Prelude: From Minneapolis to Beirut Summary and Analysis

The book opens with Friedman and his wife Ann boarding a flight to Beirut from Geneva in June 1979. This is the beginning of their ten year stay in the Middle East. They are afraid when they land in Beirut even though Friedman has wanted this assignment as a Middle East correspondent for several years. He has been to the Middle East before as a teen, when he and his family go to Tel Aviv to visit his sister attending school there. This is during Christmas of 1968 and Friedman is fifteen at the time. Thomas is totally fascinated with the Middle East and the people from that time onward. He feels at home in Jerusalem from his first day there. He feels he is more Middle Eastern than Minnesotan.

When he returns home to...