This is basically a "middle-class" story with it's story of relatively elite people (some of them) from Beirut and Damascus and, later, comfortable United States suburbs. Some of them are upper-middle-class, but it's all a middle-class milieu, so it's not like you're talking about upper gentry or lesser nobility in England.
Anyway, I mention that because this is basically a sweeping historical family epic, the story of generations over time, like you might get in "The Forsyte Saga" or "The Pallisers." I actually could have used a genealogical tree to crib from, the way they used to include those in history novels.
Personal romantic injuries and deaths from the conflicts in the Middle East flavor this story with regret, and you see how prosperous lives can be scarred for decades, for most of a person's life, by feeling early on that one must make compromises to get by.
It's a very well-written book, but not showily so, and the author has done a good job of portraying family and "inter-personal" relations.
Anyway, I mention that because this is basically a sweeping historical family epic, the story of generations over time, like you might get in "The Forsyte Saga" or "The Pallisers." I actually could have used a genealogical tree to crib from, the way they used to include those in history novels.
Personal romantic injuries and deaths from the conflicts in the Middle East flavor this story with regret, and you see how prosperous lives can be scarred for decades, for most of a person's life, by feeling early on that one must make compromises to get by.
It's a very well-written book, but not showily so, and the author has done a good job of portraying family and "inter-personal" relations.