cover image Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir

Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir

Jean Said Makdisi. Persea Books, $19.95 (253pp) ISBN 978-0-89255-150-7

Born in Jerusalem, raised in Egypt, educated in England and America, Makdisi married a Lebanese man and settled in Beirut in 1972. Despite the 1982 Israeli invasion and 15 years of civil war, the Makdisis are still there, ``clinging to the wreckage'' and maintaining a ``strange love for this mutilated city.'' The author of this beautifully crafted memoir delineates the lives and emotions of those who chose to stay, emphasizing the joie de vivre of friends and acquaintances despite frequent shellings, aerial bombardments and fighting in the streets. Told from the point of view of a self-described housewife, this is apparently the first detailed account by a civilian of daily life in the cockpit of the Middle East war. A sensitive and perceptive observer, Makdisi also writes of the ruthlessness of Israeli troops in '82--which will shock readers. (Sept.)