Book Jewel of the Month: Road to Damascus (E. Imady) - great cross-cultural memoir

 

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

Goodreads review by Kirsten -

"This is a great cross-cultural memoir. Elaine was a college student in the 50s when she fell in love with a Syrian graduate student. She married him and moved to Damascus in 1960. This book traces the first 15 years of their life together - the culture shock, the ups and downs, learning Arabic and traditional Syrian customs. I really enjoyed Elaine's writing style, and the book moves quickly.

Her sympathies are definitely with Syria when she touches on some of the Middle East conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s. I am used to a more Jewish-oriented perspective - about issues such as a look back at the creation of the state of Israel, for example, where she agonizes about the displacement of the Palestinians. That angle has not been part of my usual view - I welcome the new point of view." 


Book Award
First Runner-up, Eric Hoffer Award


For more posts about Elaine and her book, click HERE.


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