Honey and Onions: A Life in Saudi Arabia
By Frances Meade

Publisher's Book Summary

Frances Meade lived in Saudi Arabia from 1965 to 1998.  She and her husband and two daughters exchanged their desert life in Arizona for another desert land when they had the opportunity to transplant themselves to Arabia for an eighteen-month adventure that was to last thirty-three years.  This was not the Arabia of the oil companies nor the high tech country of today.  

Hers was the experience of Riyadh, the capital, in the days before paved roads, telephones, and dependable electricity and water. Her story opens a window onto a culture much misunderstood by westerners. 

How the family adjusted to an alien way of life and became a part of it is told with humor and an intimate understanding of a people and a country that are constantly in the news today.  Originally published in 1996 in Saudi Arabia, this revised edition is even more timely in 2004.

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Book Reviews for Honey and Onions: A Life in Saudi Arabia

"A charming and humorous book that will awaken nostalgia among those who have lived or traveled in the Middle East .. But it may make even livelier and more informative reading for new generations of people living as guests in someone else's land." -- Richard H. Curtiss, The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

"The book's title, Honey and Onions originated from a popular Arabic proverb, 'One day honey, one day onions' .. 'That is to me the universal description of life,' [the author] explains .. So many books have been written about the boom years and the country's gigantic leap into the 21st century as if the past has no value .. The book brims with interesting descriptions and humorous anecdotes .. Frances Meade has the ability to bring back the warmth, the liveliness, the tempo of those years of the Riyadh of the sixties." -- Lisa Kaaki, Arab News  

Additional Links:

• Click here to see photos of Frances Meade's Bedouin jewelry collection on display in the "Arab Americans in Arizona" exhibit at the Mesa Southwest Museum.

• Experience Saudi Arabia with Fran Meade -- Frances Meade's personal Web site