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Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images

Transit Beirut: New Writing and Images

by Malu Halasa (Editor), RoseanneSaadKhalaf (Editor)

  • Used

    Paperback 2004

    $3.36
Synopsis

Beirut - where plastic surgery meets the emotional intensity of the legendary diva Umm Kulthum, and Lebanese foodies go on the rampage. Transit Beirut is a unique anthology of complex urban experience that brings together personal writing, essays, journalism, short stories, photography and animation. The view is wide: from fiction to documentary, and everything in between. Beirut is undergoing an energetic process of rediscovery and reinvention by its own inhabitants, many of whom are only now returning to the city. With new and established Arab writers together for the first time, Transit Beirut oscillates between sarcastic humour and serious exploration of the tensions and conflicts in a society undergoing reconstruction. Things are never what they seem; students express themselves in the language of military conquest and athletes train to 'defeat' cholesterol. Here, TE Lawrence, Orientalism and a PLO grandmother's revolutionary milk interweave ...

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 250
 Publisher: Saqi Books
Published: 05 Apr 2004
ISBN 10: 0863565689
ISBN 13: 9780863565687

Media Reviews
'Bewildering, enchanting, at times exasperating, Transit Beirut conveys a din of contending vignettes and sensations. Yet the effect on the reader is far from transitory, and the lessons all too salutary.' The Independent * 'It is very Lebanese - simultaneously profound and sentimental ... the glimpses of personal histories are moving - the banality of the atrocities, the acceptance of a way of life, but above all, the creative resilience of the people of Beirut.' TLS 'Informative and daring ... a welcome manifestation of people meeting ideas and ideas meeting each other.' The Daily Star 'Perhaps this city is not so very dissimilar from the one you know, except that it's set a little closer to the bombs, a little closer to Israel ...' Pulp.net 'Transit Beirut is testimony to the adaptability and vitality of the Lebanese.' Saudi Gazette '... entertaining and challenging ...Reminders of conflict run like leitmotifs throughout Transit Beirut's 21 essays, poems and short stories.' The Middle East '[An] extremely attractive, well-designed book ... a virtual kaleidoscope of mental and landscape-bound images ... thoughtful and powerful.' Jordan Times 'a quirky yet insightful voyage into the hearts and minds of Beirut's inhabitants ... funny, dark, heartbreaking and optimistic by turns' Red Pepper 'Tells the story of that town much more credibly than anything you'll gain from media reports.' Loop Magazin
Author Bio
Malu Halasa is a freelance writer who writes about the Near and Middle East for The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times. Roseanne Khalaf is an assistant professor in the English Department and coordinator of creative writing at the American University of Beirut.