great book about the Middle East | Live From Jordan: Letters Home From My Journey Through the Middle East |...

see humanity in the Middle East | Live From Jordan: Letters Home From My Journey Through the Middle East | Benjamin Orbach

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	• Live From Jordan: Letters Home From My Journey Through the Middle East Benjamin Orbach AMACOM, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 42 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Street Pulse observer

Orbach is a good street pulse observer. He translated his observations about Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt beautifully and in a very engaging way. His experience would should inherited to new students embarking the region and his book would be an all time must read guide for the region and specifically Jordan If he didn't link his interpretations to events in 2002-2003.

great book about the Middle East

I lived in Amman, Jordan from 2006-2008 and read this book about a year after returning to the U.S. It is an excellent book about Arab culture, Middle Eastern politics, and what it's like to travel/live in the Middle East (as an American) post-9/11. Orbach's book is one of those rare books about the Middle East that views the culture and history honestly and sensitively and most importantly explains how every issue is grey and that there is no right answer. I place his book on par with Fromkin's "A Peace to End All Peace" and Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem". Orbach does not shy away from describing the region's problems. However, he also establishes strong ties with the people there and, by reading about his experiences, the reader can't help but be touched by the kindness and generosity of so many of the people he met on his journeys. This is especially true of his description of how he was treated just before the US invasion of Iraq. I lived in Jordan during the height of the insurgency when millions of Iraqi refugees were fleeing to Jordan and driving up the price of food, housing etc. and, like Orbach, I was very grateful that so many Jordanians continued to separate the US government from the American people. Lastly, Orbach's book is the only book on the Middle East (that I have read) that accurately discusses the treatment of Western women living in the Middle East. I believe that this is an important issue and I was very happy to see Orbach deal with it in such a perceptive and constructive way. If you want an honest book about the Middle East and Arab culture, look no further!

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see humanity in the Middle East

This outlines the experiences of a graduate student moving to Jordan and living there for 7 months just prior to the American invasion of Iraq. His experiences and interactions with local people are facinating and highly insightful. His travels around the middle east are equally insightful. It is easy to see the Arab people as a homogenous group when in reality there are huge tribal differences between the peoples of the area.
It places a human face and personna on the various peoples in the region.

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Very Entertaining and Informative

I loved this book. Not only was it entertaining, but it was informative as well. The Arab world has always been a mystery to me. Ben Orbach gives us a first hand account of his contacts and friendships with people in the region. Never mind the reality shows on TV, this is the real deal.

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Live From Jordan

Live From Jordan gives its readers a fresh perspective on the "Arab East" untainted by political subtexts. Benjamin Orbach's honest, open, and often humorous description of the people and places he encountered during his travels and studies is both engaging and thought provoking.

One man's irreverent and insightful chronicle of his journey into the Arab World.

The deejay put on a James Brown remix, and the club went nuts again. Everyone started singing in English, and people climbed up on all the club's tables and chairs to shake their hipsÖOn my way home at 4:00 a.m. (the club was still hopping when I left), I couldn't help thinking about all these wealthy Jordanians and Palestinians, dressed in American and European labels, dancing and singing to American music with such sheer joy. . . . As far as I know, there isn't a word in Arabic for "longing for America," but that is what this night, this scene, and this club seemed to be about.--from Live from Jordan

On the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 27-year old Pittsburgh native and grad student Benjamin Orbach traveled to Amman, Jordan, in search of answers. Young, confident, and optimistic, Orbach anointed himself America's secret diplomatic weapon. He was finishing a degree in Middle Eastern studies, had a working knowledge of Arabic, and possessed the determination to "negotiate a peace treaty."

He also had no place to live, little money, and no friends to speak of in Jordan. As Ben Orbach spent his first few days in the Middle East in search of a hot shower, the address of his new flat, and a decent haircut, he began to discover something much more important. In the cafes and salons, and on the buses and streets of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey, he found conflicted, curious, and multilayered people who had more to teach him than he ever imagined. From bustling bazaars to an underground brothel, Live from Jordan is the incredible story, told via his eloquent, compassionate, and irreverent letters home, of Orbach's 13-month journey through the Middle East.

Through Orbach's eyes, we begin to see a world where nothing is quite what it seems, a world that is more intricate than what is portrayed in 30-second sounds bites on American television. We meet people like Sundos, a Jordan University freshman who digs surfing the Internet, and Fadi, his sensitive, passionate Palestinian flatmate, who belts out the lyrics of Mariah Carey songs and decries the policies of George Bush. From the privileged young clubbers of Amman to the beleaguered workers who cram themselves into buses every day in search of a meager salary, we begin to see the Middle East as it really is.

As he travels from the throbbing streets of Cairo to the friendly living rooms of ordinary people in Jordan, Ben Orbach offers an honest, balanced portrait of a region in turmoil. Engaging, witty, and evocative, Live from Jordan is a myth-breaking book that transports us to a world that is more multifaceted, more beautiful, and more seductive than many of us have ever imagined.

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