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Arab American Writing
Through and Through: Toledo Stories
A warm, inspired portrait of an extended Arab family in an Arab-America community. All of these related stories are set in an Arab (Lebanese and Syrian) neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio, and many of the characters appear and reappear in more than one story--all of which range in time from the 1930s to the present.
- GenresContemporary
180 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
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About the author
Joseph Geha
5 books13 followersBorn in Lebanon and raised in the USA, Joseph Geha is the author of Through and Through: Toledo Stories (Graywolf: St. Paul, 1990), a collection of short stories inspired by his experiences growing up in an émigré Arab American community. In 2009, Syracuse University Press published a second (expanded) edition.
Joe's novel, Lebanese Blonde (University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, 2012), is the winner of the 2013 Arab American Book Award.
He has also been granted the Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his fiction has been chosen for inclusion in the Permanent Collection, Arab American Archive, of the Smithsonian Institution.
Over the years Joe's fiction -- along with his poetry, essays and plays -- has appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including Epoch, Esquire, The New York Times, The Northwest Review, Homeground, The Iowa Review, New York Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, The Amherst Review, Kaleidoscope, A Nation's Voice, Crazyquilt, The New Virginia Review, Growing up Ethnic in America, Big City Cool, Homeground, and The Quarterly.
Married to novelist Fern Kupfer, he lives in Ames, Iowa, where he is a professor emeritus of the Creative Writing Program at Iowa State University.
Joe's novel, Lebanese Blonde (University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, 2012), is the winner of the 2013 Arab American Book Award.
He has also been granted the Pushcart Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his fiction has been chosen for inclusion in the Permanent Collection, Arab American Archive, of the Smithsonian Institution.
Over the years Joe's fiction -- along with his poetry, essays and plays -- has appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including Epoch, Esquire, The New York Times, The Northwest Review, Homeground, The Iowa Review, New York Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, The Amherst Review, Kaleidoscope, A Nation's Voice, Crazyquilt, The New Virginia Review, Growing up Ethnic in America, Big City Cool, Homeground, and The Quarterly.
Married to novelist Fern Kupfer, he lives in Ames, Iowa, where he is a professor emeritus of the Creative Writing Program at Iowa State University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 28, 2021
** 3.5 stars **
As with most short story collections, I enjoyed some of the stories here more than others. Geha's stories are very loosely interconnected, all focusing on an Arab community in Toldeo, OH from the 1930s through the 1970s. Occasionally you will see a name from a previous story pop up in another, but all of the stories can be read as standalones.
For some reason, I felt that the stories in the latter half of the volume were stronger than the first half. The stories I particularly liked were those that focused on a single individual's thoughts and feelings - whether that was about assimilation, dating after a divorce, the death of a relative, or nostalgia for the past. Those stories, for me, held the most interesting insights into the human condition.
I would recommend this collection if you like short stories, particularly ones that center on the experience of immigrants to the US around the mid-20th century.
As with most short story collections, I enjoyed some of the stories here more than others. Geha's stories are very loosely interconnected, all focusing on an Arab community in Toldeo, OH from the 1930s through the 1970s. Occasionally you will see a name from a previous story pop up in another, but all of the stories can be read as standalones.
For some reason, I felt that the stories in the latter half of the volume were stronger than the first half. The stories I particularly liked were those that focused on a single individual's thoughts and feelings - whether that was about assimilation, dating after a divorce, the death of a relative, or nostalgia for the past. Those stories, for me, held the most interesting insights into the human condition.
I would recommend this collection if you like short stories, particularly ones that center on the experience of immigrants to the US around the mid-20th century.
June 18, 2013
Interesting characters. Well-written.
June 29, 2025
A melancholy and interesting set of Lebanese-American stories. As a first generation American myself, I find it fascinating to read collections like these - stories of immigrants have so many things in common and yet also are so different.
March 22, 2020
I loved this book, and thank God, because it is the first time I have ever really recognized my own immigrant background in a literary work. It would have been such a disappointment if it did not also rate as excellent fiction. It does!
Like the author, I grew up in a city on the Great Lakes with a large Lebanese-American community. The code-switching, the shifting of traditions and culture. The children who study their parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents as closely as the “Amerkani.”
Like the author, I grew up in a city on the Great Lakes with a large Lebanese-American community. The code-switching, the shifting of traditions and culture. The children who study their parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents as closely as the “Amerkani.”
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews