Life as an American in the Middle East: Challenges and Connections with Author Catherine W Rouhana
- Life as an American in the Middle East: Challenges and Connections with Author Catherine W Rouhana Teri M Brown 26:58
My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Catherine W Rouhana, author of the book When the Fudge Trees Bloom. Cathy grew up in the ’50s and ‘60s in a three-bedroom row house in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the second of ten children, seven girls, and three boys. Yikes! You might say. Somewhat cramped? Well, yes, in retrospect. But children can always find a cubby hide-away to escape the chaos, (and maybe the chores). In the days before social media and even the days of the infancy of television, she and her siblings escaped into books. They were voracious readers and fought over the treasures brought home from a three-mile hike to the nearest library. Of course, the hiker had first dibs, but the rest was up for grabs.
The ‘70s brought marriage to her Lebanese husband and their first child. Books were still front and center with a job as a children’s librarian/head of agency at a branch of the prestigious Enoch Pratt Free Library. This was soon followed by the opening of The Bookmark, an independent bookstore, with her friend and fellow librarian, Janice. But not to stay in one thing for too long, the “80s brought their second son and an offer to Nagib to work in Saudi Arabia. They accepted, and their adventure began.
Back and forth in the Middle East, between Lebanon, Nagib’s country of origin, and Saudi Arabia. From heat and humidity and daily sameness to fresh mountain breezes punctuated by intermittent bombings.
She returned to the States in the late ‘80s but maintained one foot in the Middle East. Retirement from her position as manager in a medical office gave her the time and space she needed to complete the book she had been writing (slowly) for the past twenty years. When the Fudge Trees Bloom: Memories of an American in the Middle East is her first book, but, she hopes, not her last.
In my book review, I stated When the Fudge Trees Bloom is an amazing memoir. Catherine spent many years of her adult life in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. However, the person she was when she left the US as a young mother and wife to a Lebanese citizen, and the person she was when she entered Lebanon again when her son got married were two very different women.
I learned a lot about the unrest in the Middle East in the 70s and 80s. I also learned a lot about living life in the closed society of Saudi Arabia and family traditions in Lebanon. This memoir made me wonder how I would have handled the many wars, the political upheaval, the idea that women are second class citizens, and simply the loneliness of being far from home.
In the end, I fell in love with Lebanon – at least the Lebanon known to Catherine’s family. The one not torn to shreds by war.
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You can follow Author Catherine W Rouhana:
Website: https://cathyrouhana.com/
IG: @authorcathyrouhana
FB: @authorcathyrouhana
Purchase When the Fudge Trees Bloom on Amazon:
Paperback: https://amzn.to/4dd43CE
Ebook: https://amzn.to/3SGz21r
Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com
FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor
IG: @terimbrown_author
X: @terimbrown1
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