Charleen Earley

At the heels of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, author Jean Grant’s book called The Burning Veil could not be more timely or relevant with her poignant message of learning about the beauty of other cultures. A labor of love, her 242-page novel offers her readers an up close and personal view of a love story between two young people from different cultures; Dr. Sarah Moss from Wisconsin and Ibrahim Suleiman from Saudi Arabia.

Living in the Middle East for 20 years herself, definitely helped contour her fictional story lines laced with real life experiences, lifestyles and beautiful landscapes. “I lived in Cairo, Egypt for one year, Beirut, Lebanon for 10 years; and nine in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Each country is unique. In Egypt, there was great poverty, but much laughter and culture. It’s a tiny country; so many are jammed into the river delta. Everything is crowded, the trains and shops. We were there when the great Arab nationalist Gamal Abdul Nasser was in power, but many of those we knew opposed him,” said Grant, who was a staff reporter for Arab News in Saudi Arabia.

“In Lebanon, there are mountains and it is a land of extraordinary beauty,” added Grant. “There is also a great diversity of culture, with Muslims and Christians working and living together. It seemed to work beautifully, but then everything fell apart in the mid 1970’s, the beginning of the Civil War.”

Married to Bob Fraga with their two grown sons, Grant hails from Montreal, Canada. Her upbringing and travels as a young adult helped shape her love for various cultures and prepared her for life outside of the United States. “I grew up in Montreal in a Jewish/French neighborhood, so I knew there a great many ways to live one’s life. After getting my B.A., I went to France as a graduate student and traveled to Great Britain, Ireland, Spain and Italy, so by the time I got to Egypt I was already accustomed to a variety of people,” she said.

Grant went to French school for grades 3 through 5 in Montreal, received her B.A. degree in Vancouver, received a French government scholarship and studied the sociology of religion there, then continued with her M.A. in English Literature at the American University of Beirut.

Inspiration for her love story came while she taught at Dhahran Academy in Saudi Arabia. “Since women weren’t allowed to drive, every morning at 7:15 a.m. we teachers were bussed to the school. One morning, I noticed a fellow teacher silently weeping. She was an American married to a Saudi, and the marriage was going poorly,” wrote Grant on her website. “A few weeks later, she left. I met several women like her, who came to the kingdom full of hope and very much in love. A few stayed on. Several left. I was curious about Saudi American marriages. I hoped for a better outcome for my heroine, Sarah.”

Appreciating other cultures is not really how Grant chooses to define things, since she feels that resonates more with tolerance. “For me the key thing is the pursuit of happiness and I’ve gained so much enjoyment from other cultures, their cuisine and literature and different ways of showing affection,” said Grant. “I suppose it is important (appreciating other cultures), but that focus makes it sound like getting to know other cultures is some kind of bitter medicine. It’s not. Or it needn’t be. It’s fun. That said, it’s important to see ourselves as others see us. We may not like it, but many see Americans as spoiled, violent children who have little dignity. The television shows that we export and that the world so loves to encourage this unfortunate perspective.”

While she believes it’s not entirely unavoidable, Grant is not a big fan of stereotyping. “It’s lazy, sloppy thinking. But it’s hard to avoid stereotypes if our lives are not rich with experiences of others who are different from us,” she said. “That’s why it’s marvelous to befriend foreign students, to go to films made by those of other cultures, to read their books in translation and to fall in love with them.”

Currently working on her second book called Faithless in France, which starts off in Beirut in the Civil War, Grant is hoping it doesn’t take nearly as long as it did to write the first one. “I’d write it and then put it down. I had two or three versions with different plot lines. Ten years? Twenty years? It sounds like forever, but it was diddle-daddling trying to find out what I wanted to say. I rarely worked on it full-time,” she said.

Her advice to would-be authors out there is to start small and work your way up. “Almost everyone I know is writing a book. I think those of us who write, do well to read the works of others. We’re all in this together. We learn a great deal by writing and with the advent of e-publishing and print on demand publishing, it’s easy to get one’s work out there,” she said. “Maybe for starters, consider a short, easy book. There’s a need for more “how to” books. e.g. how to grow out your hair; how to use money to help the world. Creative non-fiction is a marvelous field.”

An extract from her next book was first runner-up for the 2011 Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange Award, and Grant is keeping her fingers crossed for finalist in the categories of fiction-religious and fiction-multicultural in the ForeWord Reviews contest for The Burning Veil. But Grant is not writing for accolades, she’s writing for humanity. “I’d like them to garner a sympathy for the beauty of Islam in everyday life and how it helps people live lives of kindness and generosity,” she said.

The Burning Veil can be purchased at www.Amazon.com or visit her website at www.mishmishpress.com.

Among other things, a woman can never have enough purses. And so on my umpteenth trip to the mall to find just the right one, again, a comical analogy occurred to me.

Shopping for a purse is a lot like shopping for a date. The variety, first of all, was almost overwhelming. From ESPRIT to Liz Claiborne, I could take my pick of red, brown, black or white. And if I’m in the mood for some pizzazz, I could even go for a multi-colored number.

But once I found an appealing color, style became the next issue. I listened to others nearby, also trying to make a good choice. I chuckled when I overheard one woman commenting on a purse with a broken zipper. Ha! Must’ve been one of those pervs.

Some handbags were sleeker than Alec Baldwin; some as smooth as Eddie Murphy, bad language not included. The sturdy leather bags reminded me of Paul Hogan or Robert Redford, and the fake leather, well … sorry Rick Rockwell. It said, “Who wants to carry a multi-millionaire knock-off?” all over it.

I found some purses to be quite complicated: straps here, doodads there; much more baggage than I need at the moment, sorta like Justin Timberlake. Who needs all that drama with the ex? But then there were the simple ones, almost too simple. They had no character, no life, and no creativity – no thank you Hugh Grant (you’re hot, but that’s all).

Feeling a bit like Goldilocks in the dissatisfaction department, I finally settled for comfort. Yeah, that’s it, comfort. I tried it on. The straps fit perfectly around my shoulder. It was just the right size, not too short, not too tall. It had a John Travolta-look to it, with a disco design that seemed to hum “burn, baby burn.” I’m thinking this could be long term here. I mean, this purse just might last through several seasons without the usual boredom, frustration and unnecessary arguments at tollgates when looking for loose change.

The store clerk told me to save the receipt just in case I needed to return the item. I told her I always do, because once you see them in a different light, their personalities can change on a dime. She said, “Huh?”

I further explained that on first dates they can look and smell great, say the right things and be a top-notch gentleman. But once all the paper stuffing is tossed aside, and you begin to see his character, what’s really inside, that’s when the receipt comes in handy, and you suddenly find yourself back at the mall, rummaging through purses again.

Charleen Earley is a veteran freelance writer, comedienne and high school journalism teacher. Please visit her website at www.CharleenEarley.com.