13. HOUSE OF STONE - BOOK AS A WHOLE AND FINAL THOUGHTS ~ June 24th - June 30th (SPOILER THREAD)

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

For those of you who have completed the book and/or who want to discuss aspects of the book which are beyond our weekly assignments in the non spoiler threads, this thread is a spoiler thread where you can discuss those points.

If you have completed the book and would like to tell us what you thought about this selection, please feel free to discuss your opinions in a respectful way here.

However, please no links to personal reviews because we consider that self promotion. Simply post your thoughts here without the links.

Many folks read ahead of the weekly assignment and that is OK too; however, you must make sure that your posted comments on the other weekly non spoiler threads do not reflect reading ahead of the posted weekly assignment. If you would like to discuss aspects of the book further along, this is a spoiler thread where you can do just that.

We try to move along the discussion slowly on the weekly non spoiler threads but realize that some folks like to move along swiftly. So we have options for both groups of folks.

by Anthony Shadid

[Jill H.]

What an insightful review, Jim. Thanks so much. I hope you will still look in on some of the threads since you have lived in Muslim countries and can offer very helpful comments to supplement the reading for the rest of us.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Great post Jim.

[Dennis]

Notes at page 190: The author was from Oklahoma City (where I reside) and told us a lot about the Lebanese community here - friend in my book club dated Anthony's mother in an existence between marriages, so me and the Lebanese, we're like this (Dennis illustrates by twisting his index finger around his middle finger).

A friend that knew Anthony as a middle grader commented that he was a terrific kid, overachieving in every endeavor. Personally I really don't "get" grown up Anthony - I suppose some pathology would explain - he's divorced, separated from a daughter of an impressionable age - and seemingly leaves his day job with the NYT to go to a war-ravaged land to rebuild a house abandoned by ancestors that he has ONLY A MINISCULE OWNERSHIP in. What's wrong with this picture? It reminded me of Huck Finn, fleeing with a runaway slave, heading SOUTH. Egads! What the heck are you thinking? Can this possibly have a happy ending?

I guess I question the sanity of someone that doesn't spend time with their kids. I don't care what the cultural values are, a house seems like a puny caricature for family. I'm curious to see if my concerns are addressed in the last third of the book.

***
Finished now... to my surprise many in my book club had the same reaction to "House of Stone." Much of the book is about the characters Shadid dealt with in getting the house renovated, few of them likeable. Myself, I get an email at least once a month wherein someone rants about the ordeal he/she went through while either remodeling the house or getting a colonoscopy. So those parts didn't seem so original. We all liked the italicized sections about how his family arrived in Oklahoma. I had not considered that Shadid probably suffered some cruel abuse while in captivity that might go a long ways to explain his pathological(?) obsession with the house.

Four stars for the quality of the writing, generally the big questions the work caused me to ask went unanswered.

[Jill H.]

Thanks for your comments, Dennis. The question of his obsession with building the house has come up several times in the discussion. But as you say, the quality of the writing is quite good and I learned a lot about Lebanon and their customs of which I was unaware. But it is a rather unusual book.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Dennis your outlook was very open and honest and we appreciate it. I think you pointed out a lot of areas that we questioned. You may be right about what happened in captivity because he did seem to have an edge when he described that situation but I think the rebuilding of the ancestral home is like a crusade for him or the quest for the holy grail. Getting back something lost.

Maybe he is finding himself. I felt it was a romantic quest and a search for a missing part of Shadid himself. I think he realizes that something is missing in his life - something that he is not finding in his heart, his soul or in his family.

That must have been hard for the folks around him. His life seemed to be one of extreme, risk seeking, adventure and searching for the unknown - always trying to seek something beyond himself which would make him feel better.

The awful truth is that he was always with himself and he could never escape his loneliness and solitary outlook on life.

I honestly feel he identified more with that house, those olive trees and the past more than he identified with his family.

He was yearning to be whole and he found it I think with the rebuilding of this house as odd as it might seem - he finished something and made something better.

For him the house represented the sense of family he never got from the living. I think the house made demands of him but ones that brought him peace in the end. I think he died a fulfilled man.

He reminded me of a crusader. I am loving the book - his writing is exceptional, I love the imagery which is almost like poetry and I get a feel for Lebanon that I never had before. It is a stellar gem; different but honest even if we do not understand why.

PS Dennis - I have to admit that some parts of your review made me laugh (smile) - but remember reality is sometimes stranger than fiction and what Shadid did is what he did. And the house was better off for it and I think maybe he was too (inside) even if we might think him a fool for the surrounding circumstances.

[Katy]

Finished and enjoyed the book. A nice view of the different characters that Mr. Shadid interacts with as he restores his family home in Lebanon. With past and present war as a continual background, the people have many different ways to survive the chaos of the wars.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

Glad to see that you enjoyed it Kathy.

[Jill H.]

Kathy......I knew that you were enjoying the book but didn't know you had finished it already. Thanks so much for your participation. Please feel free to return to any of the book threads to comment even though you have competed the read.

[N0rth3y]

I finished House of Stone last week. I agree with the previous poster that I had been expecting more of a historical context, but the camera rarely pulls back.

I did enjoy the way he gives you a view into the past of his family, and also the tenseness of waiting for yet another war to start up.

But - this may sound strange - somehow the sense of place wasn't very strong for me. Logistically I felt lost, and even the house wasn't a strong image in my mind, and that frustrated me.

The ending also felt a little fast forwarded - he gets kidnapped for several days, suddenly comes back with his wife and daughter (how is the house? Any trespassers?). I ended up reading all his obituaries to try to get some more finality.

I enjoyed the writing overall, though. Very lyrically written.

[Aloha]

N0rth3y wrote: "I finished House of Stone last week. I agree with the previous poster that I had been expecting more of a historical context, but the camera rarely pulls back.

I did enjoy the way he gives you a ..."

Your assessment was how I felt about the book. It was lacking for me.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

North3Y - did you watch the movie videos I added in the video section of the History Book Club - I watched all of them and was moved by the involvement that Shadid had with his home. His writing is beautiful. I have even added links to all of the interviews with his wife. She actually went on tour for the book because it came out after Shadid's passing.

@Aloha - everyone has different ideas about each book and that makes for some wonderful discourse.

[Jill H.]

N0rth3y wrote: "I finished House of Stone last week. I agree with the previous poster that I had been expecting more of a historical context, but the camera rarely pulls back.

I did enjoy the way he gives you a ..."

Thanks for your comments North3Y. The book is not your usual "history" book but one of almost poetic longing of the author to return to his roots. Your use of the word "lyrical" perfectly describes his writing.
Your feeling of disconnect, if I may use that word, that was shared with Aloha (post 12), is probably not unusual when one is reading about another country, especially one which is constantly in turmoil as is Lebanon and is also targeted to one specific subject (in this case, the house). We put images and commentary on the Glossary thread to help the reader visualize the scene and give some additional insight into the people and the country. In the case of this book, the style of his writing has been the major attraction to several readers and not necessarily the historic content.

[Aloha]

Jill, it has nothing to do with me not connecting with Lebanon that made me feel that it wasn't connecting for me. It's the way he wrote it. I've read terrific literature about different places and time that I have never known, but the style of writing draws me in. There was one about the art of drawing's connection to place that was absolutely beautiful, Bento's Sketchbook, yearning and inspiring. I am also into reading about the meaning of space. Maybe that's why I am more critical than most when I feel there's a lack of place in literature.

by John Berger

[Jill H.]

Aloha..................I had noticed that some readers were drawn by the style of writing but not necessarily the story and thought that you might feel the same way. Thanks for clarifying your feeling of disconnect.

[Teri]

Here is my review of the book. Thanks for moderating, Jill. I didn't participate/input in all weeks of the reading, but I did read all of the messages. It makes a difference, when reading a book, to see what others are thinking.

My Review: Review: 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.

[Jill H.]

Thank you for sharing your very well done review, Teri. I appreciate it.

[Steve]

The House of Stone is written by Anthony Shadid, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the New York Times. The book chronicles Shadid’s trials, tribulations and joys as he rebuilds his Great Grandfather’s home in Southern Lebanon. While telling this story, he traces his family’s flight from Lebanon into the Middle East and provides profound insight into Middle Eastern Culture.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Although it is a factual story, it reads like a great Novel. I would highly recommend it to anybody interested in the history of the Middle East

[Jill H.]

Thank you Steve for sharing your review. Indeed the book does read like a novel, rather than non-fiction. We appreciate your comments.

[Jill H.]

In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut—where he lives— or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather’s estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild.

House of Stone is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent’s jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house’s renewal alongside his family’s flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. In the process, Shadid memorializes a lost world, documents the shifting Middle East, and provides profound insights into this volatile landscape. House of Stone is an unforgettable meditation on war, exile, rebirth, and the universal yearning for home.

by Anthony Shadid

[Lauri]

I did enjoy reading this book, but I have mixed feelings about it. There is something beautiful about returning to an ancestral home, but I agree with Dennis (message 5), I do not understand the author's obsession with renovating his great-grandfather's house. I felt like he should be with his daughter back in the states if family and home is what is important.

I did find the book beautifully written though. I loved the history lessons in the book. I also enjoyed the tales of the different characters the author encountered in Lebanon. The book was well worth the read.

Thank you Jill for doing a terrific job moderating.

[Jill H.]

Thanks for your comments, Laurie. Everyone has a different take on the book but all certainly agree that the writing is lyrical and from the heart. I certainly learned quite a bit about Lebanon which was unknown to me prior to reading this book. Thank you for participating.

[Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief]

I came across an interesting chart - it appears that Tunesia tops the list for terrorists - more than Saudi Arabia.



Source: The Economist