A Thousand Farewells

I just had a halloum cheese pita pie from Baraka on north Main Street so as to enjoy a little Lebanese flavour before beginning my discussion of Nahlah Ayed's book A Thousand Farewells. 

Overall I found the book both intriguing and informative. Ayed's discussion of her childhood and her parent's decision to move the family back to the Middle East and then to return again to Canada were important to understanding her perspective later in the book.

Ayed presents a very balanced perspective and keeps her personal bias largely out of the discussion. It was particularly valuable to me to be presented with such an informed view of the religious and political landscape in the Middle East, as opposed to the Western media's broad sweeping generalizations and oversimplifications about the tensions and conflicts that occur there.

Her description of the effect of Israel's attacks on Lebanon and the role Hamas played in starting the war are examples of the complexity of the political and religious tensions that are so often downplayed or simply ignored in the West. We generally get the Israeli point of view because that is who our leaders support.

Her explanation of the rift between Sunni and Shia Muslims was enlightening for me, in particular how the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Iraq war essentially served to further divide the Iraqi people and led to a civil war.

The way she describes the history of the region through the context of its history of conflict and oppression, and the effects that has had on the collective psyche of the population, make the devotion and commitment of the Arab Spring protesters and the spread of active protest from Egypt throughout the Middle East easier to understand.

One thing I thought worked particularly well were the descriptions of Arabic words that didn't have direct translations, but rather described feelings that helped sum up the people's collective discontent.

To discuss what didn't work is more difficult for me because I felt that every piece of the book was supposed to be there. I felt that the part about her early life dragged a bit compared to the rest of the book, but was, in the end, very necessary to establishing her point of view later in the book.

Similarly, with what is missing, I could argue that more background into so much of what happens would be nice. Realistically, I feel that she chose wisely about what background and how much was in the book considering the space she had to tell her story. She could probably write an engaging book about each chapter or conflict in A Thousand Farewells.

There is much to learn about journalism from the book. There are interesting descriptions about how different styles of journalism are practiced from print to television and the difference between what is actually happening with respect to a story and what will be reported.

While the book is written about Ayed's personal experiences and involves her as a character, her journalistic style shines through. She delivers the stories in a very factual way, leaving out personal opinions and feelings. This gave the stories more credibility and, I felt, more power. This is a valuable lesson the book offers journalists.

The book reminds me of the documentary Why We Fight which examines the American military-industrial complex after World War II, with particular emphasis on the Iraq war. Though both are different in their approach, the book and the film both tell their stories through factual and historical information. The film relies more on testimonial from experts than the book, but both have powerful examples of everyday people and how the wars have affected their lives.

The book made me much more aware of the situation in the Middle East on many levels. The history of conflict, the religious and political turmoil, the incredible oppression suffered by the people, the understandable feelings of animosity towards the West and the depth of the effects of personal loss have all affected me from reading the book.

The reason these elements affected me is because Ayed addressed them by telling the stories through real people's experiences.