A review by teriboop
House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid
4.0
Anthony Shadid's House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family and a Lost Middle East is not your typical memoir that reminisces about one's life, but about the life of Shadid's ancestors, their physical home, their town of Marjayoun in Lebanon, and the people that live there. It is about Bayt, which literally translates to "house" but means so much more. Bayt is the family home, and all that goes in and on there.
Shadid recounts the years of rebuilding his great grandfather's home in Marjayoun after civil war has destroyed part of the physical building, interspersing stories of how his ancestors left to move to Oklahoma to start a new life. Shadid has now returned to the home his ancestors left to rebuild the home and to gain an understanding and perspective into his own life.
I enjoyed this book. It makes you contemplate what is important in life (family!) and what Bayt might mean to you. I think people often think of the home they grew up in, but is it the home that makes those memories, or is it what happens there and everything that pertains to it? Sadly, Shadid died just a few years after the home was complete, so he was unable to enjoy it along with his family, but they have kept his spirit alive in this House of Stone.
Shadid recounts the years of rebuilding his great grandfather's home in Marjayoun after civil war has destroyed part of the physical building, interspersing stories of how his ancestors left to move to Oklahoma to start a new life. Shadid has now returned to the home his ancestors left to rebuild the home and to gain an understanding and perspective into his own life.
I enjoyed this book. It makes you contemplate what is important in life (family!) and what Bayt might mean to you. I think people often think of the home they grew up in, but is it the home that makes those memories, or is it what happens there and everything that pertains to it? Sadly, Shadid died just a few years after the home was complete, so he was unable to enjoy it along with his family, but they have kept his spirit alive in this House of Stone.