“the Piano In The Middle Of The Room: Jean Makdisi’s Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir”

Abstract

Jean Said Makdisi’s Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir (1990) recalls the 1975-1976 war, the 1982 occupation, and the 1989 conflict (Makdisi 1990). This analysis places the memoir in the context of the experimental fiction of Lebanon’s civil war, Edward Said’s letters to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, and international documentation regardong weapons transfers into Lebanon. Makdisi introduces predominantly North Americans to the personal experience of a U.S.-educated woman in Beirut. Her memoir touched Anglophone readers: the Los Angeles Times book review described it as “profound, heartbreaking”; the Detroit Free Press described her chapters as “smooth,” the New York Times described the author as “perceptive” and “compassionate.”