Interesting book about how the hope and passion of protest movements of the 70s led to the apathy of the 80s and 90s, and how that in turn, inspired the Arab Spring. Ghandour harshly indicts the ruling elite, who traded true democracy and equality for the convenience of solutions that provided temporary alleviation, but didn't work in the long run. She also writes about the support that fairly harsh regimes received from international organisations, as long as they promised no disruption to the supplies of natural resources. There’s evocative writing about how the depiction of Beirut as the "Paris of the East' till the civil war in Lebanon, was an oversimplification and elided the stark inequality between the lives of the 1% and the rest ( for instance, she writes about them dropping their maid off at a Palestinian refugee camp everyday, which was barely a few kilometres away from where the wealthy lived in their mansions). Every political party in the region would pay lip service to the cause of Palestine to rouse popular support, while conditions for the majority deteriorated, a situation that worsened after the 6 Day War when not only was the war lost, territory was lost too. Ghandour traces how the reversals in these wars were cataclysms for the countries in the region, and led to nominally liberal democratic regimes partnering with religious organisations to maintain their power, leading to the slow creep of increased religiosity. There are interesting parallels between the situations she describes with other developing countries-when governments are preoccupied with holding on to power, civil society ends up having to provide basic services that are otherwise the responsibility of the state-healthcare in remote areas, education, even alternate sources of employment and a lot of them depend on foreign aid. This makes it easier for right wing governments to target these organisations when they want some populist support, and denounce them as foreign “agents”, and in the process, crack down on human rights as well, something that’s ended up being the downfall of many of the uprisings of the Arab Spring. She writes of this occurring over and over again, in cycles, without lasting reforms being put in place. This seems to be an MO for right-wing regimes everywhere! However, it takes centuries to build institutions, so all of us new countries have a way to go for that!
While there are some excellent passages, and Ghandour conveys her central ideas very well, the writing style itself is too impressionistic for a subject as complicated and deserving of nuance as this ( and I could have done without her frequent references to her therapy sesesions that come across as self-indulgent). She assumes that the reader already knows about all the complexities of conflicts in the region, and there are instances where she tosses around names and events without really telling you anything about them. It’s an interesting perspective, however, enriched by her personal experience, and makes for important reading to get a different perspective on a much-reported about region.

This is fascinating. The author brings such depth of feeling to the book that it is impossible not to become immersed in what she is saying. I know little about the culture and politics which have so greatly influenced the author’s life so this was an extremely important educational experience for me. It has encouraged me to read more.