Retired professor and Sprague resident writes new book

SPRAGUE – Dr. Youself El-Kaddar’s new book, “Doorways,” has been several decades in the making. Ever since he was a boy, El-Kaddar had explored his and his family’s passion for writing. Now, the retired chemistry professor and Sprague resident has published a five-story book and is working on a fictional novel.

El-Kaddar, now 71, spent his childhood and early adult life in Libya, where he and his parents are native to. He said his mother and father had a passion for education, reading and writing. At home, the family spoke Arabic and Italian.

“My mother was always reading,” El-Kaddar said. “My father, even if he was watching or listening to the news, was always reading.”

Education was a priority in the family, and El-Kaddar attended the University of Tripoli in Libya’s capital to study chemistry after graduating from primary school in the country. It was here that he learned to speak English.

He then left the country to further his education in 1975, attending the University of Michigan, University of Oregon and University of Idaho, where he received his master’s degree in chemistry.

El-Kaddar went back to Libya and the University of Tripoli after graduate school to become an assistant lecturer for a year. He then decided to pursue a PhD, so he went to the University of Sussex in England in 1981 for six years before receiving his doctorate in 1987 in organic silicon mechanism. During those six years, he did several teacher’s assistant jobs.

After becoming Dr. El-Kaddar, he went back to the University of Tripoli as a chemistry lecturer. He taught petroleum engineering, nuclear engineering, organic synthesis in nuclear chemistry. El-Kaddar left the position and the country in 1995 due to rising political tensions and disagreements he had with Libya’s prime minister at the time, Muammar Gaddafi.

He hasn’t been to Libya since.

His next stop was another jaunt in Sussex as a visiting research fellow. He finally retired to America and came to the States and Sprague in 2015, where he married his wife, Reardan native and editor of “Doorways” Karen Benner El-Kaddar.

Now that he was retired, it was finally time for him to start writing, as his father had encouraged him as a young boy.

El-Kaddar began work on “Doorways” three and a half years ago. The book alternates between fiction, fantasy and reality, and stars “Joseph,” who is meant to represent El-Kaddar as a boy.

The book isn’t one overarching story, but five separate stories told at various times throughout El-Kaddar’s childhood. The stories are told in reverse chronological order, with the first story featuring a 15-year-old “Joseph” and the last a six-year-old “Joseph.”

“I wanted to get a spectrum of different types of writing in the book,” El-Kaddar said.

While the book features fantasy and humor, it also touches on heavy topics like grief, depression and calamity. The final story talks about the grief and depression present in El-Kaddar’s life and family when he was six. That year, his younger sister died.

“I saw how that depression greatly affected my family, even at a young age,” El-Kaddar said. “This book reflects on those themes and how depression, grief and calamity differ from each other…I also wanted to close the book with that experience of losing my sister.”

Now that “Doorways” has been published, El-Kaddar is working on a new novel, “Vultures.”

“It reflects the negative aspects of society,” El-Kaddar said.

He doesn’t plan to stop writing once “Vultures” is complete.

“I write every day. Sometimes, I write six to seven hours a day,” El-Kaddar. “Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night and write something down. The stories are always forming in my mind.”

“Doorways” is available for purchase on Amazon.