بيروت روحة رجعة or Beirut aller-retour (Dar El Saki 2009) is a book written by three Lebanese writers who met in Paris. Driven away from their homeland Lebanon, Rosine Makhlouf, Wael Barakat and Caroline Hatem gathered up to remember the good old days and some stories that they witnessed in the one and only city Beirut. The book is divided into six chapters, each chapter written by one of the writers. Those short stories tell real stories that happened in Beirut, around the writers with people, friends and neighbors they once, knew. It's a captivating book recommended to each and every Lebanese who found him/her self detached at some point.
One of my first reactions to the book was its content; it was rather explicit than complicated to me. The focus on Beirut made the journey worth it!It's written in both French and Arabic. It also holds a special design and way of expressing its content.
The writers address this book all in all not only to people like me; confused ones searching for their identities in a complex city like Beirut, but also to every Lebanese 20 something guy/girl, who thought at some point that fitting in this society is a struggle. Those who think that the world outside is Perfect unlike Beirut. The writers decided to reflect few stories; stories of the Lebanese people who “hide behind their fingers” in their affairs, family bonds, relationships, beliefs and life styles.
بيروت روحة رجعة speaks itself instead of us. In each chapter you find something you experienced at some point:
The Lady caught up in her social life leaving her kids with the maid, the kids developing complexity not knowing why their own mother is drifting away. The lady having an affair with a stranger because she is no longer satisfied by her husband’s attention. The lost 40 something single lady swinging here and there walking away from what used to be her family once. The two 20 something guy & girl engaged in a physical relationship ; no expectations nor feelings involved, not so worried about the society anymore because they decided that it’s not for us to change to fit in anymore, it’s for the society to evolve and develop and keep up with us now.
I want to leave, a line I repeat every morning while getting dressed and having my morning smoke and cup of coffee, always in a rush, my day begins and ends without me even noticing just like Chapter Three. I change my identity every hour to keep up with the surroundings just like Chapter Two. I was at some point closer to our maid than my own mother just like Chapter Five. I learned to separate between feelings and physical affairs, not having any sort of expectations just like Chapter Four. And some people around me won’t ever understand my will of helping those in need and volunteering, if it makes those in need feel like home just like Chapter Six.
This book changed me. Those Three writers had to leave Beirut at some point to be able to write about it and now regret those lost moments. I’m not leaving YET. I’m staying, experiencing more. I won’t change to fit in anymore, because this book fit in without changing a word in it.
Books like بيروت روحة رجعة take you away from Beirut for a Glimpse, imagining what it would be like for you to miss all these stories, it makes you eager to know more realizing that your Journey in Beirut was surely mentioned in one of the Chapters.
