In Praise Of Hamra's Cafes

Hemingway once wrote a great short story titled "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," a sort of love song to a good cafe. If I had it in front of me right now, I would quote from it, but all I have is the story of Brian Keenan's return to Beirut after seventeen years, in the Sunday Times.

Some of the descriptions of Beirut are horribly overwrought -- unforgiveable for any author except one writing about a place where he was imprisoned by terrorists for over four years (which, it turns out, is Keenan's relationship to the city). However, I did enjoy this description of the cafes in Hamra:

"For the next few days I walked around the streets of the Hamra area, with my feet hardly touching the ground. The street vendors and their stalls had gone. Incredibly, the bedlam of the traffic, with horns permanently depressed, had reduced in volume by several decibels. Nor were people screaming their conversations at one another. Instead, they retreated to trendy cafe bars, where they played chess or backgammon and conversed with an air of good-natured languor or passionate engagement.

I loved these places. There was a buzz and ease about them which made me feel like a regular as I listened to conversations moving effortlessly from Arabic to English or French. I looked at the young people around me and thought of my students at the university where I had taught. I wondered where they had gone and if any of them had not survived the Israeli air raids."

Enjoy your Easter Sunday, see your family, relax in a cafe -- for tomorrow, Nasrallah marks the fortieth day.