Chapters 19-20: Home, Worse Times Summary and Analysis

Shadid visits an old mansion over the Saha, abandoned since its owner, a parliament member, died in the 1990's. Twenty-five relatives inherited it but none could decide what to do with it. He speaks to his old landlord, Michel Fardisi, who reminisces about the "good old days" of Marjayoun. He loves his hometown but knows his son will never work there. The decline of Marjayoun that Michel laments is echoed as Shadid summarizes the rest of the century in Lebanese history. The country built closer ties to the Anglo-American-Protestant world of Britain than the Catholic sensibilities of the French, and maintained these connections because of the British involvement with Palestine. Israel eventually closes that border, as well as completely cutting of the Houran in 1967 by making it part of a no man's land...