[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: University of Texas at Austin
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble[/alert]
Back in 2003 two authors from two very different countries were able to spend time in each other countries thanks to the West-Eastern Divan program – a cultural exchange program. This book is the response from the two authors and their experiences and views on life as a homosexual. Rashid Al-Daif is an author who lives in Lebanon. He lived there during the decades long civil war and has seen years of unrest. He spent six weeks in Germany with author Joachim Helfer, who is gay as well. This book is about Al-Daif’s reaction to meeting someone gay for the first time, and living openly about it. It explores the lives of homosexuals in Lebanon and how they are different. While Joachim Helfer offers a rebuttal, or a different way of viewing homosexuality in the two countries, and how he views the way they are treated in Lebanon as backwards. This is an interesting book because it provides two different ways of viewing homosexuality, which gives a perspective on America and how our views as a culture have changed over the years. While it is not perfect and a bit slow at times, the book is interesting.
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