Rate this book

House Of Stone: A Memoir Of Home, Family, And A Lost Middle East (2012)

by Anthony Shadid(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0547134665 (ISBN13: 9780547134666)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: This warm book is a history in several interwoven parts: his grandparents' house in Marjayoun, Lebanon, which he is restoring during a sabbatical from his job as a Washington Post reporter; the troubled history of Marjayoun and Lebanon over the last century or so; the story of his family, who emigrated to Oklahoma early in the 20th Century; the foibles of the villagers and the workmen restoring the house. His prose is vivid and sensitive, and the stories never seem to lag. The reader comes away with a sence of place and its context.It's a pity that Mr. Shadid never got to inhabit this house -- he died on assignment in February 2012, covering the Syrian civil war (he died of a fatal asthma attack). The care and hope he brought to this house makes the book even more profound... more, a personal meditation on his past and hoped-for future. His loss means that this last book will be perhaps his best monument and memory. It's a good final memoir.
review 2: Give this book a good 50 pages to charm you. It moves as does the restoration of the house: slowly, but with something beautiful emerging, a concrete work that bridges past and future. I am even more sorrowful now that Anthony Shadid's work as a war correspondent recently cost him his life. His was a rare perspective and a valuable voice in translating for Western readers the graciousness and turmoil of the Near East. less

Download links for: House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East

Advertising