Book Jewel of the Month: Road to Damascus (E. Imady) - Intelligent, loving account of life as a foreign wife in Damascus

 

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 NoBooksNoLife  -

Intelligent, loving account of life as a foreign wife in Damascus!

"In Road to Damascus, author Elaine Rippey Imady shares her personal memoir of her first thirteen years in Syria, beginning as a newlywed in 1960 and ending with events of the 1973 war between Syria and Israel. Her Prologue and Epilogue, written in 2007, briefly set this book in the context of current affairs; however, this is first and foremost an apolitical, straightforward account of romantic love, cross-cultural marriage, and life as foreign wife and mother in a society very different from the New York of her upbringing.

Imady's story feels very close to my own "foreign wife" experience, although my arena is East Asia rather than the Middle East. Raising a family wholeheartedly in two cultures often means not feeling completely comfortable in either, and one is often caught between longing for the other culture and the joy of discovery in the present culture. Imady describes these mixed feelings beautifully and never fails to indicate how much richer life is for her and her family as a result of crossing cultures.

Her husband, Mohammed Imady, comes from proud family with over 600 years of history in Damascus. Elaine and Mohammed met and married (secretly at first) when they were at university in New York City. This book is rich with psychological insights in to Mohammed's extended family, male/female relationships and role expectations, generational change, and religious views (Imady converts to Islam from her Protestant background). Descriptions of geography, food preparation, family outings, and a handy glossary round out this gentle first-hand account of life in Damascus.

I enjoyed this book very much for what it is--honest and straightforward--somewhat like a personal diary; however, I hope the Prologue and Epilogue indicate a possibility that the author will write about her experiences from 1973 to the Present, perhaps centered on a biography of her devoted, far-sighted husband and his extraordinary career?

Road to Damascus would most appeal to those who would like to have a sense of daily life in a country easily ignored in the west, and to gain a more nuanced understanding of the struggle for balanced Arab governance within Syria and of the Arab-Israeli disputed territories.

Many thanks to MIS Press and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program for the opportunity to read this advance reader copy." 

5 stars


Book Award
First Runner-up, Eric Hoffer Award


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


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