Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir - Softcover

Makdisi, Jean Said

Softcover

ISBN 10: 089255245X ISBN 13: 9780892552450

Publisher: Persea Books, 1999

Synopsis

A new edition of the widely acclaimed account of the civilian experience of fifteen years of war in Beirut- "a profound, heartbreaking book" (Los Angeles Times Book Review), "an impassioned cry against indifference" (New York Times Book Review), "a work ringing with truth and insight" (Arab Book World)-now with an Afterword about the postwar years. A New York Times Book Review Notable Book An intensely personal yet timelessly crafted portrait of life in a worn-torn city, Beirut Fragments spans the years of the civil war in Lebanon, 1975-1990. When thousands fled, Jean Said Makdisi chose to stay. She raised three sons, taught English and Humanities at Beirut University College-and she wrote. She records the breakdown of society and the physical destruction of Beirut, the massacres of Sabra and Shatila, the Israeli Invasion, everyday acts of terrorism, the struggle to maintain ordinary routines amid chaos, and the incredible spirit of a people. A Palestinian, a Christian, a woman who has lived in Jerusalem, Cairo, the United States, and Beirut, Jean Said Makdisi uses the migrations of her own life as a paradigm which helps elucidate many of the conflicts in the region. The new afterword covers the postwars years, from the last ceasefire to the present day.

About this title

About the Author:

Jean Said Makdisi was born in Jerusalem and studied in Cairo and the United States. She is the author of Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir, a New York Times Notable Book. She lives in Beirut.

From Publishers Weekly:

Born in Jerusalem, raised in Egypt, educated in England and America, Makdisi married a Lebanese man and settled in Beirut in 1972. Despite the 1982 Israeli invasion and 15 years of civil war, the Makdisis are still there, "clinging to the wreckage" and maintaining a "strange love for this mutilated city." The author of this beautifully crafted memoir delineates the lives and emotions of those who chose to stay, emphasizing the joie de vivre of friends and acquaintances despite frequent shellings, aerial bombardments and fighting in the streets. Told from the point of view of a self-described housewife, this is apparently the first detailed account by a civilian of daily life in the cockpit of the Middle East war. A sensitive and perceptive observer, Makdisi also writes of the ruthlessness of Israeli troops in '82--which will shock readers.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Persea Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 089255245X
• ISBN 13: 9780892552450
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256