April 23, 2012
Freelance writer Abdelnour channels her addiction to “food pilgrimages” into this piquant mix of memoir, travelogue and culinary adventure. In 1981, at the height of the Lebanese civil war, Abdelnour’s parents moved the family to Houston. Although born in the U.S., Abdelnour spent most of her first nine years in Beirut. In Houston and, later, at the University of California at Berkeley, she nursed an idealized image of Beirut, colored by her family’s summer vacations to the city, as a place where she would no longer feel like a misfit and battle self-doubt. Then, in summer 2010, Abdelnour, now living in New York City, put a budding romance on hold to live for a year in the home her family had maintained in Beirut. Comparing and contrasting the sophisticated social scenes and bustling commerce in New York and Beirut, Abdelnour records the months spent there, frequently detouring into existential ponderings on the qualities that make a place feel comfortable. As she puts down roots and rediscovers her favorite traditional, Abdelnour analyzes Lebanon’s ongoing political instability, the constant threat of war in the Middle East—her stay coincided with political upheavals throughout the area—the potential revival of the Arabic language, and jarring Western-style displays of wealth and gaiety masking religious tensions and escalating unemployment. In the end, she has written a multilayered portrait of a complex, chaotic, and contradictory city. Agent: Jason Allen Ashlock.
April 15, 2012
A food-focused travel memoir through the streets of Beirut. Although she fled Beirut as a child during the Lebanese civil war, food writer Abdelnour never forgot the city or the sense of longing she felt to return. Disgruntled by her inability to feel at home in America despite 30 years in the country, the author left her friends, career and love interest in New York City to spend a year in her parents' Beirut apartment. She was determined to reconnect with her roots. Relatives and old friends who remained in the country during the war eased the transition from one city to the other. By taking daily walks through her old neighborhood, the author slowly felt the essence of Beirut sinking into her pores. Detailed street descriptions allow readers to meander with the author as she widens her berth, exploring new sections of the war-ravaged city. Abdelnour places special emphasis on the Lebanese food she ate on her walks or was served at one of the many family gatherings she attended. An expanding social circle of new friends and the ability to write about Lebanon helped her accept her background while maintaining her American identity. Despite the political unrest of the region, Abdelnour found peace in her new surroundings. Having embraced her Lebanese culture fully, the author realized she carried the sense of home inside her and ultimately returned to New York to live, at least for most of the year. Though the book includes recipes, a street map would have been a useful addition. Recommended for readers of food memoirs and those interested in Lebanon.
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May 15, 2012
Abdelnour moved from a life and career in New York as a travel and food writer back to Beirut, a city her family fled in 1981, during the Lebanese civil war. Growing up in the U.S. through adolescence and young adulthood, she felt that she belonged neither in the U.S. nor in Lebanon, which she occasionally visited. In her late thirties, in an effort to explore her true feelings about Beirut and its relentless tug on her heart, she committed to living there for a year. What she found was a vibrant but still turbulent city as she lived with continued military conflicts, unreliable electricity, erratic Internet access, and confusing social codes. She also found an extensive network of family and friends and fond memories of childhood. Abdelnour compares life in New York and Beirut, and throughout, she examines the meaning of home and belonging. Abdelnour brings her skills as a travel and food writer to this delightful look at Beirut life from the perspective of a native daughter returned after a long stay in America.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)