THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY BY JENNIFER STEIL
From literatlas.com
It’s tricky for the average New Zealander to place Yemen on the map it seems, after asking around. Even fewer know much about this ancient place, and when they do, repeat the all-too-common media spiel, referring to it as a ‘breeding-ground for terrorism’. However, American journalist, Jennifer Steil, believes there’s far more to this Arab country and gives a fascinating account of her time there in her recently-released memoir, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky.
Steil, a seasoned journalist in her thirties, is asked to visit Yemen by her high-school boyfriend, currently residing in the capital, Sana’a. He wants her to visit for two weeks to coach journalists at the English newspaper, the Yemen Observer. Over the fortnight, she discovers the journalists there are in desperate need of the most basic training and so is easily convinced by the newspaper’s owner, Faris, to stay on for a year, as the editor-in-chief.
Leaving behind her life in Manhattan, a steady job at The Week magazine and her family and friends, she moves to Sana’a, one of the oldest, and most conservative, cities in the world. However, as soon as she embarks on revamping the newspaper, scores of unexpected obstacles emerge. Despite twenty-hour working days, the problems she faces seem insurmountable.
Her journalists struggle to string sentences together in English, they frequently plagiarize articles from the Internet, refuse to interview people, and show no firm grasp of journalistic ethics and impartiality. The male journalists seem lazy and incompetent; missing deadlines in favour of sneaking out to chew qat (the drug of choice for Yemenis). They believe their jobs are safe, simply because they are male. The female journalists on the other hand, put their heart into their pieces, but are hindered by their male colleagues, who refuse to acknowledge them, are unable to travel with males to follow stories and cannot interview male subjects. Worse still, the newspaper’s owner is also is in charge of Public Relations for Yemen’s President Saleh and so places pressure on Steil to show bias towards the government in the paper.
Yet, over the year, she does manage to bring real changes to the newspaper and its journalists. The people she meets also manage to teach her a thing or two, including lessons in Arabic and an understanding of Yemeni culture. She soon makes close friends and begins to love this foreign place.
There’s no question that Steil can write news stories, but what this memoir shows is that she can write books just as well. She writes in a humorous and easy-to-read way and her tales of Yemeni society are fascinating. It’s rare I find little to criticize in a book, but this was simply delightful from start to finish. Steil has mentioned she would like to write a novel next. I hope she does. I suspect whatever Steil writes will be well worth reading.