Armchair Traveller returns to the Middle East — Let’s get it LebanON
My week in Lebanon was a timely reminder that world history is complex, badly taught, and impossible to separate from politics, religion or personal interest, or, as the old saying goes “until the lion learns to write, every history will glorify the hunter.” I could have read Turkish, Jewish, Druze, Christian, Sunni and Shiite histories of Lebanon and still not get to the bottom of how we went from the 1860s Ottoman Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (created as a homeland for Manonite Christians, after a game of marbles between a Manonite and a Druze child got out of hand, leading to the massacre of thousands), to present-day Lebanon. No matter who writes the story though, it is clear that this land which sits 180 miles from Cyprus has seen a lot of demographic changes over the years.
Such changes are at the heart of this week’s book An Unnecessary Woman, the story of a 72-year-old woman looking back on her life, the changes to Lebanon and her love for the Western books she’s secretly translated over the years. It name-checks literary classics like Trump namechecks China, which made me feel like an intellectual as a wry smile crept over my face every time I clocked a historical fact or a literary allusion. I just wasn’t sure who, other than my ego, it was aimed at, as it is basically a surprisingly enjoyable 262-page internal dialogue. I particularly loved the way it gently condemns both Nazi atrocities and Israeli violence. Even the title is a reference to Nazi labelling of Jews as “necessary” (useful) and “unnecessary”. My only problem was that, despite being set in a woman’s mind, it was written by a man. I am all for such things normally, but on this occasion it just didn’t seem to work. If you have also read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts…
…I’d also love to know what others thought of this week’s film, the supremely enjoyable Caramel, one of the few options available that does not focus on the traumas of war. Instead it tells the daily lives of five women who are friends despite their different desires and cultural norms. They spend their time working and hanging out in a beauty salon in Beirut, and, basically, life is pretty normal: One falls in love with another woman, one gets her hymen remade for her wedding night, one doesn’t go on a date because she has to look after her mother… average daily life, portrayed sympathetically and with humour. I was sad, therefore, to realise that it finished filming just days before the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war began. Another reminder of how other peoples’ wars can turn carefree lives on their heads.
One thing I didn’t need reminding of was how delicious and vegetarian Lebanese food is. I am surrounded by Lebanese restaurants and so ate like a king for the whole week. I started at Foor’n, which sells a kind of Lebanese sesame-encrusted pitta which can be filled with pretty much anything. I went for mashed garlic aubergine in one and vegan chocolate spread in the other. Insanely delicious but still it paled in comparison to the feast I ordered from Tabule Kitchen. There were bags and bags of veggie options, from spicy aubergine (Al rahib), to fried cauliflower (Arnabit bil tahini), to spinach pastries (Fatayer Bi Sabanekh), and every one was a triumph. Find your local Lebanese restaurant and go there now! The choice is overwhelming!
If I tell you that Lebanese music was another highlight (as shown with this week’s playlist), you may think that perhaps we have come to the perfect country, a land where you can sit in the sun singing, dancing, eating, watching, reading and drinking in the joy. Well you’d be wrong. For this week’s wine a 2018 cuvee Pierre Brun was so bad that I fear it may have been off. I was initially taken aback by the colour, and then the smell, and then finally the taste! Complex, yes, quaffable, no. Reviews say it is like an old-fashioned Bordeaux, but I’d say it was more like a home made experiment left in the cellar too long. I guess I should just take it as proof that you can’t excel at everything… but maybe that is not true of Lesotho! We will find out next week.
