Through and Through: Toledo Stories is a collection of eleven stories by Joseph Geha that are highly acclaimed in the Arab-American community of writers and authors. The stories cover a very broad range of narratives as they attempt to interconnect and relate with one another. Regarded as the first fiction of its Arabic origin, Geha's work traces the lineage of three generations of Lebanese and Syrian natives who settled in Toledo, the USA for almost a century.
Geha documents the lives of these people as they integrate themselves into a foreign land, abandon their culture, heritage, and eventually become Arab-Americans. The title story takes the reader on a ride down memory lane when an older relative shows his younger relatives different spots in the town that possess a lot of significance in their lineage. Holy Toledo tells the story of Nadia who is fascinated at how American women live lavish lives as their husbands go to work every day.
All her life, Nadia has had to work too hard to get the basic needs. While she admires these women shopping in town, she points out how fragile and weak they are. Despite this, she badly wishes she could walk in their shoes and live a lavish and comfortable life. As these immigrants adapt to the new life in the new land, they are provided with a once in a lifetime opportunity to compare and assess life and it’s pursuits from two different cultures, as they attempt to pick up the pieces and build a home.
While Geha’s character development and narrative flows are lacking in many ways, he uses this collection to spark a real and effective voice that speaks for all immigrants and their experiences as minorities in the racially tense country. The author does an exceptional job of dissecting how these cultures eventually muddle into an ocean of intermarriages and mixed-race children who now share common customs.
