Elaine Rippey Imady

This book gives the reader a great picture of Syria in the 1960s and is a great antidote to all the 'western women escaping horrible arab marriages' genre which seems to be a growing subcategory of literature. Through stories of her own marriage as a naive American student to a Syrian, and stories of his family history Elaine Rippey Imady gives an affectionate account and demonstrates how tolerance can enrich lives. Whilst the writing is sometimes a bit pedestrian this book is well worth reading, and contributes to an understanding of the situation in the middle east today.… (más)

This memoir tells of the life of a young American from New York who moved to Damascus in Syria after having fallen in love with her husband to be Mohammed at University. The life of an immigrant living with her extended family is honest and touching. We read much about the family of her husband, the customs, the conflicts of the 1960s and 70s and her life as the wife of a cabinet minister.

Whilst this was not a gripping story it gave an insight into life as an immigrant and there was much to admire. The love with which it was written is evident and in places moving but I would have loved to have become more involved with some of her thoughts and reflections upon events – as it was I was left wanting.… (más)

This should have been a fascinating memoir: young American undergraduate student meets Syrian postgraduate student in New York university library in the 1950s. They fall in love, marry, and have their first child in the US and then move to Syria . . .

Having studied Arabic and travelled in the Middle East, I was hoping to enjoy this account of an adult lifetime spent in a country and within a culture that were so different, in so many ways, from those of the author's childhood. But it was a slow read and, had this not been a review copy, I probably would not have continued to the final pages.

To be fair, the substance is interesting but is not best served by the style, which is rather plodding and repetitive, especially towards the end of the book, where the author appears to be running out of steam. Moreover given the number of typos, I assumed that this must have been an unchecked proof copy. (Wrong.) And why is it designed and typeset like an old-fashioned textbook?

A lighter touch, a willingness to be ruthless about the overuse of adverbs and adjectives (and any hint of smugness) and less reliance on exclamation marks would have helped. Had this been an entirely private memoir, intended only for the family, these would have been minor considerations and the family members are probably proud and delighted to have this very detailed account of a particular time in their recent history. However, if you put a book into the public domain, you need to consider your audience more carefully; this is where a sensitive but firm editor can make such a difference. A sub-editor would have been useful too, to iron out all those typographical errors and a good designer could have transformed the appearance of this book.

As it happens, I was reading Shappi Khorsandi's A Beginner's Guide to Acting English at the same time; it makes a useful comparison, albeit in reverse. Iranian-born Khorsandi arrived in the UK as a small girl in the 1970s. She and her family were refugees who needed to move as far away as possible from the reach of Ayatollah Khomeini and those who served him, in the wake of Iran's Islamic revolution. Like Rippey Imady, Khorsandi intersperses her narrative with the history of grandparents and other family members, as well as references to her country's changing political and religious landscape. But there the similarities end. Khorsandi's writing is wild and funny and has the pulse and immediacy lacking in Rippey Imady's.

Road to Damascus is, sadly, something of a lost opportunity.… (más)