The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist in Yemen
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- ISBN13: 9780767930505
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- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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“I had no thought how to find my way around this medieval city. It was getting dark. I was tired. I didn’t speak Arabic. I was a small frightened. But hadn’t I battled scorpions in the wilds of Costa Rica and prevailed? Hadn’t I survived fainting in a San José brothel? Hadn’t I once arrived in Ireland with only $10 in my pocket and made it last two weeks? Surely I could handle a walk through an unfamiliar town. So I took a breath, tightened the black scarf around my hair, and headed out to take my first solitary steps through Sana’a.”– from The Woman Who Fell From The Sky
In a world fraught with suspicion between the Middle East and the West, it’s hard to judge that one of the most influential newspapers in Yemen–the desperately poor, ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, which has made has made international headlines for being a terrorist breeding ground–would be handed over to an agnostic, Campari-drinking, single woman from Manhattan who had never set foot in the Middle East. Yet this is exactly what happened to journalist, Jennifer Steil.
Restless in her career and her life, Jennifer, a gregarious, liberal New Yorker, initially accepts a fleeting-term opportunity in 2006 to teach a television journalism class to the staff of The Yemen Observer in Sana’a, the gorgeous, very ancient, and very conservative capital of Yemen. Seduced by the keen reporters and the challenging prospect of teaching a free speech model of television journalism there, she extends her stay to a year as the paper’s editor-in-chief. But she is quickly confronted with the realities of Yemen–and their surprising advantages. In teaching the basics of honest and balanced television journalism to a staff that included plagiarists and polemicists, she falls in like with her career again. In confronting the blatant mistreatment and strict governance of women by their male counterparts, she learns to appreciate the might of Arab women in the workplace. And in forging surprisingly deep friendships with women and men whose traditions and beliefs are in total challenger to her own, she learns a cultural appreciation she never could have predicted. What’s more, she just so happens to meet the like of her life.
With exuberance and bravery, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky offers a rare, intimate, and regularly surprising look at the role of the media in Muslim culture and a fascinating cultural tour of Yemen, one of the most enigmatic countries in the world.Amazon.com Review
Tahir Shah Reviews The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
Tahir Shah is the leader of The Caliph’s House and In Arabian Nights. Read his review of The Woman Who Fell from the Sky:
Just about everyone I meet is writing a book.
At parties and dinners they usually trap me in a confront between a potted plant and a wall, and they harangue me about a their masterwork. As a published leader they expect I’ll be able to smooth the way up the long hard slope to Print-hood and success.
Most of the time I tell Would-be-writer dinner guests that they’re fabulous, and that they’re assured simple success, because of their rare and blatant talent. I tell them that because most people only want attention and, when they’ve been agreed it, they go on to a name else.
Sometimes, at the end of a long evening of being savaged by Would-be-writers, I lash out and hint at the truth–-that the first 100,000 words that most people knock out ought to be chucked in the trash straight away. It’s the dirty water that comes through pipes that have never been used.
But once in a while you come across an leader who hits the mark first off in the most lively, and enlivening way.
Jennifer Steil is one such writer.
It’s clear to me from the first line of her sleek, intelligent and charming book, that she has done her time in that gymnasium of authorship, the newspaper world. There is nothing like it to erect the craft, although the majority of writers these days seem to shun it like the plague.
As a result, Jennifer doesn’t waste words. And, more importantly, she knows how to use them, like a mason selecting the right rock for a spot in a dry stone wall.
It would be enough for this first book to be a delight, which it is, but it captures something far deeper and far more poignant. Through it, she has reached the hallowed ground of the most successful travel writers. By this, I mean that she has triumphed in showing a place, revealing the sensibilities of a people and events, through anecdotes rather than direct description. It’s something which most writers fail miserably at, but a one that has the ability to depict a society in the most inviting way-–from the inside out.
I won’t waste space here detailing the ins and outs of Jennifer’s tale in Yemen, because I coax anyone with an interest in the East-West dynamic to read her prose for themselves. But I will preface the book by adage that it is an extraordinary achievement: both eloquent and elegant, hilarious in parts but, most of all, sensible to a society so differing from her own.
Questions for Jennifer Steil
Q: How does writing a memoir compare to writing news tales?
A: Writing a memoir is in many ways much simpler than writing news tales. News tales require such intensive reporting and running around, and then must be written on very forceful deadlines. I had a year to write this book, and nearly another year to edit it, which felt very leisurely to me! Of course the book required research as well, but much of it was based on the daily journals I kept during my first year in Yemen.
Writing a memoir is also a much lonelier business than writing news tales. When I am effective as a reporter, I am constantly talking with people, either interview subjects or colleagues. Writing a book required long solitary hours in my office, and I establish myself longing for a name to talk to at the water cooler!
Of course, there are also huge differences in structure. I establish myself struggling with the structure of the book, whereas I can honestly easily structure news tales. I figured out the structure the book as I went along–with lots of help from my editors!
There are also some commonalities between book writing and news writing. Both life tale and television journalism require scrupulous reporting of facts. I permanently try to be as honest and honest as possible. A memoir, but, includes plenty of my own opinions and feelings, which news writing excludes.
Q: At one point, you were surprised to find yourself sounding patriotic as you clarified American constitutional rights to Farouq. How did being an expatriate affect your sense of what it means to be an American?
A: I feel that living abroad has deepened my affection for America, while also building me more critical of certain aspects of American culture. When I left the U.S., I was furious at our government and the country in all-purpose. A dedicated Democrat, I was bitter about the last two elections and outraged by pretty much everything George W. Bush ever did. I was embarrassed to be American and pessimistic about the future of the country.
Living in Yemen did not improve my view of the Bush administration, but it did make me grateful for the many privileges of life in the US. All the things I took for granted–drinkable tap water, free speech, freedom to dress but I wanted, a variety of healthy food available everywhere, dental care, excellent hospitals, decent education, diversity–became more precious to me. I felt proud that I came from a country where I could rant about whatever I wanted lacking dread of the government tossing me into jail.
I used to complain about prejudice in America, which does still exist. But it is nothing compared to what women are subjected to in Yemen–and in so many additional places. I feel so lucky that by the sheer manufacturing accident of my birth I grew up in a country where I have had the freedom to go to school, be critical of religion, make friends with men and women, and choose a career for myself. I appreciate the fact that in the U.S. I feel that I am seen as a person with an intellect and rights, rather than as property.
That said, one thing I liked about leaving America was shedding so many THINGS. I gave away or threw out most of my possessions (aside from books and notebooks, which I stored in my parents’ barn) and it was really freeing to realize that I could easily live for a year with just two hand baggage worth of clothes and additional things. So much about life in the U.S. seems excessive from here. I mean, do we really need 97 flavors of chewing gum and 53 flavors of iced tea? I would go to stores and just get overwhelmed by the choices.
I have become more critical of the frivolity of American life. It’s hard to get worked up about my own tiny problems when Yemenis are apprehensive about the most basic things: access to water, access to schools, starvation, sickness, and war.
Q: Despite the hardships, you truly fell in like with Yemen. What was the turning point?
A: There were many small turning points–meeting and having tea with my neighbors in Ancient Sana’a, finally finding time to eat lunch outside of the office (it made such a difference to get away for an hour!), figuring out how to do all of my shopping and errands in Arabic, and taking time to get out of Sana’a and explore more of this gorgeous country. I am glad I came here alone, because I got such a huge sense of accomplishment from finding my own way and apt self-sufficient in this weird land.
Perhaps my largest turning point came as a result of getting the newspaper on a regular schedule. Once I had achieved this Herculean feat, I was finally able to spend more time with my reporters individually. I could give them the training and attention they needed. I could also spend some time with them outside of the office. This made my job suddenly much more enjoyable. I loved spending time with my staff. They are the reason I came to Yemen, and the absolute best part of my first year here was watching their progress and forming relationships with them.
Once we were on a regular schedule, I also had more time to explore Yemen and meet people outside of work.
Q: How do you hope the book will affect readers? What stereotypes would you like to overturn?
A: So many westerners I meet in the U.S. and England have not even heard of Yemen. If they have, they only know it as a hotbed of terrorism, which is how it’s generally described in the news. News coverage of Yemen is extremely skewed–western papers rarely write about the country unless embassies are being attacked or tourists are getting blown up.
What you hardly ever read about is the incredible hospitality and generosity of the Yemeni people. The overwhelming majority of people I have met in Yemen have been kind, open-hearted, and curious about westerners. Yemenis will invite you home to lunch five minutes after meeting you. And if you go once, they will invite you back for lunch every week. This kind of immediate and sincere hospitality is not regularly establish in the west.
I hope my book helps eliminate the stereotype that all Yemenis are crazed terrorists. I want people to come away with the understanding that Yemen has a diverse population, and the majority are peaceful people.
Q: Most books about Yemen have been written by men. What’s different about your perspective as a woman–a western woman at that?
A: Western men have pretty much zero access to women in Yemen (and Yemeni men don’t have much more!). Therefore, the books written about Yemen by men are missing half of the tale–the women’s tale. At least one male writer I’ve read admits he knows nothing of the world of Yemeni women, but adds that it is his understanding that Yemeni women may have small influence on political and public life, but that they rule the home. I did not find this to be right–certainly not for most of the women I have met here. The women I know have to obey the men in their family tree in every sphere–they are not free to go to school, fall in like, stay out after dark, work, go out, make friends with men, etc. lacking permission from men.
Because I am a westerner, I am sure there is still plenty I do not know about Yemen and Yemeni women in particular. While I’ve become close to many women who have confided in me, I am still ultimately an outsider. Yet some women tell in me because I am an outsider–they tell me things they are worried of telling additional Yemeni women, for dread of being judged.
Q: What is your next challenge as a writer and editor?
A: I would really like to write a novel. I’ve written one before, but I am not sure it should ever be published! So I’d like to start again. I reflect it would be fun to write something completely untrue for a change. Though it is tempting to write something about diplomatic life…
Photographs from The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
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| Jennifer Steil with Rocky the Kitten | Mountains in Haraz | Jennifer and Faris |
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| Jennifer, Tim, and Their Bodyguards | Yemeni Minaret | A Staff Meeting |
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This is not a novel but an account of a woman’s visit to Yemen which turned out to be a major life changing go. She went to train reporters at a local English newspaper, the Yemen Observer. Originally it was to be a fleeting visit and training session, and she would soon return to her job in New York.
When questioned to commit to a job to edit the paper for a year and continue the training, she accepted. She had loved the country, even with some obvious difficulties, and wanted to spend more time there. She had met many people she wanted to get to know better.
Yemen is not an simple country for a woman to delight in living in – especially as a single woman. Jennifer is a super strong woman to have managed it, while effective lawyer hours. She must have left a major impression on many, many people.
This book demonstrates that she knows how to write in a way that conveys her meaning and keeps the reader’s interest. It will be very appealing to anyone wanting to know more about Yemen and events there. It gives a local, insider perspective, with a reporter’s attention to accuracy, that is usually missing.
Toward the end of her year’s contract, she met the UK ambassador at a party. She finished up returning to Yemen to live with him while writing this book. So her “fleeting” visit to Yemen changed her life really.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
In the land of pomegranates and grapes, amongst goat and cow herders, where desert sands swirl and shift and offer up frankincense and jasmine, Manhattan journalist Jennifer Steil is hired to give a three week seminar in newspaper reporting in Yemen’s very ancient capital city of Sana’a. Steeped in historic and biblical legend, Sana’a is said to have been founded by Noah’s son Shem, and is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. Yemen is a country consisting of a mixture of either desert people that still today live in caves thriving off a dry and forbidding unforgiving land, or city residents that live in chocolate covered square mud buildings that are ornate with white icing-like adornments. Yet all Yemeni people are poor enough to be lacking many modern conveniences, money or food. Most people are illiterate, owning no additional book beside the Qu’ran. Water is scarce. One must walk fantastic distances for the privilege of carrying back a bucket or two of water for the family tree to drink. Few are lucky enough to be aware that ipods, cell phones, or large screen televisions exist, never mind be fortunate enough to own these gadgets we Americans take for granted. The leader travels into the foreign world of the Taliban, the home of Osama Bin-Laden and the Al-Quaeda, and where suicide bombings are a daily event.
Arriving to the Arabian Peninsula keen to experience this exotic yet troublesome world, Jennifer is immediately greeted by the staff of the Yemen Observer, patiently waiting for her to teach them what she knows about reporting in order to improve their newspapers’ popularity. Thinking this was going to be a guarantee, never did Jennifer imagine how hard this challenge would be. Finding she needed to start from scratch with reporters who were fervently missing in morals, ethics and a passable mandate of the English language, Jennifer embraces the job of integrating herself as friend, tutor, and mentor. Slowly effective with a handful of both male and female reporters that are keen for her help, she becomes quickly aware that it will take nothing fleeting of a miracle to get this newspaper up to professional standards in just under a month.
The Woman Who Fell From the Sky is an brilliant memoir of the leader’s life transforming experience in the land of Allah. This Muslim culture regularly throws her one vexing challenge after another, as she learns of Yemen’s history, culture, and of the kind and lovable people who welcome her into their lives with open arms. Her tale is amusing, appealing, eye opening, and intellectually stimulating, as the reader is pulled into a world we regularly hear about in a negative way. Jennifer enlightens us to the many wonders of the Middle East, and to the many thought provoking aspects of their religion and regularly confusing ways of life that we Americans might find airless or archaic.
Donning an abaya and head scarf, and learning to take in herself to assimilate into a world behind the veil, Jennifer is brought into the private world of the women of Yemen and surprisingly enjoys the thought of really having her beauty hidden, and in some ways the freedom it can give. As she meets each new daily challenge, she soon becomes passionate about assisting the newspaper, and eventually takes on the job of managing editor and remains in Yemen. Her new friends become her family tree, she finds the like of her life, and truly becomes one with Sana’a. I whole-heartedly loved Jennifer’s tale and establish her to be an brilliant writer who had the talent to praise the positive attributes of Yemen’s country rather than focusing on the hard and regularly frightening terrorist side of their history. She was able to described her new friends with like, in an unbiased and non- condemning manner. Her ability to cheer her students on as they quickly improved their news reporting was generous and uncomplaining, showing what a gifted and kind person she herself is to have told their tale so openly with charm. I give a many-star rating for this fabulous book. Lovers of the books “Eat, Pray, Like” and “Tales of A Female Nomad” will devour this tale; book club discussion groups should push this to the top of their lists. Standing ovation for Jennifer Steil!!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Jennifer Steil writes of her time in Yemen, trying to bring the `Yemen Observer’ up to excellent journalistic standards. What is appealing in the book is her insight into life in a foreign country that most will never visit. Her descriptions and pictures of life in the city of Sana’a and in villages where no one is aware of 9/11, no one knows how to read, has no knowledge of Hollywood are well done; as are her descriptions of the smells of jasmine, frying beans, lamb, frankincense. But then as so many additional places in the world, modern life in the form of plastic bags and soda cans as trash and men wearing pin stripe suits intrudes.
If you have ever lived in a foreign country and have been lucky enough to integrate yourself with the `native’ population, you know how much that can add to the appreciation of living. She learns from the women; that they wear the hijab to respect themselves, “when beauty is hidden, more vital things rise to the surface”. This does seem to be wishful thinking, as Jennifer experiences the same disrespect men show to women – the perverse and dreadful comments and constant harassment. Jennifer is able to see much, because as a western woman she is looked upon as a 3rd sex – able to socialize to some extent with the men.
She seems to snub much of the danger westerners face, but does come to realize what the people , especially the women of Yemen lack and what we, as Westerners take for granted. These are the main contents of what the book contains. There is a tiny section at the end, which nearly seems as if another person has written it, as like overtakes her life when she meets the married British ambassador, but that is not the main part of the tale.
There is an unevenness in the writing, but the interest would be there, especially for persons concerned with the Middle East, and especially the state of affairs of the lives of women. Journalists and persons who are interested in writing for newspapers would also find this book appealing.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This is so well written that you would reflect you were reading a novel, it’s hard to imagine an American woman moving to a country that does not respect women and taking over a newspaper to make it better, but it really happened, The leader is a inspiration to women every where, She has the patience of a saint as she tries to teach men and women in Yemen how to be newspaper reporters, having to overcome the facts that her potential reporters have distress with english, have no thought how to write a tale and are so embedded in the gender inequalities inherent in Yemen.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist in Yemen is Jennifer Steil’s memoir about her year in Yemen. Steil, a senior editor for the news magazine The Week, initially goes to Yemen to teach a rudimentary course on reporting to Yemeni journalists. This experience nets her a job offer to return to Yemen for a year as managing editor of the Yemeni Observer, an English language newspaper. Inevitably, she must overcome her initial culture shock in order to perform her job correctly. The book mostly covers this clash of cultures, vibrantly describes life in Yemen, and chronicles the vicissitudes of turning out a quality newspaper in a country that doesn’t exactly ascribe to freedom of the press. It is worth reading for this alone.
The book is at its best when Steil is at the helm of the Yemeni Observer. She has seemingly insurmountable challenges in organizing the staff, improving their language skills, improving their tale writing, and improving their work ethic. Agreed the Yemeni culture, women on staff are treated as second class citizens. Although they are generally less well educated, Steil takes an immediate liking to the women because they are more keen to learn, more reliable, and more driven than the men. As to the men, Steil has a constant uphill battle. As a foreigner she is never dismissed by the men as they dismiss the Yemeni women; she is viewed as a kind of third sex. In order to keep the paper on time, she has to really clamp down and gain their respect. Steil’s ability to form close relationships with the women and pushing the men into line are the best aspects of the book. Her interactions with her staff are appealing from both a management and cultural perspective. Her writing in these areas is insightful and dead on.
Although Steil is a excellent writer and does an admirable job of depicting her life in Yemen, she does keep a certain proper distance from her reader. Perhaps this is the impartiality of her inner journalist coming through, but it deprives the book of the more human dimension that is essential to a memoir. There is small soul searching here. In contrast to her lush descriptions of Yemen’s capitol city and her Yemeni coworkers, Steil paints a rather flat picture of herself. After reading the book, I never felt as though I understood what emotionally motivates her or what makes her tick.
In the same vein, Steil develops and appreciation for Yemeni culture, but never reasonably makes the leap from outsider to insider. The book is as much about Yemen itself as it is about Steil taking ‘breaks’ from the Yemeni way of life. During her free time she is either partying or vacationing with expats from Europe. While with the European crowd, Steil is able to let loose, wear revealing clothing, drink forbidden alcohol, and cavort with the opposite sex. These activities provide an outlet for Steil, but also demonstrate that she didn’t really try to immerse herself in the local culture. She was an accepted outsider who wanted to stay an outsider.
[SPOILER ALERT]
For many readers in the UK, this is really not much of a spoiler. But for Americans, who don’t know about the controversy surrounding this book, there may be some surprises revealed not more than. Sorry to say, it is impossible to review the book lacking discussing this controversy. I have to say that the controversy itself really only arises in the last three chapters of the book. The leader makes fleeting shrift of it and as this is a memoir and not a mystery, I don’t judge that revealing this controversy detracts from the book. But, if you don’t want to know more about this, stop reading here.
The controversy involves Steil’s affair with the (then married) British ambassador to Yemen, Timothy Torlot. Torlot only appears in the last few chapters of the book. My guess is that she had a book deal prior to the affair. But, when the affair netted front page headlines in the Daily Mail such as, “How Our Man in Yemen made Britain a laughing stock by flaunting his affair with the shameless Playgirl seductress,” there was no ignoring the obvious. A few chapters needed to be added. One might argue that this whole event was ‘off topic’ for this book–and it is. But, Steil would end up accountable by the British press whether she mentioned it or not.
But if your looking for juicy new details, something insightful, or an iota of regret for how it all went down, you won’t find them here. Steil basically chocks up the affair to like at first site. She wasn’t automatically looking for like, was introduced to the ambassador, and wedding bells rang in her head. Are there torrid like scenes? Yes, but none with Torlot. She describes a ex- lover in more detail. On the additional hand, if Steil didn’t really want to give details anyway and wanted to protect the innocent–such as Trolot’s daughter for example–she might not have reported her first kiss and her first sexual encounter with Torlot. Lacking serious, I reflect it’s safe to say that these are things a daughter would not really want to know about her dad and his new mistress.
There was a buzz in the British tabloids that Steil was going to use her affair with Torlot as a selling point for her book. Agreed the way that she has written about it, it is hard to imagine that this is much of a selling point. Steil’s justification for being ‘the additional woman’ is simple: right like. As to Torlot’s marriage? It was already on the rocks, and Torlot’s exwife Birdie was due to glide South for the winter anyway.
Fascinatingly, Steil appears to be critical and insightful for most of the book, but seems to lose this in the last chapters. In spite of her insistence that her Yemeni reporters look at all sides of a tale, in these last chapters she seems to have place on blinders and is only looking straight yet to be. Granted, she was personally involved here, but there is small evidence that she took the time for introspection or to see her affair from another point of view. To make things worse, her writing becomes nearly giddy when it comes to discussing Torlot or the affair in all-purpose. The writing goes from sophisticated-New-York-journalist to dizzy-superficial-sixteen-year-ancient-in-like the moment Torlot is introduced in the narrative. You might question if any of this is our business. My answer would be an emphatic, “NO!” But, if Steil chooses to bring the topic to the fore then she is obligated to take up it and take up it painstakingly.
With the exception of the last few chapters, the book is well written and reveals a lot about cultural differences between the Middle East and the West. It also opens the door to Yemen, a country that most of us in the West have small familiarity with. This makes the book a quick and appealing read.
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[Follow-up Note 5/21/2010: The Daily Mail rumor has it that got their hands on an advance copy of the book. Reasonably oddly, they characterize the book as a 'no-holds-barred account of the events leading up to their affair and their life together in Yemen's very ancient walled capital.' Nothing could bee further from the truth.
As noted above, the affair with Torlot is only mentioned in the last three chapters. The bulk of the book has NOTHING to do with Torlot or the affair. Agreed past accounts in the tabloids, there is small information that Steil supplies that is all that new, although the Daily Mail's staff writer, Barbara Davies, reasonably 'skillfully' strings together quotations out of context and makes Steil's account sound far more torrid and revealing than it really is. Steil's account is far less sensational than it is described by Davies.
Even worse, Davies article seems to place the blame on Steil more than on Torlot, which is more than unfair. If Torlot was somehow ensnared by Steil, he was willingly ensnared. Moreover, Steil--a single woman in her late 30s at the time, had everything to gain from such an affair. Torlot is the one who had everything to lose: his wife, his child, his family tree, his reputation, his career, and the respect of his colleagues. Steil may have set her sites on Torlot, but it takes two to tango. At age 50 and with years spent in diplomatic service, you would reflect that Torlot should bear at least 50% of the responsibility for the affair.
If you want to buy this book to get an inside look into the affair, you will be sorely disappointed. You will get no more detail in the book than is mentioned in Davies' article. But if you want to buy this book to get a fresh look at the country of Yemen, by all means it is well worth the read.]
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5