A Thousand Farewells

I finally finished Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewells. The book is written like a true journalist. Impartial, and concise. Fact-based and informative. I loved that it was an easy read. While I was a little disappointed that it was not a comprehensive analysis of the Arab Spring, Ayed echoes the voices of dissent in the most humble and humane manner. Such, that it was almost haunting to read. She is a very descriptive writer. What I enjoyed most, was her capability to intertwine an autobiography to the events in recent history she witnessed, which gave voices to those trapped between wars.

Her heritage and background worked to her benefit, and in many instances she would capture the essence of middle-eastern culture in the book. I appreciated the bits of poetries, songs and arts which depict the richness in civilization and culture many of the Arab countries possess. This is something frequently overlooked by the media's projection of the middle-east as barbaric and chaos.The atmosphere during the Egypt protest was probably my favourite, along with the Libyan gratitude towards foreign intervention, which very much surprised me. Although there is much tendencies to homogenize the series of events as the "Arab Spring", Ayed really highlighted the differences in character each tumultuous occasions had. From Iraq, to Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Libya....

It made what Mr. Breen, my Canadian History teacher in grade 10, said rang true. "Countries are a lot like people."