About book The Bread Of Angels: A Memoir Of Love And Faith (2009)
I was fortunate enough to find Saldana’s Bread of Angels as an audiobook, and so for several days when I commuted to work, I listened carefully to this memoir. Rather than hearing the blare of politicians, the chatter of advertisers, and hyped pitch of disk jockeys, I instead absorbed some religious and cultural history, and more importantly, I found that Saldana’s wisdom—her bread of angels—became my bread as well. Throughout the work day and while falling asleep at night, I pondered the same ageless questions that Saldana pondered, and although I did not do the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius at the desert monastery of Deir Mar Musa, I nonetheless felt as if on some minor level I at least did them vicariously through Saldana. Coincidentally, I finished the memoir shortly before the anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and one of the many things I appreciated about Saldana’s memoir is that it helped me better feel the atrocity of that invasion and how it destroyed countless Iraqi and American lives, how it sent huge shock waves through Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and the Middle East as a whole. Damascus streets filled with refugees because of the US invasion of a neighboring country, and the violence and political upheaval reverberated throughout. Saldana’s narration of this violence and upheaval affected me profoundly, in ways that the barrage of news reports and analyses that continue a decade after the invasion never could quite affect me. I sheepishly admit that I was ignorant of the parallels between Islam and Christianity, and Saldana’s Fulbright year in Syria, to study the Muslim profit Jesus, resulted in her learning and her then teaching me what she learned. I would mull over those parallels, discovering anew how mysterious and power religion is. I enjoyed discovering vicariously the richness of Islamic culture as Saldana met regularly with the Sheikh to read and study the Koran. Saldana likewise helped me understand the value of opening my mind wider, to resist allowing myself to accept the stereotypes, misrepresentations or reductions of Islam that are inevitably a part of mainstream American culture.Most importantly, I fell in love with Damascus, particularly the Old City and the house on Straight Street (I am not sure if this is the correct spelling of the name!). The Armenian “Grandfather” or the Baron, as Saldana called him so affectionately, was my favorite character of them all. Although he could be maddening, tedious, and noisy, he was also comic relief, and warmth exuded from him as he gently cried on the night that Saldana left Damascus to return to the United States; I cried a bit, too.Of course, the love story of Saldana and the young novice monk, Frédéric, is one of the best reasons to read this memoir, and as they struggle together to hear God’s voice and understand God’s will, to recognize themselves as living, breathing humans who do something other than pray and meditate in the desert. I won’t give away the ending, because I hope that others will pick up The Bread of Angels and love it as much as I did. Ms. Saldana has an incredible gift for using language. She describes her life as a Fulbright Scholar well, as well as the circumstances which allowed her to "run away." She is simultaneously funny and incredibly serious, but her light spirit seems to leap off the page. My awareness of this book began with an abridged version of the love story this memoir contains, found by my mother in the New York Times. I loved that small snippet of the book, and hoped and prayed that the full length story would be just as good as that page was. The Bread of Angels did not disappoint. I read it almost straight through and was dumbfounded by the beauty she described, and her own beautiful prose. Her story is compelling and complicated: a perfect match. If you are looking for a love story, look no further. If you are looking to understand the relationships between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East, look no further. This memoir really has something for everyone.
Do You like book The Bread Of Angels: A Memoir Of Love And Faith (2009)?
A young woman in search of answers motivates her to find them in the Middle East. Very insightful.
—fan
Starts a bit slow and deepens both the quality of the writing and the content.
—emily
Liked the beginning and the end, but not the middle.
—Etcelym
