House of Stone
A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
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کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
This book is the late author's paean to his family's home in Lebanon, built by his great grandfather. It is a heartfelt story that Shadid uses to tell of the physical reconstruction of the house and the metaphysical rebirth of Lebanon and the larger Middle East. Along the way, he recounts his family's history and describes the Lebanese culture that has been lost since the civil war of the 1970s. Narrator Neil Shah has a deep, nasal-tinged voice that meshes beautifully with the author's lyrical words. He uses a subtle approach, reading with purpose and force but never overpowering the story. Shah also flawlessly pronounces the Lebanese names and places, lending credibility and authenticity to his effort. It's a marvelous book complemented by a first-rate narration. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
November 28, 2011
Shadid—a New York Times correspondent, Pulitzer Prize winner, and grandson of immigrants— took a leave of absence to renovate his ancestral home in Lebanon. Shadid’s “quixotic mission” was a search for identity. His great-grandfather left the house to his family to “join us with the past, to sustain us.” Shadid went in search of that past, claiming, “I understood questions of identity, how being torn in two often leaves something less than one.” He writes sentimentally of Lebanon, but his confession that the house was “memories of what I had imagined over many years” reveal a constructed emotion. The sentimentality sometimes borders on maudlin, and his identity quest is often lost among mundane construction details. Shadid claims to understand the “desire of those whose place had been taken away.” He is presumably referring to his divorce, but his home renovation doesn’t convince as healing process. History buffs, however, will appreciate the family and Middle Eastern historical asides.
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