A review by jayisreading
Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine

emotional hopeful medium-paced

4.25

As Dearbornites, we are accustomed to encountering newcomers on a daily basis. Since the creation of Israel, our city has been home to refugees from the Arab world. We hear all kinds of Arabic dialects at the mosque and in the grocery stores and coffeehouses around town. With the violence in Iraq, Yemen, and Syria, the refugees continue to come, appearing on our shores like frightened children, just the way we were when we arrived in 1982 following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. — “Speedoman”

A heartfelt ode to Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Arab American population in the United States, this short story collection zooms in on the Lebanese diaspora and their everyday lives in the city. I thought Zeineddine captured so many details and emotions in each story that honor the past, present, and future of Lebanese Americans who do the most they can to find home for themselves. There’s a particular gentleness to Zeineddine’s writing style that I enjoyed as he took the reader through silly and heartbreaking moments within the lives of these characters. Furthermore, I really liked how he drew attention to the different generations of the Lebanese American community and the tensions that came along with identifying as Lebanese American (and, more broadly, Arab American).

Like many short story collections, I thought some stories were stronger than others. Overall, though, I enjoyed how Zeineddine captured a diverse range of voices from the Lebanese American community to show the complex beauty of this community.
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