Book Review: When the Fudge Trees Bloom

When the Fudge Trees Bloom: Memories of an American in the Middle East by Catherine W. Rouhana is an amazing memoir. Catherine spent many years of her adult life in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. However, the person she was when she left the US as a young mother and wife to a Lebanese citizen, and the person she was when she entered Lebanon again when her son got married were two very different women.

I learned a lot about the unrest in the Middle East in the 70s and 80s. I also learned a lot about living life in the closed society of Saudi Arabia and family traditions in Lebanon. This memoir made me wonder how I would have handled the many wars, the political upheaval, the idea that women are second class citizens, and simply the loneliness of being far from home.

In the end, I fell in love with Lebanon - at least the Lebanon known to Catherine's family. The one not torn to shreds by war.

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