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Loading... Baghdad, Yesterday: The Making of an Arab Jewby Sasson Somekh
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Cultural writing. Middle East Studies. Biography and Memoir. A wise and often gently funny memoir by one of the world's authorities on Arabic literature, this book offers an intimate view of Jewish life in Baghdad in the 1930s and 40s. It describes vividly the young writer's intellectual and emotional growth and maps the now-vanished world of Baghdad's book stalls and literary cafes, its Arabic-speaking Jewish bank clerks, tuxedoed Iraqi-Jewish weddings, outdoor movies at the Cinema Diana, and bonfires by the Tigris. As the pieces of Somekh's unsentimental and sharply drawn memoir accumulate, they also mount in meaning "It is hard to overstate the beauty, originality, lucidity, gentleness, wisdom, and importance of Baghdad, Yesterday"--Ma'ariv. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)920History and Geography Biography, genealogy, insignia BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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One of the delights of the book is that Somekh not only includes photographs but also gives descriptions of them. For instance, rather than simply saying, "This is a photo of the whole family at a wedding," he goes through the photo, pointing out individual family members, describing them, their history, what eventually becomes of them, and so on.
As a language buff, I found great interest in Somekh's discussions of Iraqi Arabic and other languages; and literary buffs will no doubt be interested in Somkeh's run-ins with and descriptions of literary notables from Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world.
This would likely be a good book for those interested in the (former) Iraqi Jewish community; Arab Jews in general; and the history of Iraq. A history which, it should be noted, goes far deeper and is much richer than the modern-day headlines of bombings and political unrest. ( )