Time to Go Summary and Analysis

Friedman decides it is time for him and Ann to leave Beirut in April 1984. He is alone there now since Ann is evacuated by helicopter with other Americans in February during a Shiite uprising. He awakes one night in a thunderstorm to his neighborhood being shelled from East Beirut. This kind of shelling takes place almost every night of his nine year tenure in Beirut. It just happens to be his neighborhood that is being hit on this night. As the shelling continues and he is hiding in the bathroom, he decides that it is time to leave Beirut.

When Friedman thinks back on his days in Beirut, he does not think of the close calls or of the shelling, he thinks of the people and all that he has learned from them. He cites the days...