A fiction writer who taught in Saudi Arabia and Egypt for five
years in the 1980s recounts her experiences with balance, if not
literary excitement. While Caesar notes relevant international
events (e.g., the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the American
bombing of Libya) and her romance with and marriage to an Egyptian
colleague, she devotes her chapters to delineating characteristics
of the cultures in which she lived. Topics range from intricacies
of women's dress to Egyptian tribal beliefs about marriage to
faulty Western press coverage of the Middle East to the accepted
mistreatment of foreign-born housemaids. Throughout, Caesar
successfully interweaves her students' comments on the Western
books she teaches to shed light on both the Middle East and Western
assumptions. Most effective are her account of the teaching of a
Passage to India, which leads to class discussions of the moral
blind spots fostered by political power ("shame societies and
shameless societies," a student says), and Caesar's later
ruminations on the US victory in Iraq and the World Trade Center
bombing trial. In nearly every chapter Caesar observes, raises
questions, and recedes as a character. This combination, plus the
many incompletely developed supporting characters, results in a
low-key, occasionally uninvolving tale, lacking the self-scrutiny
of fine memoirs, But her persistence in examining and questioning
Western and Middle Eastern cultures, and her believable embrace of
some of the latter's elements and people, are what remain in mind
when the book is done. She takes readers to what she calls "a
different world" and helps them better understand and appreciate it
- to see Cairo, for example, as she does, "evolving naturally out
of itself for thousands of years, influenced by other cultures
without becoming an artificial imitation of them." Parts of this
volume have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and
elsewhere. A warm, modest work that makes compassion seem simple.
(Kirkus Reviews)
In the five years that Judith Caesar taught literature in Saudi
Arabia and Egypt during the 1980s, key events took place that
changed the face of Middle Eastern politics. Seen through the eyes
of many Westerners, the assassination of Anwar Sadat, the Israeli
invasion of Lebanon, and the Intifada were incidents reflective of
a seemingly volatile and aggressive culture. But Caesar saw these
events from another perspective. Part memoir and part travelogue,
Crossing Borders conveys simply and eloquently the voices of the
people and the cultures Caesar came to know during her time in the
Arab world. Some of her writings in this book have first appeared
in publications such as the Christian Science Monitor. In the
tradition of the best writings on foreign places, Caesar's
narrative is both an inward as well as an outward journey of
discovery. In addition to the political reverberations taking place
around her, she writes of the misconceptions generated by both the
Saudi and the American press. In "All the News That's Fit to
Print", Caesar notes wildly disparate interpretations of news
stories when they are translated from one language to another.
Caesar also demonstrates an openness in discovering the meaning
inherent in the simplest daily tasks. She focuses on what is
politically significant in what people do every day, such as
drinking tea, shopping, and teaching. Crossing Borders will appeal
to people interested in a non-dogmatic description of the Middle
East, and to those who love good travel writing.
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