From Publishers Weekly
Kerr's husband, Malcolm, president of American University of Beirut, was killed in his office on Jan. 18, 1984, by assassins who were never identified. This book grew out of the author's journal. She delves relatively little into politics but gives a flavor of a family's affection for Lebanon and the Arab world, as well as their own stories. In 1954, the author met her husband-to-be on her junior year abroad at the AUB; the couple spent 20 years at UCLA beginning in 1962, where they raised a family. In the late 1950s, when some saw Lebanon as a possible democratic model, Malcolm Kerr warned that it needed renewal; Lebanon was in greater turmoil in 1981 after Israeli attacks, but Kerr couldn't resist the opportunity to return to the institution and country he loved. While the author, who coordinates the Fulbright program at UCLA, might have trimmed some of her journal entries, this is a sensitively written account. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In 1984 Malcolm Kerr, president of the American University of Beirut (AUB) was gunned down by unknown assailants. The school, founded by American missionaries in 1862, was the intellectual hub of the Middle East, just as Lebanon was its cultural and financial heart. Beirut was a charming city, a marvelous blend of East and West, prosperous and modern. All that ended when the country's fragile political system, based on religious affiliation, was destroyed as invading Israelis drove masses of Palestinians into Lebanon, which became a center of terrorism, kidnappings, and massacres. Kerr first met husband Malcolm when they were both AUB students, and she details their wanderings through life together, from their marriage to their years in Lebanon and, finally, to Malcolm's murder. Primarily a family memoir, Kerr's book will give interested lay readers a bit of background on Middle East affairs. For public libraries.
Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
