one would have anticipated.
Her autobiography of the first years of her marriage to Mohammed Imady, former Minister of Economy for the Syrian Arab Republic who now serves his country as Chairman of the Syrian Commission on Financial Markets and Securities, is a sharp-eyed look into the delights and detours of being a foreign wife in a country that most of her family and friends had never heard of. Even today, few Americans know Syria as anything other than a place too close to the Axis of Evil.
This memoir takes a long and loving look at the real Syria which became over time Elaine's home. She weaves her own tale into stories of her husband's family, a family that dates to the early 1500s. She recounts her introduction to a world of customs and rules so vastly different from those of mid-20th century New York with warmth and love. I personally sympathized with her "surprize" at the facilities, or lack thereof. Somethings never change.
She tells the history of this ancient land through the stories told to her by her husband's mother, his siblings and assorted family members. These tales were a way for her to learn about the religion, the politics, the social structure of her new home. And they are an enlightening way for the reader to learn the history of this little-known country from the perspective of those who lived it. Mrs. Imady does not shy from addressing head on all the cultural differences and speaks clearly about her choices as she raised her three children. While other foreign wives of Syrian men struggled to find a life in such a different world, she adapted, considered, accepted and rejected customs that were strange to her at first. Many dear friends returned home. She chose to stay and we now benefit from her forthright and affectionate look back.
Mrs. Imady's position as the wife of a cabinet minister afforded her an unrivaled perspective. Her life was not that of a cosseted, sheltered "little woman", kept in the background and blissfully ignorant of the history being made around her. While not inflammatory or sensational, she is not coy about describing her experiences. Her description of the bombardment by Israel on residential areas near her home in October of 1973 is the tale of all women who see war come to them while they and their children look on.
This is a work to stimulate conversation. Her book is lively and an eye opening opportunity for anyone who is genuinely interested in knowing about another culture from the inside out. She provides an opportunity for correcting many misconceptions that Westerners have of a little known region. It is a must read for anyone interested in knowing both sides of the story."
Book Award
First Runner-up, Eric Hoffer Award
For more posts about Elaine and her book, click HERE.
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