lebanon-wise

Walking through the streets of Paris yesterday, I stopped by Shakespeare & Co, an English bookshop facing Notre Dame. Visiting this bookshop for me is a real treat... Every time I step inside, I watch with awe the beautiful ceiling with its exposed beams and the old colorful floor with its patchwork paving. But as I stepped into the bookshop yesterday, I didn't have time to admire the place. There were these twin words, Lebanon, Lebanon, on a table at the opposite end of the room, staring me right in the face. I crossed the room, picked up the book and bought it.

At home, I scanned through the pages.... I discovered a collection of notes, excerpts and poems by various famous Lebanese and non-Lebanese writers, from John Le Carré, Paul Auster, Robert Fisk, Doris Lessing to Alexandre Najjar and many many others. These excerpts, I learned, were written or collected, and packed and edited in this one book in the aftermath of the July 2006 war on Lebanon.  The profits from this anthology are intended for children's charities in Lebanon.

The difficulty of choosing a passage for my blog compelled me to take a nibble here and there at one writer and another... without taking them all of course, since I have no intention of copying the book here.  The crumbs and bits of writings I picked up for your tasting are put here at random, like a plateau of amuse-gueules.... Madame est servie. For the whole cake, you will have to contribute to children's charities in Lebanon :)))

Remember we are in July 2006.

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As of today, the peace process will be intensified through war. These are safe bombs, and any fatalities will be minors. The targets are strictly military or civilian. Anomalies may occur, but none out of the ordinary. This release has been prepared by official stop. (Blake Morrison, p.27)

The switch from peace to a state of war is the fastest transition. The few minutes leading up to 9.20 am on Tuesday were a world away from the minutes that followed it. There has been no warning... none of the usual signs that was about to break out. (Hassan Daoud, p.22)   And now the Lebanese people will have to learn the art of misery all over again. (Margaret Drabble, p.212)   Over my dead body. (Mona Hatoum, p.35)

If you kill a hundred innocent civilians and one terrorist, are you winning or losing the war on terror? 'Ah', you may reply 'but that one terrorist could kill two hundred people, a thousand, more!' But then comes another question: if, by killing a hundred innocent people, you are creating five new terrorists in the future, and a popular base clamoring to give them aid and comfort, have you achieved a net gain for future generations of your countrymen, or created the enemy you deserve? (John Le Carré, p.36)   'It makes you think, doesn't it? Makes you think about life. Here today. Gone tomorrow? It makes you think about life and death, doesn't it? But here I go, philosophizing again.... (V.S. Naipaul, p.76)   The only clear thing in history is pain. The only clear thing in history is silence. In suffering there is no equality. In the hot rain of silence there is no balance. (George Szirtes, p.70)   The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. (Yann Martel, p.81)   Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Eventually you won't even realize that there is a war. (Zena al Khalil, p.48)

 'What are you doing, Dad?'
'I have these files to finish,' he answered, settling himself in a corner of the shelter.
'What files? The country is ruined. There are neither clients, nor tribunals, nor judges, nor justice ... What's the point?'
My father nodded and said these magnificent words: 'Tomorrow peace will come and I need to be ready.' (Alexandre Najjar, p.218)

It is because I walked from Achrafieh to Ras Beirut, via Ain al-Rumaneh or al-Bourj, by houses that offered their modest balconies to my eyes or their imposing high-rise glass façades, as well as their oriental late-Ottoman arcades that I feel at home in New York as well as in Fez. I walked the same route all through my twenties, humming the tunes of Edith Piaf, Um Kulsum and Feyrouz, as well as John Coltrane and the Rolling Stones, so that when I reached other cities, any other city, I could sing and dance to the same rhythms of those who were already there. ... and I thank Beirut for having prepared me to see migration as a promise of adventure. (Mai Ghoussoub, pp.65, 66)

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As I left Shakespeare & Co of the rue de la Bucherie yesterday... sliding down towards Saint-Eustache and the boulevard Saint-Michel, I was like Mai Ghoussoub living life away from Beirut as an adventure... but... for me, it will definitely be a transient one. Patricia

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Book's details: Paperback: 256 pages.Publisher: Saqi Books (20 Sep 2006).Language English.ISBN-10: 0863566413.ISBN-13: 978-0863566417

Editor's description: Children are living in appalling conditions in Lebanon since the outbreak of war in July 2006. This collection of writing and drawings - from some of the world's leading authors and artists - is for them. The contributors include: Etel Adnan, Adonis, Paul Auster, Hoda Barakat, John Berger, Abbas Beydoun, Raymond Briggs, Carmen Callil, John le Carre, Jung Chang, Hassan Daoud, Mahmud Darwish, Margaret Drabble, Moris Farhi, Simone Fattal, Robert Fisk, Lara Frankena, Maggie Gee, Mai Ghoussoub, Charles Glass, Fabio Guzman, Malu Halasa, Mona Hatoum, Tobias Hill, Aamer Hussein, Nada Awar Jarrar, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Peter Kennard, Judith Kazantzis, Mazen Kerbaj, Zena el-Khalil, Hanif Kureishi, Doris Lessing, and Toby Litt. They also include: Madi, Jean Said Makdisi, Alberto Manguel, Yann Martel, David Medalla, Adrian Mitchell, Blake Morrison, Beverley Naidoo, V. S. Naipaul, Alexandre Najjar, Adam Nankervis, Greta Naufal, Shirin Neshat, Rebecca O'Connor, Orhan Pamuk, Hadrian Piggott, Harold Pinter, Clare Pollard, Mohammed Rawas, Rhea, Claudia Roden, Marisa Rueda, Kamila Shamsie, Hanan al-Shaykh, Owen Sheers, anna sherbany, David Shrigley, Iain Sinclair, Souheil Sleiman, Ali Smith, George Szirtes, Arnold Wesker, Brian Whitaker, Hugo Williams, and Zapiro