More Than a War Diary: Angela Flournoy on Jean Said Makdisi’s Beirut Fragments

More Than a War Diary: Angela Flournoy on Jean Said Makdisi’s Beirut Fragments

Early in Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir, Jean Said Makdisi recounts a dinner party in Beirut during the nascent stages of Lebanon’s fifteen-year civil war. The distant thud of shelling punctuates the evening, refuting one guest’s optimism that the latest ceasefire agreement will endure. The guests fall silent, listening to a night suddenly made percussive. “Someone should record this madness,” another guest murmurs after a pause. “Someone should…