She clearly finds him far more fascinating topic than herself, a view I’m inclined to share. In fact, over the course of the book, we almost learn more about King Hussein’s early life than we do about the Queen’s. Privileged as these years were, they pale in comparison to the rest her life and the Queen seems eager to deal with them quickly and efficiently before moving on to what she clearly views as the beginning of her ‘real’ life: her marriage to King Hussein.

ix)Ī few short chapters at the beginning of the book are devoted to the Queen’s life as Lisa Halaby, eldest daughter of a distinguished Arab-American family. However, after my husband’s death, many people encouraged me to share my memories and my perspective on Hussein’s legacy at a time when it might be of particular relevance. I had always imagined that if I were to try to tell my story that I would do so in a quiet reflective period toward the end of my active life when there might be an almost complete story to tell. The book, to its benefit, is not so much about Queen Noor as her husband. It’s been years since those classes though so I picked up Leap of Faith: Memoirs on an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor with little memory of what I had learned eleven years before, excited only to learn more about a woman of whom I had a positive impression. As part of this, we learned about Queen Noor, his American-born fourth wife, formerly Lisa Halaby, who spent years working alongside her husband to improve the lives of Jordanians, including promoting extensive education initiatives, setting up microfinancing for small business, particularly those run by rural women, and recruiting international tourism to boost the local economy (has anyone seen Indian Jones and the Last Crusade and not wanted to visit Petra?).

However, my social studies teacher took King Hussein’s death as a chance to, for several classes, teach us about the man, his legacy, and the complicated politics of the region in which he ruled.

In 1999 when King Hussein of Jordan died, I was twelve years old and had very little understanding of the politics of the Middle East.

Leap of faith book queen noor