Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) [Hardcover]

Judith Caesar (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

During the 1980s, Judith Caesar taught literature in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Her aptly titled book offers one woman's view of several political powder kegs that didn't make front page news and of the clash between Western and Middle Eastern customs. An open-minded nature and curiosity about the place of women in cultures that seem wildly restrictive to many Westerners helps Caesar deconstruct stereotypes on both sides of the border. The American television show Dallas, she notes, now in perpetual rerun in many countries, has become a gold mine of misinformation on Western women. Likewise, our squeamishness about arranged marriage belies some of the inside story shared by her students. One plans to land "a good temper man" by asking a suitor's sister to reveal his true temperament. And if he doesn't have a sister? "Then don't marry him," comes the swift reply. "He has never learned about women."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press; 1st edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815627351
• ISBN-13: 978-0815627357
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,381,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finished the book in 3 days-- couldn't put it down., September 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Hardcover)

I started reading this book with a feeling of, "aww, do I have to?" It was assigned for my Middle East in World Affairs class. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I couldn't put it down-- I was done with the book in the first week of the semester, and rip-roaring ready to discuss it with my classmates. This book is un-biased, objective, and completely human-- it portrays a different society of people, a whole world outside of the US-- not as uncouth, barbaric and uneducated fools, but rather as what they deserve to be seen as-- humans, who just happen to live by a different set of rules. If you want to know the Middle East-- and find out who people are there, then read this book. This gives you a true sketch. (And I say this even though I am not from the Middle East.)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, humorous, introspective teaching odyssey., October 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Allen Hasson) (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Paperback)

This is an unusually touching, humorous and introspective account of Dr. Caesar's odyssey as a literature professor in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. She has gotten into the hearts and souls of her students in a way that should appeal to anyone interested in women's issues, travel, the Middle East, English teaching, or cross-cultural studies. She has a wonderful way with humorous understatement, and shares much of herself with the reader.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just another travel essay, April 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Crossing Borders: An American Woman in the Middle East (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) (Paperback)

I just finished this book and I loved it. It was in with travel essay/travel narrative books, and as I liked to read about the Middle East I picked it up. I was pleasantly suprised that there was a bit more to it than just the usual I went here, did this, saw that, and aren't they odd. Caesar's book makes you think. There is an increased interest here in the US lately, (since 9/11.books are popping up all over) in how people in the Middle East live. Still despite this still most of the people I talk to unfortunately still have the sterotypical impressions from news media, of violent people with guns or of cowering oppressed women in black, etc, and everyone in the Middle East is the same. There is sooo much more too it than that and Caesar helps to show Saudis and Egyptians as real people, with real lives, personalities, intelligence, etc, caring about their families, their futures, the world around them and going about their daily lives. Its a great book. It also inspired me to read some of the books she mentions, such as Passage to India.

I do wish she had written a bit more about her Egyptian husband. She very much glosses over that part. They met, talked about books, and you next you know they are getting married. There is nothing about how it all worked out. Did his family have a problem with it? Did they live together somewhere, or did she live on the women's campus and him elswhere? It doesn't say. It kind of implies they were happy but thats about it.
I'd still give it 5 stars though.