Where I'm Calling From

"Barely a hundred years ago, Lebanese Christians readily proclaimed themselves Syrian, Syrians looked to Mecca for a king, Jews in the Holy Land called themselves Palestinian...and my grandfather Botros liked to think of himself as an Ottoman citizen...None of the present-day Middle Eastern states existed, and even the term 'Middle East' hadn't been invented. The commonly used term was 'Asian Turkey.' Since then, scores of people have died for allegedly eternal homelands, and many more will die tomorrow."

So says Amin Maalouf, whose memoir "Origins" Origins" has recently been translated into English. The book traces the stories of his ancestors -- who include a successful retail businessmen in Havana, a "tragic hunger artist," his freethinking grandfather Butros, Catholics, Protestants, a Melkite priest, and even a Mormon branch. I read Maalouf's "Rock of Tanios," his fictionalized account of the Lebanese civil war. It was good -- not excellent, but good enough to pick up "Origins" if I find myself with a free weekend.

The New York Times published a positive review today. It describes Maalouf as "a polemicist on behalf of the mongrel life," a partisan for a more tolerant sense of identity. Slate published a review a few weeks ago, which uses the book as a launching point to discuss a "lost age of liberalism" that Maalouf's grandfather allegedly represented. I have not read the book yet, but I can say the NYT's review made me more eager to pick up the book.