Looking Both Ways: An Egyptian-American Journey

A collection of interlinked essays that explores family, language, politics, identity, and culture, often with a touch of humour. These essays move across time and space, beginning in Egypt and crossing the ocean to follow the authors travels and the challenges of adapting to American culture and creating a family in her new world. The collection is divided into four sections. Making Home centres on the notion of home, beginning in Egypt in the 1960s and moving toward the U.S. In Transit examines the connection between place and identity. With Caution engages with the idea of danger, highlighting issues related to being Arab in America. Time Difference begins with the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and delves into the blurring of cultural experience between Egypt and the U.S. From recounting her attempt to retrieve a stolen nativity camel to relaying her sense of cultural indignation when her husband tells her to follow a recipe, these essays use humour to dive deeper into the experience of what it means to live as an Egyptian in the United States. Other essays confront more difficult topics, such as being called Osama Bin Laden by some young boys the day after Bin Laden was killed or experiencing the 2011 Egyptian revolution while living in America. Together, these essays create the impression of a memoir as they weave together to reflect the larger narrative of immigration. The book explores culture, identity, and displacement, offering a unique vision into the Arab American immigrant experience.

About the Author :
Pauline Kaldas is the author of Egyptian Compass, a collection of poetry, Letters from Cairo, a travel memoir, and The Time Between Places, a collection of short stories. She also co-edited Dinarzad s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. Her work has appeared in a variety of anthologies, including Inclined to Speak, Talking through the Door, and Others Will Enter the Gates. She was awarded a fellowship in fiction from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Silver Award for Dinarzad s Children from ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, and the RAWI Creative Prose Award. Kaldas was born in Egypt and immigrated with her parents to the United States at the age of eight in 1969. She is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Review :
"Lyrical and poetic, Looking Both Ways takes readers on a riveting journey where Egypt and America fuse into an amalgam of patch-worked cultures and identities. From the sea to the city and through wars and revolutions, Looking Both Ways is a gripping memoir that inspires readers to grapple with the many meanings of home and the pains and joys of diaspora." -- Nadine Naber, author of "Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics & Activism" & Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago.