ISBN 0864423683. Trade Paperback. Very Good Condition. Tight sound unmarked copy with minor rubs and creases to edges and corners of covers, a few upper page corners slightly dogeared, slight dustsoiling to edges of interior pages. No statement of later printing on copyright page.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Gates of Damascus
Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN 10: 0864423683
ISBN 13: 9780864423689
Binding: Paperback
Edition: Later Edition
Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The Gates of Damascus is a beautifully drawn portrait of daily life in modern-day Syria. Through her intimate contact with Hala, a Damascene, Lieve Joris experiences the routines and celebrations of domestic life in the Middle East. She also witnesses the impact of Syrian politics on the lives of ordinary people. A travel writing classic, Lieve Joris's book offers a unique insight into the complexities of the Arab world.

'She has expanded the boundaries of travel writing.'
Times Literary Supplement

Reviews

Lonely Planet has chosen to launch a new line of travel literature books with this well-written reminiscence of a stay in Syria. Belgium-born Joris visited her Muslim friend Hala and Hala's 11-year-old daughter in Damascus, and she recounts their life in a fundamentalist society. Hala's husband was jailed as a political prisoner when their child was an infant, and her fear of the dreaded mukhabarat or secret police is pervasive. The women spend evenings at home, where they relax in their nightgowns and endlessly discuss Hala's relationship with her husband. She is allowed to visit him, bring changes of clothing as the seasons change and take home trinkets he crafts in jail, but she has fallen in love with someone else and is unsure what she would do when and if he is released. Anxious to see more of Syria, the author goes on a desert walking trip with a group of Syrian Christians, whose sympathy for President Assad is markedly different from Hala's views. The author, who remains a shadowy presence, keeps her own politics largely hidden, although she objects to Hala's rabid anti-Semitism. More about Joris, how she met Hala, or even when this trip took place would have been helpful. As it is, the book offers an interesting portrait of women's daily life in modern Damascus, even if its appeal is limited by the author's personal reticence
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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