Beirut and Back weaves Nick Boke's memories of the Beirut he knew as a boy in the late 1950s with the Beirut he found when he moved there to work there in 2007. Part memoir, part ethnography, the book chronicles Boke's effort to understand the ways living in Beirut influenced the person he became, while he tries to understand what it means to become a person--anywhere. His recollections of riding rickety trolleycars down Beirut's narrow streets as a teenager segue with descriptions of the major political players in contemporary Lebanon and the many problems facing this complex country. As he puts it, "My feelings for Beirut are sort of like being married to the wrong woman: she's beautiful and exotic, but she's also dangerous and complicated."