Cultural Negotiation in Joseph Geha's "Through and Through: Toledo Stories" Dina Rabie College

Through and Through: Toledo Storiesis a brilliant collection of interrelated stories surrounding several generations of an Arab-American family living in Toledo, Ohio (“Little Syria”). The family members are not exceptional or tragic, and their experiences are not particularly outstanding; they are simply Arab-American citizens seeking balance in their new land, and that is the genius of Joseph Geha. In framing their stories in typical, relatable settings, Geha highlights the fact that these individuals’ lives are lived liminally, in a constant state of negotiation between their “old” Arab culture and their “new” American culture. The short stories “Everything, Everything,” “Something Else” and “Almost Thirty” explore the element of incorporation, of balancing internationality and heterogeneity in what is known as the Third Space, that is so familiar to all immigrant communities.

Joseph Geha is a Lebanese-American writer, born in Lebanon and brought to Toledo, Ohio with his parents when he was just a few years old. Toledo has a vast Lebanese population, with a local paper estimating that nearly 1,500 Arab families reside within its bounds. Many citizens of Toledo describe their lives there “like living in a Lebanese village”...