Judith Caesar's Writing Off The Beaten Track: Reflections On The Meaning Of Travel And Culture In The Middle East reflects on the meaning of travel and culture in the Middle East as it surveys her journey through the Untied Arab Emirates and the flavors of Arabia. Cultural and social insights abound.

Dr. Caesar, an English major and American literature professor, purports to share her personal experiences in the Middle East. The problem is that throughout the book she continually makes sweeping statements with no factual back up. For example, she sticks in the statement "I wonder if there was something of this in America's antagonism toward the Middle East" in the middle of a story about touring Dendara. Apparently the author wants to be a political scientist without taking the time to do the research or study necessary for the conclusions she reaches. At the same time though she does share some personal experiences we virtually do not share at all in her courting and marriage to an Egyptian man. A very disappointing book that I would not bother reading.

The author has wonderful insights not only into the lives of a handful of Mid-Easterners she got to know, but also into human nature and our problems in understading other cultures. She points out that the women behind those veils are not just submissive faceless people but just like us -- some highly educated and intelligent, some highly maternal, etc. I highly recommend the book. However, her insights into the Muslim world are based on getting to know a few people; it doesn't truly contain a deep grasp of the political and social issues, and I don't think she makes any claims that it does. This is just one book out of many that can help us understand Middle Eastern cultures.

I did find it disappointing that she shared so little into her relationship with the Middle Eastern man she married; if she wanted to help others understand crossing over cultural borders, that facet of her life, alone, may have been more invaluable than talking about the other people that she got to know on a much more superficial level.

I just finished this book and I loved it. It was in with travel essay/travel narrative books, and as I liked to read about the Middle East I picked it up. I was pleasantly suprised that there was a bit more to it than just the usual I went here, did this, saw that, and aren't they odd. Caesar's book makes you think. There is an increased interest here in the US lately, (since 9/11.books are popping up all over) in how people in the Middle East live. Still despite this still most of the people I talk to unfortunately still have the sterotypical impressions from news media, of violent people with guns or of cowering oppressed women in black, etc, and everyone in the Middle East is the same. There is sooo much more too it than that and Caesar helps to show Saudis and Egyptians as real people, with real lives, personalities, intelligence, etc, caring about their families, their futures, the world around them and going about their daily lives. Its a great book. It also inspired me to read some of the books she mentions, such as Passage to India.

I do wish she had written a bit more about her Egyptian husband. She very much glosses over that part. They met, talked about books, and you next you know they are getting married. There is nothing about how it all worked out. Did his family have a problem with it? Did they live together somewhere, or did she live on the women's campus and him elswhere? It doesn't say. It kind of implies they were happy but thats about it.
I'd still give it 5 stars though.