Joseph Geha
(Toledo)
Joseph Geha’s Through and Through: Toledo Stories (1990) is a short story collection that mostly takes place in a Lebanese and Syrian neighborhood of Toledo.
“He doesn’t look at all like what the American cousins expect […] His hair is neatly trimmed but the sideburns are shaved completely away. The cousins trade glances. Stylish in Beirut, maybe, but this is America, Toledo, Ohio,” observes Samir upon emigrating to America from Lebanon and meeting his extended family, who insist he go by the more American nickname “Sam.”
Geha’s novel Lebanese Blonde (2012) won the 2013 Arab American Book Award and the 2016 Khayrallah Prize.
He is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at Iowa State University.
If you enjoyed Through and Through: Toledo Stories, we suggest these Ohio side trips:
- Donald Ray Pollock’s Knockemstiff
- Amit Majmudar’s The Abundance
- Pete Beatty’s Cuyahoga