The Square Moon

I just finished the first two short stories in the book I am reading, The Square Moon. The book is actually a collection of lebanese short fiction stories, taking place, so far in Paris. The stories have a fantasy/maabre twist, which actually makes them more interesting to me.
The stories, collectively, have a sort of Edgar Allen-Poe feel, and I feel that the stories would work well alongside Poe in a high school setting.
The first story was centered between two people, a matchmaker interacting with the main character, and a woman who the main character is infatuated with. The clash comes from the fact that tradition, family, and the matchmaker want him to marry a traditional Lebanese girl, one who is shy, mannered, and uneducated. However the character is in love with a lebanese woman, yes, but one who breaks all stereotypes. She is athletic, educated, and witty, and wants to be a mans equal.
That story actually broadened my thoughts on relationships in the Middle East. Even though the story takes place in (roughly) the 1980's, it was still apparent to my classmates and I that the culture in the Middle East is changing. Women are going to school, and then furthering their education and wanting jobs that they wouldn't have before. The Middle East wants to be more modernized, maybe wants to catch up with our culture in the West.