Both poignant and searingly honest — yet full of humor.
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RSSBayside, CA (PRWEB) February 18, 2015
The author on "Wake Up Running:"
"Once, after I finished telling my daughter about negotiations with Yasser Arafat, my experiences in Libya, and the day that Muammar Gadhafi distributed his ‘Green Book’ to every single individual living in Libya, and announced that Libya was now a Jamahiriya (People's Republic), she asked me, 'Pappy, why don’t you write these stories down?'
"Having taken her advice and finished writing 'Wake Up Running' http://bit.ly/EgeeDavid, I now realize that writing a memoir exposes one to criticism, if not to ridicule or shame. Stephen King once said that in writing a memoir you had to '...get right down into the cellar of your life.’ I haven’t pulled any punches or left anything out. From cellar to attic, I stand by my achievements."
"Wake Up Running" is a blueprint on how to work, travel, and live overseas. Is it easy? No. Part of it is luck, of which, Egee has loads. Everything from becoming the Director of the American Hospital in Beirut at the age of 35 to taking the last plane out of Lebanon with Italian embassy personnel when the Civil War got too hot. Egee faced political as well as social and cultural obstacles. One of the last Westerners to leave Libya after Gaddafi’s militia began hassling foreigners on the street, he was warned not to attract attention so he drove his newly purchased car to the airport, left the keys on the seat, boarded the plane and departed, never to return. But in spite of his vanishing overnight, the Libyan government continued to make payments to his company for a hospital he was never able to build!
David Egee's life story, "Wake up Running," features so many remarkable accomplishments (overcoming ADHD; Middle East healthcare career in Libya, Kuwait, Lebanon at a time of international crisis; London-based, UK nursing home principal; Director of the American Hospital in Beirut; childhood in Newtown CT, 40 years before the infamous 2012 bloodbath) it's almost impossible to single one episode out. Nevertheless, many readers state that the touching account of his father's death with dignity is the highpoint of the book. You can feel the author's emotion as he narrates an event that turns out to be an insightful forerunner for today's burgeoning call for greater tolerance of the right to die when and as one chooses.
Three events were responsible for Egee's success:
1. A causal visit to the American University of Beirut. The construction of a new 400-bed hospital funded by the US government. This would become a center of medical excellence, serving the entire Middle East.
2. The demand and price for oil throughout the Middle East. Hence, an unthinkable wealth became available for creating infrastructure projects all over the Middle East and North Africa — defense, education, and healthcare being among the highest priorities.
3. The election of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her privatization of many infrastructures, including parts of the National Health Service. This allowed him to build and manage private, long-term healthcare facilities throughout England.
"A marvelous memoir of an extraordinary life — from small-town America to the Middle East, idyllic Provence, and 'cool Britannia'! Both poignant and searingly honest — yet full of humor.”
~ John Andrews was The Economist’s most experienced foreign correspondent. He has been Deputy Editor of The World-in, West Coast Editor in the USA, Paris Bureau Chief, Washington Correspondent, EU Correspondent, Asia Editor, China Editor, Southeast Asia Editor and Industry Editor.
"Thanks for sending me David Egee's book with the wonderful title, "Wake Up Running." I loved his honesty and the way the book is written — it is so direct and easy to read and it is fascinating to follow his (and Dale's) journey as decisions made, luck, and events take them so far from their beginnings.”
~ Brigid Keenan is an author and journalist. She has worked as an editor on Nova Magazine, The Observer, and The Sunday Times.
Wake Up Running
Published by Editions Tilleul
An Imprint of Life Force Books
For purchase: http://bit.ly/EgeeDavid
