My Jerusalem: Secular Adventures In The Holy City

by Bronwyn Drainie

My Jerusalem begins with the preparation for and arrival in the Middle East.  Bronwyn, her husband Patrick Martin and their two boys went there because Patrick was asked by the Globe and Mail to become its first Middle East correspondent.  Living right on the Green Line between Arabs and Israelis, Bronwyn had to get her children settled in a new school and learn how to behave, react, drive, cook, and dress on the cusp of two unfamiliar and historically antagonistic cultures.  She also had to struggle with Hebrew, and adjust to a major change in her professional identity as a writer.

From this unique perspective, she was able to capture the charming and engaging side of Jerusalem life, along with the curious, the provocative, and the horrible.  An independent woman coping with restrictive cultures on all sides, she was able to make meaningful contact with people in both communities while maintaining the journalistic distance needed to trustworthy observation.  Out of her rich two years' experience, Drainie has woven a highly readable narrative that will appeal not only to those who avidly follow events in the region but also to readers whose eyes normally glaze over when they hear the words "the Middle East."

287 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

Reviews

[Marilyn Silver · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is dated although well authored. The author was heavily biased in favour of the "victim" Arab population of Jerusalem and the West Bank. She lived as an outsider while in Jerusalem, and so her impressions are those of an outsider. Her outlook softens somewhat as her story matures. My overall impression is that this is an author with little sensitivity for Jerusalem, Israel, Jewish Israeli's. I thought that over the course of 2 years, and with all her friends and interviews - she did not get the Israelis! And definitely did not love them!!