Beirut: I Came, I Saw, I Fled

by A.S. Ceyda

What do you get when you put a Turkish-Kurdish woman from Germany into Beirut, Lebanon, a war-ridden country where she is faced with people who do their utmost to portray themselves as westernized but live in a patriarchic society, a friendship with a CIA refugee and a dysfunctional love relationship with a Lebanese hunk with the mentality of a Neanderthal? BEIRUT: I CAME, I SAW, I FLED is a 121, 650-word novel containing a spicy mix of romance, war, drama, comedy, and satire; it is the story of a young woman who travels to Beirut in search of herself but who flees the country in the dead of night more confused and distraught than ever before.

Genres: Nonfiction

First published August 15, 2014

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brava to the author for prompting my unprecedented deletion of a book after only four pages. Juvenile, abrasive and parochial in her viewpoints, she must be met with incredulity when introducing herself as a writer. Shame on the publisher, and shame on me for buying this piece of tripe.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I managed to get 130 pages in before giving up on this book. I won it from the Goodreads giveaways and was very excited to read it, however, about 20 pages in I realized that this was not going to be an easy read.
First off, the main character is a very self-centered individual who seems to think everyone is out to get her (she is very distrustful and thinks she is hot stuff that EVERYONE wants to get a piece of), which gets old very quickly... also, she doesn't like ANYONE. She talks down about almost every character who is introduced whether it be because of their nationality, the way they look, or their personality.
Secondly, it gets annoying that the author uses a lot of words that I was constantly looking up in the glossary (if they were there), and the story is really hard to follow. As I understood, the author was going for school in Beirut, but there is very little do with education in the novel, it is her going around socializing, dating and fighting with those who live in this country. There seems to be many scenes that Ceyda wanted to include in the novel but she sticks them between other scenes and it makes a jumpy narrative that is difficult to follow.

[Sally-W · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this debut autobiographical account drew me but I was very disappointed.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to empathize with the author. The book starts with rather disparaging comments regarding life in Lebanon. I realize the author found life there very different to that which she had experienced elsewhere, and consequently struggled to feel at home. Yet I found her attitude disturbing since she grew up bi-culturally, and I assumed her to be therefore more tolerant and open-minded.

Personally, I dislike an over-use of bad language. Much of the dialogue is made up of aggressive swearing and insults. This comes across as extremely juvenile. I was surprised to discover the writer was 29.

Perhaps, since this is the author’s debut work, she was very keen to publish but the book requires further editing. There are grammar and punctuation errors, and inconsistencies in spelling.

[Megan Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm honestly not sure why I kept reading this book. I had high hopes for this book based on the unique situation of a Turkish Kurd raised in Germany studying abroad in Lebanon. I expected unique cultural insight. And this book wasn't at all what I expected. There was no plot. This was basically 400+ pages on disconnected storytelling. Its like your friend gets home from study abroad and won't stop talking about it despite the fact that you really don't know what she's going on about. The most difficult part of this read was the unhealthy and abusive relationship that becomes the real center of the story. It made me extremely uncomfortable and I was glad to see it, and the book, come to an end.

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book free through Goodreads First Reads. Okay so this is the absolute first time I've been unable to finish reading a book. I have read a few that were not that great but I could finish reading them regardless. Not so this one. The writer showed immaturity. I felt like I was reading a conceited teenager story not a 27 year old young woman's story. I could only read 22 pages and that was pushing it. Too many good stories to read to waste my time on this one.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book and I am still laughing about the jokes and funny scenes. It is a very entertaining book based on personal experience. Funny, insightful and straightforward. But also blunt in language and when portraying the characters and scenes. Since I was in Beirut on vacation I could relate to many situations. For the first run the new author has great promise to expand her potential.