{"id":5205,"date":"2010-02-20T05:52:35","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T05:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2010-02-21T05:59:43","modified_gmt":"2010-02-21T05:59:43","slug":"new-books-on-syria-by-imady-ellery-and-saldana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/new-books-on-syria-by-imady-ellery-and-saldana\/","title":{"rendered":"New Books on Syria by Imady, Ellery, and Salda\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are three new books about Syria that I can recommend wholeheartedly. I have corresponded with the authors for some time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>The Road to Damascus:
\n<\/a>by Elaine Rippey Imady<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

E.E. Whiting Talks to Elaine Rippey Imady about her life in Syria<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026but we\u2019ll only stay for a short while.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With these famous last words, Elaine Rippey Imady, young wife and new\u00a0mother, set sail in 1960 from New York on a steamer bound for Damascus, Syria. H<\/span>ad she asked any of the <\/span><\/span>friends bidding her farewell<\/span> on the dock where Damascus actually was, she would have met with stares as blank as her own <\/span>on a <\/span>snowy day in 1955 when a handsome Syrian <\/span>graduate student at NYU named Mohammed Imady introduced himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the mid-1950s, young American women were on the borderland of change. Ahead lay the upheaval of the women’s movement and behind lay the landscape of their mothers. Girls were encouraged to get an education at moderate cost and a husband at all cost. A middle class girl from Palisades, NY, was not supposed to take up a life on a whole new continent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Road to Damascus, <\/span><\/em>Imady\u2019s autobiography of the first years of her marriage is a sharp-eyed look into the delights and detours of being a foreign wife in a country that most of her family and friends had never heard of. The book is both a tribute to her adopted country and the story of the Imadys, <\/span>an old and distinguished family descending from a <\/span><\/span>line of scholars and public servants dating <\/span>back 600 years.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mohammad Imady is the long-serving Minister of the Economy for the Syrian Arab Republic who helped found the nascent Damascus Stock Exchange<\/span>,<\/span><\/ins> and who now is Chairman of the Syrian Commission on Financial Markets and Securities. Elaine Imady has stood alongside her husband throughout his career and subtly became an unofficial representative of American culture within the Arab world.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Since their departure in 1960, the Imadys have shared every step of that journey that began in Manhattan and is still winding its way through the narrow, ancient streets of Damascus. Nearly 50 years after leaving New York, Elaine Imady, now young-at-heart wife and great-grandmother has presented the saga of her life in her adopted country.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Having embraced Syria <\/span>with a joy that is palpable in her writing, Imady shows the land and i<\/span><\/span>ts people to a Western audience with the unapologetic intention of dispelling preconceptions and stereotypes. Her life has coincided with years of great change and progress and her tale provides an honestly unique perspective on the old and new, the ancient and the modern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her position as the wife of a cabinet minister afforded her an unrivaled perspective. Her life was not that of a cosseted, sheltered “little woman”, kept in the background and blissfully ignorant of the history being made around her. She has been a teacher at the American School and the American Language Center (an adult learning center for Syrian students), a copyeditor for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, and the head of the UNICEF desk in Damascus.<\/span><\/p>\n

While not inflammatory or sensational, she is not coy about describing her experiences. Her description of the bombardment by Israel on residential areas near her home in October of 1973 is the tale of all women who see war coming while they and their children look on.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Road to Damascus, <\/em>Imady openly presents Syria, warts and all, demonstrating through family stories the same struggles and foibles familiar to any Westerner. At the same time, she reminds her Syrian readers of days gone by, of a way of life that has almost disappeared amid the rush into the modern world. <\/span><\/span>Passages depicting her cooking lessons, literally at the knee of her mother-in-law, when neither of them could speak a common language, are warm and insightful and profoundly familiar.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, she does not shrink from addressing the hard questions that point out the vast distinction between American and Syrian attitudes and traditions. Hers was a balancing act between choosing to adopt or reject the ways of her new home. She speaks candidly of the difficulties that other Western wives had in adjusting to their new society and mourns the loss of cherished friends who could not find their way to stay. Having converted to Islam, she discusses the issues facing women in the faith. The mother of three, she speaks candidly about attitudes on childrearing and education.<\/span><\/p>\n

I met Elaine in Damascus in May 2009 when, coincidentally, <\/span>Road to Damascus<\/a> <\/span><\/span><\/em>was being released. Response to the book has been enthusiastic and I returned to Damascus in October to discuss the work and her focus on promoting Syrian American friendship.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read this interview with Elaine <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>Imady<\/a><\/p>\n

Another book I highly recommend is this collection of poems by Chris Ellery. I got to know Chris in 2005. His poems are beautiful. Many are about Aleppo. I will ask him to copy one poem to the comment section once this is posted so we can read a little of his work. Here is the blurb from his book. He sent a copy and I have read about a third of them. I look forward to reading the remainder, The Aleppo poems swim with images that capture the city and its people in a new way. His images make simple and common things fresh and unusual; they shark off the page in subtle surprise and grab you. Here is one of his poems –\u00a0 “Long Walk<\/a>” – that I published on SC in 2005, when I first got to know Chris.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Big Mosque of Mercy<\/a>
\nby Chris Ellery
\nTemple, TX: Ink Brush Press, 2010<\/p>\n

In The Big Mosque of Mercy, poet Chris Ellery transfigures his encounter with Islam and the Middle East into a meditation on Mercy. The architecture of Ellery\u2019s mosque is revealed in poems both politically and psychologically probing. These poems reflect the spirit of the seeker, one who understands that illumination requires the humility to set aside preconceptions and pierce the attitudes of one\u2019s own culture and conditioning. Thus, Ellery\u2019s poems are rooted in the realist\u2019s powers of observation and description, sometimes with a directness stripped of poetic device. Ellery obviously seeks beauty in the psychic and cultural terrain of his sojourn, yet his idealism is etched in an unsentimental rendering of landscape and society. These poems acknowledge conflict; a tragic sense of history intersects with a persistent faith in the possibility of union. The collection reflects the difficulty and promise of that union in the mining of culture and geography for common symbols and in the diminishing tension between stereotype and insight, between the urge to judge and the yearning to cross boundaries and comprehend the real significance of slogans. Whether in a voice feverishly prophetic or as unpretentious as a pistachio cracking open, Ellery expresses a vision of a transformed self and society. At home in the language of mystics and inspired by seekers of every faith, Ellery guides the reader through geography, history, religion, politics along a way where the clamor of hostility and difference is silenced, to a field where Mercy transcends its signifiers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For more information contact the author at ellerychris10@gmail.com<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is one other book I must mention by a friend I got to know in Damascus in 2005. She is coming to the University of Oklahoma next week to talk about “Jesus and Mary in Islam,”<\/p>\n

\"\"The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith<\/span><\/a>
\nby Stephanie Saldana, February 2010, 320pp. Knopf Doubleday<\/p>\n

Kirkus Review: Learning about Christianity from the Muslim point of view.<\/p>\n

In 2004, Salda\u00f1a arrived in Damascus, where she learned Arabic, studied the Quran, mingled with the micro-societies inhabiting the old city and frequented the Mar Musa monastery, where she rekindled her Christian faith. Raised in San Antonio, Texas, to a half-Mexican Catholic family with a history of manic depression and violence, Salda\u00f1a fled to the Middle East after college, where she felt strangely safer. She reinvented herself as a journalist in Lebanon, before moving back stateside to attend Harvard Divinity School. The author arrived in Damascus during the second Iraq war, as U.S. bombs were dropping on Baghdad, yet she received no hostility from the denizens of the Christian quarter Bab Touma, where she found a room off Straight Street. She happily ensconced herself in this \u201cneighborhood of exiles,\u201d full of Assyrians, Palestinians and Iraqis fleeing violence, and befriended the shopkeepers, recognizing soon that her medieval Arabic was unusable and laughable. Yet taking a practical language class at Damascus University only yielded tedious sentences full of current terminology like \u201cguns,\u201d \u201cbombs,\u201d \u201cpolitics\u201d and \u201cexplosion.\u201d A month\u2019s stint undergoing rigorous spiritual exercises at the Mar Musa monastery plunged her into meditation on what her calling was\u2014to become a nun, or a writer? Ultimately, she resolved to engage in the \u201cmessiness\u201d of life, and fell in love with a young French monk, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric. In the second half of her memoir, the author chronicles her apprenticeship under a famous teacher of the Quran. This \u201clesson in personal humility\u201d is the most affecting part of the book, and the American author\u2019s reading of the Quran in Arabic proves gracious and moving.
\nA beautifully woven exploration of language and spirituality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Praise for The Bread of Angels<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA remarkable, wise and lovely book from a truly gifted new writer, The Bread of Angels<\/em> brims with originality and insight. There is poetry here\u2014the language and the depth of attention recall the young Annie Dillard. \u00a0But this is, above all, a love story, and a compelling one. Not many people can write transcendent, mystical prose and also create a page turner that keeps you up nights. Stephanie Salda\u00f1a\u2019s achievement is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning author of March<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the tradition of Elizabeth Gilbert\u2019s Eat, Pray, Love,<\/em> Stephanie Salda\u00f1a\u2019s The Bread of Angels<\/em> is a stunning memoir that is both a contemporary spiritual quest and a sweet, surprising love story.\u2026 Carefully observed, beautifully detailed, structured like a ceremony, The Bread of Angels<\/em> takes us from a fallen world into a luminous, resurrected one through faith and love and the exquisite skill of a fine writer, who writes like an angel!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garc\u00eda Girls Lost Their Accents
\n<\/em>
\n\u201cBrace yourself for an intense inner and outer journey. \u00a0Bread of Angels<\/em> is a many-layered personal story, ricocheting from Damascus to Texas to the desert fathers to scruffy Cambridge. A passionate young scholar confronts war, love, the mysteries of language, and God. \u00a0Stephanie Salda\u00f1a is up to the task. \u00a0A brilliant debut.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun
\n<\/em>
\n\u201cA fragrant, elegantly observed journey that captures the dilapidated glory of Damascus and the resilient wit of its people. Salda\u00f1a\u2019s tale of spiritual dislocation and self-discovery is remarkable for its poignancy and keen intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Azadeh Moaveni, author of Lipstick Jihad<\/em> and Honeymoon in Tehran<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bread of Angels<\/em> is dazzling, delicious, wise and brilliantly funny, endearing in every way. It is a love letter to the Middle East and to one’s own entire life, replete with doubt and fear, faith and deep connection. \u00a0A masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Naomi Shihab Nye, author of 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cReading The Bread of Angels<\/em>, I smelled the souks of Damascus, tasted the black coffee, and heard the calls of the minarets. Stephanie Salda\u00f1a writes with humor and intensity about her search for God, love, and a place to be. This is an unswerving look into the loneliness and darkness that shadow all of us, by a woman who has known depression and loss, but who also knows a shining joy\u2026. A fiercely courageous book.\u201d<\/p>\n

–Harvey Cox, Professor, Harvard Divinity School, and author of The Future of Faith
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Here are three new books about Syria that I can recommend wholeheartedly. I have corresponded with the authors for some time. The Road to Damascus: by Elaine Rippey Imady E.E. Whiting Talks to Elaine Rippey Imady about her life in Syria \u201c\u2026but we\u2019ll only stay for a short while.\u201d With these famous last words, Elaine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Books on Syria by Imady, Ellery, and Salda\u00f1a - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/new-books-on-syria-by-imady-ellery-and-saldana\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Books on Syria by Imady, Ellery, and Salda\u00f1a - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here are three new books about Syria that I can recommend wholeheartedly. 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