From revelry at socials to reverence at religious sites, a four-day walk, and a six-day war, and so much in between, the author takes the reader along on her two-year journey through the Holy Land, vividly documented in this new memoir.
Lynn was twenty-three when she changed her life's direction and left Hartford, Connecticut, for Tel Aviv, Israel. Her new life afterward was not always easy as she straddled two worlds, each at times pulling her in opposite directions. Over five decades later, she records those experiences in A Memoir of Two Cities: Hartford and Tel Aviv. Close to two hundred letters sent home create the foundation for this memoir, as well as travel logs, notes, research papers, films, photographs, and slides.
Despite crushing homesickness at times, the two years of Lynn's tour recorded in this narrative were those of rediscovering country, family, and herself. The author records a journey of self-discovery, revealing positive as well as not-so-flattering traits--all recorded with candor. Friends working at the embassy with her become a surrogate family, and she narrates her interaction with them with love.
The author offers the reader an introduction to the Middle East and its environs, including the ancient towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum, and Jerusalem. These visits reinforce her study of Jesus as a historical figure. Lynn tests herself physically and mentally in her first year, 1966, with an iconic walk and, in her second year, 1967, working at the embassy day and night through a harrowing Israeli-Arab war and recounts the latter two incidents in focused detail.
The author prefers the more narrow and focused memoir genre that enables her to compartmentalize her life, in this work, month by month. All she learns and experiences during the two years in Israel lays the foundation for her to assimilate herself with her memories back into the United States and also for future study for advanced degrees after a once-in-a-lifetime journey.
Lynn is the author of A Frog Hollow Childhood: A Memoir of Hartford.
