Mexican High by Liza Monroy (The Read Your Way Around the World Challenge)

* Publisher: Bantam Books

* Pub. Date: June 2008

* ISBN-13: 9780385523592
* 352pp

*Genre: Autobiographical fiction

I chose Mexican High by Liza Monroy for the "Read Your Way Around The World Challenge" hosted by Global Voices Online because ig would be my first book set in Mexico City. Also, with Obama just having returned from a visit to Mexico I thought it it might be quite a topical read. If you're taking part in the challenge, please don't forget to tag your post with #gvbook09


It's never fun for a kid to have to change schools and it has to be downright frightening for the kid who happens to be a High School senior who is not only called upon to change schools but to live and study in a different country.

Milago Marquez (who, embarrassed by her unusual name, insists on being called Mila) is the only child of a US foreign service worker transferred to Mexico in Milago's final year of High School. As most highly paid expats are wont to do, Mila's mother enrolls her in a fancy International school that caters to American expats and the kids of the Mexican elite.

The school is mostly divided into two groups of kids....US and international students(many from diplomatic families) and the kids of the Mexican elite (government officials,gangsters and businessmen) aka as "fresas". Fresas are rich, designer-clothes wearing, spoiled kids...highly nationalistic,they will only speak Spanish and they look down on anyone who is not rich like them, especially gringos (foreigners, mostly American) It doesn't take long for Mila to figure out that with her normal US upbringing she sticks out like a sore thumb and that in order to become an insider she would have do what the rest of the kids are doing which included getting high, cutting classes,having sex and drinking hard alcohol. So acceptable is it for Mexican teenagers to engage in alcohol-fueled social events that even at their school-council organized "lunch" parties every Friday after school (Cocteles), Bacardi along with other alcohol was the main staple..there was little or no food served.

I had a rather hard time deciphering which year this book was set in. The author mentions "Nirvana" and the grunge look being the craze of that year and from what I remember Nirvana was formed in the early 1990's so I am going to presume that this is when the story was set.

Initially the book did hold me captive...I was appalled and aghast to learn what these kids (most of them as young as 17) did to themselves, and as the mother of two teenage girls I felt compelled to read on. Also, I did enjoy her glimpses into Mexican culture, however, as more and more absurd subplots entered the story, I started to grow tired of our protagonist, her friends and their antics and I literally just thumbed through the last 70 pages of the book.

What you will take away from the book:

a)Perhaps a better understanding (not flattering) of the Mexican elite and their children...of the politics, corruption and violence that exists in that country( It was not uncommon for Mila's classmates to be summoned home during the school day because a family member had been kidnapped or assassinated) ;

b)A visual image of the environs of Mexico City like "Angahuan" a town destroyed by the volcano Paricutin which erupted in 1944 and where people ride horses instead of cars and speak the local Purépecha tongue instead of Spanish; "Villahermosa", a paradise for anthropologists with its remarkable Olmec ruins, the Chiapas one of Mexico's poorest towns with a large population of agrarian Mayans and a trip Real de Catorce, a rural desert town where Huichol Indians go looking for peyote in the surrounding hills to sell to tourists wanting to undertake a mystical peyote pilgrimage,

c)Mexican food (Monroy got me hooked on "Cafe de Olla" (coffee made in earthernpots with cinnamon, brown sugar and clove), "Sincronizadas" ( ham and cheese quesadillas);

d) A keener understanding of the role of a foreign service worker and e) a fond regard for teenagers in North America, who despite their foibles, seem so much more grounded and focused than Mexican teenagers.

Why autobiographical fiction:

Well, like Mila, Liza Monroy is also the daughter of a US foreign service and spent her last few years of High School in Mexico City. According to the author, many of the characters(and the incidents they got embroiled in) are based on people she knew in High School. Since these characters were based on real people I expected them to feel authentic and inspired, instead, many of Monroy's characters feel empty and souless. I was hoping Monroy would use Mila to give us an insider's view of Mexico City, and I suppose she did, but it's a dark view of a tumultuous city through the eyes a rather conflicted, sometimes-stoned 17-year old girl, so I am not sure I can set much store by it.

A warning: While it is set in high school, "Mexican High" is definitely NOT recommended for any reader under 19.

CAFE DE OLLA (MEXICAN SPICED COFFEE)
Categories: Mexican, Beverages
  Yield: 6 servings

3/4 c  Brown sugar, firmly packed
  3 x  Cinnamon sticks
  6 x  Cloves
  6 tb Coffee (NOT instant)
  6 x  Julienne slices orange zest

In a large saucepan, heat 6 cups of water with the brown sugar, cinnamon
sticks, and cloves over moderately high heat until the mixture is hot, but
do not let it boil.  Add the coffee, bring the mixture to a boil, and boil
it, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.  Strain the coffee through a
fine sieve and serve in coffee cups with the orange zest.

# TEA AND OTHER AYAMA NA TALES by Eleanor Bluestein and a GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Publisher: BkMk Press

PubDate: 11/30/2008

ISBN: 9781886157644

Price: $16.95

"Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales" by Eleanor Bluestein is a book of 10 short stories set in a mythical country somewhere in the South-East of Asia. Although Ayama Na is a fictitious land, its characters and their surroundings are vibrantly alive. What the reader gathers quite early on in the book is that Ayama Na used to be a thriving country which was then taken over in a bloody coup. The new tyrants ensured the country became a cultural wasteland by putting to death as many artists, (dancers, playwrights, actors etc.) as they could find. The rest of the people were forcibly taken to labor camps where they toiled day and night in the fields or mines, eventually starving to death. Furthermore, the country was dotted with landmines making it virtually impossible for anyone to escape.

The stories in this book are set in modern-day Ayama Na. The nation is in the process of rebuilding itself emotionally and physically- artists are back at work, American tourists are arriving in the country in droves and the King and Queen have just given birth to an heir - all appears to be good, however, the country is still shackled by poverty, superstition, corruption, tyranny and machismo.

Through these 10 remarkable stories Eleanor B. - winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction - has conjured up a wounded country populated by amputees begging in the streets, a pineapple farmer, obnoxious American tourists, an outspoken beauty queen, novice Buddhist monk, a one-legged prostitute with deep red hair and impoverished fisher-folk living in crude houseboats because they can't afford proper houses. Written with a rare sensitivity about ordinary people confronting the anguish of their past while trying to live meaningful lives in the 21st century, the stories in this volume weave a magical web of emotions around the reader. Bluestein is a captivating narrator often using prose so vivid it makes the land breathe...she also also possesses the gift of description and her wonderful use of colors, smells and sounds evoke the full flavor of life in Ayama Na.

In "Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales", Eleanor Bluestein has created for us a country that will not be easily forgotten. At times bewitching and enticing, at times unattractive and charmless, Ayama Na is a nation at a crossroad...which route will it follow? As I read, I was reminded of our visit to Cambodia last year..they are also a nation fighting to throw off the shackles of the past and learning to embrace modernity much to the angst of the traditionalists. I was intrigued enough to ask Eleanor Bluestein if she had Cambodia in mind when she developed Ayama Na...read her interview to see what she says!


**Giveaway** I have a copy here (kind courtesy the author) for one lucky reader- all you have to do is leave a comment and you'll be entered in the draw...good luck!

To order your copy from Small Press Distribution click here, or from Amazon click here

For a brief Q & A session with the author, please go here

Blog Tour Stops:

Wednesday, April 1st: The Bluestocking Society
Monday, April 6th: Bookstack
Wednesday, April 8th: Nerd’s Eye View
Friday, April 10th: Lotus Reads
Monday, April 13th: 8Asians
Wednesday, April 15th: 1979 Semi-finalist…
Friday, April 17th: Ramya’s Bookshelf
Monday, April 20th: Feminist Review
Thursday, April 23rd: Trish’s Reading Nook
Tuesday, April 28th: Medieval Bookworm
Wednesday, April 29th: Savvy Verse and Wit

For more reviews of this, and other fine books, visit TLC Book Tours

April 20,2009

****** I want to congratulate Zibiliee,winner of the giveaway...thanks, all of you, for participating, stick around for there will be more! Zibilee please contact me privately with your mailing address, thank you!**********

Interview with Eleanor Bluestein of "Tea and Other Ayama Na Tales"

Eleanor Bluestein has worked as a science teacher, editor of science textbooks, and designer of multimedia educational materials for Internet delivery. For a decade, she co-edited Crawl Out Your Window, a San Diego based literary journal featuring the work of local writers and artists. She lives with her husband in La Jolla, California, where she writes fiction and volunteers as a court appointed special advocate for foster children. Tea & Other Ayama Na Tales is her first book. (courtesy BkMk Press)

Here is a brief Q &A session with the author:

1. How did this wonderful collection come about? I read you are a science teacher and a textbook editor by profession, so when or how did you make the leap to fiction?

Thank you, Angelique, for that characterization of this collection. I made that leap to fiction in the interval between my six years as a science teacher and my return to work as a science text book editor. I took some years off to be a full time Mom to my son and daughter, and during those years I enrolled in a writing class at UCSD extension (University of California, San Diego) and started writing fiction. I continued to write fiction when I returned to work as an editor, a profession less demanding than teaching. I could never have written fiction at the same time I taught public school (grades 7, 8, and 9).

2. I am most curious as to why you chose to base your stories in a mythical country over a real one and which country actually inspired Ayama Na. I have my guesses (Cambodia?) but I don't know for sure if I am right. And as a second part to the question, why the South East of Asia? What is your connection to that part of the world?

You are right. It was mostly Cambodia that inspired these stories. I’d traveled there and also to Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. All these countries found their way into the Ayama Na tales (in Thailand, I visited hill tribes, for example), but the characters’ back stories, the war-torn landscape, the nation’s tragic recent history, the tension between tradition and modernization derive in large part from what I saw and learned in Cambodia. The choice of a mythical country evolved as I wrote the stories. A mythical country gave me the freedom to combine elements of real countries and to add purely fictional elements, such as the long drought. I have no connection to that part of the world, really, except that I was a tourist in South East Asia on three separate trips—relatively brief trips at that.

3. You have sketched some very entertaining and unforgettable characters in this volume of short stories. I was particularly taken with Dali-Roo, the robot-obsessed peasant; the one-legged prostitute in "The Artist's Story" and lil' Aleeta from "A Ruined World"...do you have any plans to use any of these characters in other stories or maybe in a novel? And while we're on the subject of characters I may as well ask you if you drive the characters and architecture of these stories, or have you found it is the other way round? :)

Thank you, again, Angelique. These characters are all fictional inventions, although the robot AIBO is real—an expensive Sony product, now discontinued. I saw it demonstrated at a mall shortly after returning from Cambodia. At present, I have no plans to use these characters in other stories or a novel, but I’d never say never. I have imagined Aleeta’s future. The second part of your question is so interesting to me and so hard to answer. Sometimes, when I’m very lucky, the characters take over—this happens for me especially when writing dialog. At other times, story is a cerebral act, thinking, thinking, trying this or that, seeing what works. And sometimes it just seems a miracle to pull off a paragraph.

4. The tourists in your stories are all pretty obnoxious...did you deliberately sketch them that way to make us think about our responsibilities as tourists? In the story titled "The Blanks", the guide Kenchoreeve was of the opinion that people who gawked at his country had an obligation to shop. It was the price they paid for the right to treat Ayama Na as if it were a third world theme park. I found that very interesting because it spoke to me as a tourist, reminding me that when I visit a country, I really do have a duty to give back.

No, I didn’t consciously intend any lessons for tourists, but I definitely found myself examining and using my own attitudes about travel as I wrote these stories. I didn’t say so aloud, but I didn’t like to be taken to crafts shops—I thought it a waste of time; I considered riding an elephant too hokey. I also left “good” jewelry back in America, took out hand wipes or Purel and sanitized my hands before eating, and I certainly liked knowing about a tour guide’s personal life. Maybe that’s why I feel forgiving and affectionate toward the Americans in these stories.

5.What's next for you Eleanor? Will you continue writing short stories or do you have your sights set on something different now?

I’m working on a novel that takes place in San Diego, the city I call home. I also have a completed novel that I’m trying to market. That one takes place in Los Angeles and France. It’s a newspaper story, literary mystery, and romance.

6.Have you been back to South East Asia recently?

I traveled to Thailand and Cambodia in 2003 and to Viet Nam in 2005, but not since. I would very much like to return to Cambodia, which was just at the beginning of a huge tourist influx when I was there—hotel construction all over the place. The country was modernizing rapidly and has changed.

7. What's the last book you read and immediately passed on to someone else?

Indignation. Philip Roth. I passed it along to my son. We have different reading tastes, but we are both huge Philip Roth fans.

**please leave your comments on the main post...thank you!**

Global Voices Book Challenge

The folks at Global Voices Online are hosting an incredible reading challenge..."Read Your Way Around The World".

The challenge rules are as follows:

1) Read a book during April from a country whose literature you have never read anything of before.

2) Write a blog post about it during the week of April 23.

3) Tag your posts with #gvbook09 so we can find your posts.

I'd like to invite you to take the challenge with me! Just leave me a line letting me know which books you intend to read and I'll make sure I visit and comment on your blogs when the reviews are up.

This challenge is particularly exciting because it encourages you to pick a book from a country you have never read anything of before! I've been thinking about exploring Indonesia, but I can't find a suitable title. If Indonesia doesn't work out I'll probably go with Mexico (at the moment I am thinking of "Mexican High" by Liza Monroy) or maybe something from Turkey...any recommendations?

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• 
  
• Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.; 1 edition (February 1, 2009)
• 
  
• Language: English
• 
  
• ISBN-10: 0393068005

I first came across Daniyal Mueenuddin's stellar writing when the New Yorker published his story "Nawabdin Electrician" in the July 2008 issue. So intrigued was I with the protagonist Nawabdin, Mueenuddin's lyrical writing and his ability to bring Pakistan and its people into our homes that I hungered to read more from him. Fortunately I didn't have to wait long, in February this year Norton published his first book of short stories titled "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders" and I am happy to say that Mueenuddin is not a one-story wonder...I have enjoyed reading all of the eight stories in this volume, which is saying a lot because I have read other books of short stories and there have always been a couple that I didn't care to finish..not this time!

The central figure of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders is K.K. Harouni, a rich landlord in the Punjab area of Pakistan, though he figures as a protagonist in only one of the eight interconnected stories. The others focus is on peasants, servants, drivers, land managers, privileged Westernized children in an upstairs-downstairs sort of theme

The book opens with "Nawabedin Electrician" but it is "Saleema", the second story which captured my heart and still refuses to let go. In "Saleema", Mueeneddin takes us into the servant quarters of a rich landlord and shows us how even in the kitchen there is a pecking order based on clan and god forbid you come from a clan which is not respected (Saleema came from the Jhulan clan of blackmailers and bootleggars) you are destined to be everybody's doormat. It is sad because Saleema has nothing but sexual favors to offer the menfolk to get ahead and when even that is gone, she is back to square one. What hope is there if you are never allowed to shrug off the heavy mantle of tribe or clan?

Provide, provide, is another excellent story of a small time landlord, Chaudry Jaglani, from Dunyapur, a place along the Indus river. Being an opportunistic man Jaglani manages to increase his lands steadily and become quite active in politics too. However, the story isn't just about him but rather his love (always to be confused with passion) for a servant girl named Zainab and how his love for her ruins them both.

As with the previous stories, I liked how the landscape is such an integral part of the story and enjoyed Mueenuddin's evocative and pastoral descriptions of "peasants bringing back their buffaloes from watering at the end of the day...the heavy bells hanging from the animals' necks making a mournful hollow gonging..." brought back hazy memories of warm summers in the villages of my country!

Perhaps this might be a good time to mention that Mueenuddin is the son of a Pakistani father and American mother and after completing boarding school in Massachusetts, returned to Pakistan at the age of 23 to help his aging father to safeguard some ancestral property that was in danger of being taken over by unscrupulous managers. The seven years he spent on the farm provided the fodder for some of the stories in this book.

"About a Burning Girl" made me wince because it shows you how corruption has come to play such a huge role in the sub-continent. It seems to me that justice can never be had unless you have the mullah to pay for it. This story also reminded me of Mueenuddin's flair for description, especially strong when describing the landscape or one of his characters:

"He wore a battered white skullcap, soiled clothes, a sleeveless sweater and shoes with crepe rubber soles, worn down to one side, which gave each foot a peculiar tilt. The deep lines on his face ran in no rational order, no order corresponding to musculature or to the emotions through which his expressions might pass, but spread from numerous points. The oversized head had settled heavily onto the shoulders, like a sandcastle on the beach, after the sea has run in over it." pg 106

"Our Lady of Paris", "Lily" and "A Spoiled Man" focus on urban Pakistan and while they are captivating in their own way, I preferred the stories set in rural Pakistan. Big cities don't lack for quirky tales or complex characters, but small towns and villages feel more accessible, the characters more colourful, the stories richer.

You can read some of Daniyal Mueenuddin's stories on the web...here are the links:

Nawabdin Electrician

In Other Rooms Other Wonders

A Spoiled Man

Marrying Anita: A Quest For Love in the New India

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• 
  
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (July 22, 2008)
• 
  
• Genre: Memoir, Travel, Cultural
• 
  

When Anita Jain, a 30-something, Harvard-educated, American-born Indian woman fails to find love followed by commitment in all the usual places in America, she decides to try her luck in her parents' homeland (India).

She chose India, not just because her parents hail from there but because, from what she has seen and heard, marriage or "shaadi" is very important to an Indian..."to an Indian, marriage is a matter of karmic destiny. There are many happy unions in the pantheon of Hindu gods...Shiva and Parvati, Krishna and Radha, Ram and Sita. Marriage is even enshrined in Hinduism as one of the four life stages" Yes, as a good Hindu one is expected to get married! Also, there are more men in India than women, 930 women to every 1000 men and our author figures her options were simply more plentiful in India!



So sure is she of being able to find a life partner there that she gives up her job with a respected NewYork daily and takes up one in Delhi, India. What she hasn't bargained for however, is that in the 3 decades since her parents got married, India has leapfrogged into modernity. According to Anita, young people in Indian cities are currently in the throes of a sexual revolution very similar to the one the U.S. experienced in the sixties with drunken hook-ups and friends-with-benefits being two rampant trends.

Also, young urbanites aren't really doing the shaadi.com ( similar to e-harmony but with a distinctly traditional Indian flavor), they’re meeting in clubs or online sites like Orkut or Facebook. However, despite these frequent social interactions with the opposite sex, young, single Indian women are not having much better luck on the marriage market either. Does this mean that arranged marriages may just be the answer to an unwedded person's woes? The author goes on to explore whether an organized system for marriage may actually work better than making young men and women responsible for finding their own life partners.

OK, so traveling 10,000 miles to find her "Mr. Wonderful" seems like a great premise for the chick-lit genre, but I think the candor with which Anita Jain describes her dalliances,her insecurities, suitor rejections and the astute observations she makes on how class, caste and economics play a huge role in the Indian marriage game elevates this book to more of a social commentary on modern India.

Let me hasten to add that the young people that the author speaks about in this book come from the urban demographic...people living in the metropolises like Delhi, Bombay etc. For the rest of India, dating and premarital sex is still frowned upon and 95 per cent of all marriages are still arranged -- alliances that are almost always determined by religion, caste and class considerations.

If you grew up in India in the '80's and live elsewhere now and have not visited India in a while, this book might shock the socks off you, don't say you weren't warned!

I'd love to hear from young people in India on this one....what are your thoughts on arranged marriages, dating etc.? Talk to me!

Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East.

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• 
  
• Publisher: Gotham Books (Oct 30 2007)
• 
  
• Language: English

As most of you have probably noted already, global terrorism has spawned a whole battalion of young men in the Middle East willing and able to fight for the cause, or Jihad as it is known to many. Again, for many of us, these young men (and women) will never be more than a name (sometimes, not even that) ...they are just a group of young people prepared to give up their lives for a cause. Haven't you often wondered who these young people are? Where they come from? Why they do what they do? Have you ever wondered what it might be like to meet them on a social level and to just get to know them as people rather than fighters or terrorists?

Jared Cohen, a 25-year old Connecticut native did precisely that. He traveled to the Middle East in 2004-2006, met with young members of the Hezbollah, student activists in Iran and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. His travels are chronicled in the excellent memoir and travelogue, 'Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East".

So, what did he find?

In Iran he found the young people a very resilient lot. This group did not experience the revolution directly. Nor did they suffer under the Shah’s rule that preceded it. They did not fight in Iran’s brutal and lengthy war with Iraq. They have grown up exclusively under Iran’s strange blend of theocracy and democracy and they are far from happy with it, despite all that however, they refuse to give up on Iran. The Iranian young people Cohen met refuse to have their identities hijacked by oppressive and narrow-minded political or religious entities. According to Cohen - and this is really interesting - Iranian young people have emerged as the de facto opposition in that country, in the sense that by virtue of mass action they brought about (and continue to do so) a number of social and recreational changes in the country..

A female Dervish performs the Sufi Dance before a mixed-sex crowd at a dinner in a private house in North Tehran. Women are not allowed to dance in public and Sufi mysticism is strongly discouraged by the authorities,

Just reading about the resilient spirit of these young men and women makes me very hopeful for a new and gentler Iran. The other revelation Cohen makes is, that contrary to the anti-US propaganda that the political machine of Iran likes spewing, Iranian youth have absolutely no quarrel with America. They like Americans and they want us to know that! In part, the reason why the Iranian population is the most pro-American of any of the other Middle Eastern states Cohen visited is because the youth population is guided by a core principle which is, we'll love anything our government hates and we'll hate anything our government loves!


In Lebanon, Cohen found that the youth are only just coming together as Lebanese and taking immense pride in doing so. During the 20-year long occupation of Lebanon by Syria most Lebanese youth suffered from an identity crisis. Because they were controlled by Syria they were afraid to discover who they really were. However, after Syria pulled out most youth now feel Lebanese. The troubling bit about Lebanon is the influence of Hezbollah (Children of Jihad contains a fine chapter on the origins of the Hezbollah- one of the finest I have ever read) on the youth. What makes the Hezbollah so dangerous and troubling is that its members have managed to infiltrate Lebanon's universities and other institutions so seamlessly that no one ever knows they're there until it's too late. The author asks, could it be that they are also in the US "being" Americans, doing regular things that all Americans do, like attending school, eating at restaurants etc. unbeknown to the rest of us?

Lebanese Hezbollah supporters, listen to Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah who speaks via a video link to a rally. AP Photo by Hussain Malla

Cohen's visit to the Palestinian camps (especially the Ayn al-Hilwah camp which houses the extremists) on the outskirts of Lebanon is probably the moving and chilling account of them all. According to Cohen, as the adult generations of Palestinians fight for a return to their homeland, it seems that many of the youth are fighting simply for a better life! Lebanon is one of the most westernized countries in the Middle East, yet the Palestinians are made to feel like second-class citizens, a burden on the society. The youth would like to contribute to society but because they are not given permission to move out of their camps, they have few options but to turn to the Cause. Extremist groups offer young Palestinians an outlet for adventure and a sense of belonging, not to mention, a heroic aftermath. You can't completely blame them for going that route...very often it's all they can do! Is the international community listening?

Syrian youth are highly nationalistic and pride themselves on their love of country. It's not that Syrian youth have it easier than their brethren in Lebanon it's just that their government has managed to seduce them into believing that patience, not agitation, brings about change. There are signs, however, that there is a limit to this patience and some Syrian youth are pushing for greater reforms, although they are still in the minority.

The author was happiest whilst in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, also known as, 'The Other Iraq". Not only does it have the most magnificent landscape with large canyons, gorgeous mountains and impressive waterfalls, but The Iraqi Kurds are full of gratitude to the American army whom they see as liberators, not occupiers. The young Kurds do not indulge in the same wild,crazy and defiant parties like the young Iranians and Lebanese, nor are they submissive like the Syrian youth, instead, they are very focused on building themselves a democratic society. They have a vision, they love their country - Kurdistan - and have a developed sense of citizenship. Of all the youth in the Middle East they are the least likely to want to leave their country for greener pastures.

Kurdish Youth

So after meeting youth from Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestinian and Kurdish youth, how does Cohen feel about the future of the Middle East?

According to Cohen, the widely broadcast images of violent, angry and fanatical Muslims are hardly representative of the majority of the Middle East. Middle Eastern youth are politically savvy and and find it easy to distinguish between governments, people and religion. Most know the difference between Americans and the American government and wish that Americans, too would make the distinction between the people of the Middle East and their tyrannical regimes.

Unlike the earlier generations the youth of today are heavily into technology and are using it to communicate,not just with one another but with the rest of the world...in other words, Middle Eastern youth are accessible and will listen if the rest of the world engages them. At the moment, extremists have already made inroads into shaping the opinions of these young people, the international community needs have greater communication with these youth..they are sure to help us find creative solutions for peace in that region someday.

If you are interested in the affairs of the Middle East, or simply enjoy a good travel book packed with history and conversations, you might want to give this book a whirl.