The story told by Aryain is rich with the quintessential American values touted today: character, perseverance, fortitude, and initiative. his story provides valuable insight into the experience of Southwest Asian immigrants in the American West and exists as one of the only published material on Islamic immigrant life in communities in America. The work is insightful and full of details about racism, work, family life, and culture of immigrants in West Texas. Well written, impeccably organized, and full of interesting stories that stay with the reader long after putting the book to rest, Aryain's memoir is a good read. The biography of a Syrian American merchant comes to life for the general reader or the serious historian and emerges as a work to be enjoyed and excerpted as a teaching tool about immigrant life in the American West. --Tiffany M. Haggard Fink, New Mexico Historical Review Vol. 83, No. 4