Reviewing ‘The Blessings of Ramadan’ by Javed Ali

This beautifully presented book is written primarily for children and young people of the Islamic faith but it serves as a simple and clear resource book for anyone wanting to learn about Ramadan.

English-based author, Javed Ali, has developed this short book (56 pages) from a series of talks he has given to Muslim young people during the holy month. It is written in English but Arabic expressions are aplenty as well as the inclusion of a comprehensive glossary and references.

It would be easy for the uninitiated to think that Ramadan is a hard deal having to go without food, drink and sex for the daylight hours over an entire month but the book’s title indicates the positive blessings that come from Ramadan. These blessings for one who follows the Ramadan traditions include the development and purification of character, ‘getting into training’ for the new year, growing in God-consciousness, coming to a better appreciation and involvement with the needs of the poor, developing a shield of protection against evil, developing one’s self-control and the communal blessings of community building, reconciliation and peace.

In a nutshell Ali says, “The essence of the month is to become a better person, who remains conscious of God throughout his or her life.” (p4)

Ali offers this book as a primer as he explains such things as the timing of Ramadan according to the lunar ‘clock of nature’, the reasons for fasting, the exceptional cases (elderly, manual laborers, the sick, children, travelers and expectant mothers), the pre-dawn meals, the breaking of the fast at Iftar, special night prayers, the ‘Night of Power’, the giving of alms (zakat) and the final festival (Id-Ul-Fitr). The author is swift to recognize that Ramadan inculcates a sense of solidarity with all Muslims but it has flexibility and diversity as it is practiced in different ways in different countries around the world.

The style of the book is straightforward, thoughtful and prophetic. He probes beyond the customs to reflect on their intended meanings. Ali recognizes that many Muslims seem to gain weight through this month of fasting and he challenges the extravagant overeating of special foods and the endless partying which flies in the face of the whole principle of fasting.

Ramadan celebrates the special month in which the prophet is said to have received his revelation so there is in this month a focus on Quranic readings. Instead of having a month where one can ‘pay your religious dues’ the author emphasizes how this month is a springboard that sets you up for the practice of these disciplines, including voluntary fasts right throughout the year. In no way does the author encourage or endorse a ‘Frequent Flyer’ approach to Ramadan, in which a diligent practice for one month can build up points and credit to let you off the religious hook for eleven months of riotous living.

A distinction is made between practices that are mandatory and those that are voluntary. One of the areas that some will find difficulty in accepting is the concept of doing religious duties or works to atone for one’s sins. For instance, the Prophet Mohammed said, “One who spends the Night of Power [the night when the revelation of the Quran is said to have come] in worship with faith and hoping for its rewards, will have all of one’s previous wrong actions forgiven.” (quoted on p45) The book and the volume that it quotes raise tantalizing questions about the nature of God. To what extent does one need to show works of goodness and generosity to be ‘saved’? How much does one have to do for the forgiveness of sins? Can one be sure he or she has won the favour and acceptance of God? How much does the prophet reveal at the first Ramadan a God of grace?

The blessing of giving zakah (alms) finds its echo in other religions, as does the right of God to a person’s wealth. What is distinctive, as hinted by Ali, is that “once the Zakah is given, the remaining wealth of the person becomes pure and legitimate.” (p47)

Javed Ali describes the celebratory culmination of Ramadan at Id, in which the coming together over meals is a time for forgiveness, reconciliation and building community. The invitation to those who are not Muslims to join in the festivities is a beautiful symbol of reaching out in peace, a commitment to unity and tolerance to those who hold differing views.

Javed Ali, The Blessings of Ramadan (New Delhi: Goodword, 2002; reprinted 2005) is available in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh14.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front cover of The Blessings of Ramadan.

Reviewing 'Everyman' by Philip Roth

This book is as dark as its cover. Philip Roth, the Pulitzer Prize winning author commences the story with family members and friends grieving around the coffin of the central character, before reverting to an account of the man’s reflections on his life leading up to that grave moment.

The former advertising executive and skilful painter is also a well known philanderer, who turned from a picture of health to someone who was inexplicably losing his health and his joie de vivre. ‘Everyman’ is a bleak account of this man’s retirement in which “eluding death seemed to have been the central business of his life and bodily decay his entire story.” (p71) The book is about the battle of old age but, as this character reflects on the suffering of the people he had known, their painful regrets, their loss, fear, pain, isolation and dread, he thinks that “old age is a massacre.” (p156)

It may seem that Philip Roth, this experienced American writer, is painting an overly dark picture of old age, however, the older brother is depicted as a senior adult who is healthy, profitably engaged in business and regularly traveling the world with wife. While Howie represents those who are enjoying old age, his very healthiness and purposefulness, instills within his weaker brother an envy which “robs the envier of his serenity and, worse, his realism.” (p101)

This books confronts readers with questions about their future, about death, about what lies beyond, while Roth presents his picture of ‘nothingness’, ‘not being’ or ‘endless nothing’. (p164) In a frank, simple and natural style Roth discusses the injustice of death, its unnaturalness but also the positive way it contributes to life a great intensity. The themes of life and death, losing and leaving possess a force of their own and Roth’s straightforward narration, brings readers into the inner sanctum of the man’s thoughts and feelings. The title of the book underscores the truth that while Roth is telling one man’s story, he is also presenting the universal story of our lives.

Philip Roth, Everyman (London: Jonathan Cape, 2006). This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 35.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front cover of Everyman.

Reviewing ‘Gardening in the Middle East’, by Eric Moore

Gardens in the Middle East sound like an oxymoron, when one thinks of the searing heat, dehydrating winds and arid desert sands. But, such is the demand for this book that Gardening in the Middle East has gone into a new and revised edition.

Author Eric Moore, reminds his readers of the central place that gardens have historically occupied in Middle Eastern life and his mention of the Garden of Eden and the way that the three Abrahamic religions have all adopted the fertile garden as an image of prosperity, peace and paradise, augurs well for someone desiring green fingers on the Arabian Peninsula.

Eric Moore is a horticulturalist with extensive experience in gardening and landscaping in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan. His style is simple, clear, practical and thorough, without getting his readers lost in the undergrowth. He presumes no existing garden knowledge on behalf of his readers and he has a gift of instilling confidence as well as imparting useful information.

While written as a guide to gardening in the entire Middle Eastern region, Moore is swift to recognize the different climatic sub-regions and he differentiates these seven areas according to temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall. He keeps all these factors in mind when dealing with these four sections of the book:
1. What sort of garden do I want?
2. What plants are best suited to such a garden?
3. What climatic and soil conditions do I have to contend with?
4. How do I grow such plants in such conditions?

In the first part that describes the various garden types, there is an interesting feature on the designs of Islamic gardens and the different purposes for which Muslims develop and use their gardens.

This section also covers basic gardens, including the herb garden, even if this consists of a few pots on the patio. Moore lists the herbs that can best be grown in the Middle East and in what landscape situation.

Moore says, “Another book could be written describing how to grow vegetables in the Middle East—but that is another book.” It is hoped that Moore might fulfill this task. However, in the meantime, he lists an extensive range of vegetables that can be grown in this region, distinguishing between cool season and warm weather varieties. Food-producing trees are also described.

With clear, vivid pictures and easy to read tables Moore helps gardeners to choose the right plant, shrub or tree according to climatic zone, height, spread, flowering and ‘cleanliness’ (the amount of rubbish it drops). Names are given in English, Arabic where possible and the Latin botanical name. Realizing that much of the hands-on gardening is done by Pakistanis in the Middle East, a future edition might supply names also in Urdu.

The author challenges readers to think carefully about the selection of plants e.g. Is this tree to provide shade or to stand as a windbreak? Is my need in this place for ground cover, a creeper for a trellis, am I wanting a splash of colour for this corner, a fragrance that will please my nostrils when I am sitting on the patio at dusk or am I simply wanting something that will be low-maintenance and high endurance?

In the section devoted to explaining how to grow plants, special attention is given to distinctive Middle Eastern features that include the challenge of using indigenous soil, ascertaining the frequency of irrigation without over watering and the type of fertilizers needed by plants to provide extra nutrients. Without condescension, Moore provides reminders about the basics of propagating, planting, pruning and garden maintenance.

The book concludes with a plant encyclopedia that is primarily devoted to describing the plants commonly in use in Middle Eastern gardens and in landscaping. The pictures and information on the expected growth of these plants make this book a valuable resource for the seasoned gardener as well as for the novice. It is heartening to learn that there are nearly 350 plants of every type that can be successfully grown in the Middle East.

Eric Moore, Gardening in the Middle East (London: Stacey International, 2nd edit. 2005, first published 1986). This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 175.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of Gardening in the Middle East.

Reviewing ‘The Pilgrimage’ by Paulo Coelho

With the increasing interest in walking the Road to Santiago, stimulated by articles, associations and advertisements for joining a tour, it is valuable to read Paulo Coelho’s international bestseller, The Pilgrimage, and discover what this walk meant to the popular Brazilian novelist.

Coelho commences by putting the recent popularity of the Road to Santiago into its historical and religious context, setting it alongside the other major Christian pilgrimages (to Jerusalem and Rome) and comparing it to the Muslim tradition that requires members of Islam to make the Hajj to Mecca. There is something that bolsters one’s faith and offers an experience of ‘the communion of the saints’ when people walk the same road. In his confessional style Coelho admits, “The pilgrimage along the Road to Santiago was going to help me find myself.” (p15) The book offers a journal of the soul, recording with honesty the author’s anxiety about leaving his business concerns, his apprehension when commencing the journey from France, the unforgettable sensations of his first night and many other occasions when he wept for joy and wonder.

For most of the way Coelho is accompanied by a guide who often utters words that are simple yet profound. Early after their initial meeting Petrus describes why travel can be so transformational:

“When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life. At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive. That’s why a religious pilgrimage has always been one of the most objective ways of achieving insight.” (p38)

Along the way the guide teaches Coelho the RAM exercises to do with promoting Rigor, Adoration and Mercy. The Seed Exercise, The Speed Exercise, The Water Exercise and the Blue Sphere Exercise are some of a large number of exercises that are described by the guide and the author gives a separate page insert on which is written the instructions for the reader. Implicit in this is the conviction that a pilgrimage is for ordinary people and the lessons one can learn on El Camino de Santiago are to be practiced anywhere and at any time in the pilgrimage of life. As Petrus says: “Everything that you have learned up to now makes sense only if is applied in real life. Don’t forget that I described the Road to Santiago to you as the road of the common person.” (p172)

While different religious groups practice and teach different things on the Road to Santiago, the order into which Coelho is ‘ordained’ into (the Order of RAM) and its spirituality is mysteriously esoteric and eclectic, as it includes secret meetings, saying passwords, discovering a monk who is a sorcerer and fighting a dog that personifies the devil. There are some deep insights and important lessons that Coelho conveys but they are distorted somewhat by the unusual brand of religiosity in which they are packaged.

The Pilgrimage includes a map of the major routes from France, across the Pyrenees and the towns on the way to Santiago de Compostela. There are many descriptions of a day’s journey and the sights that Coelho sees but one does not always get an idea of what it was like to walk, the heat, the cultural difficulties and the Spanish atmosphere. Perhaps this is intentional as the journey of the soul with his traveling companion is the most important journey that Coelho is making.

Coelho underscores the benefits of such a journey including the chance to forget about work, the lesson about how to face one’s fears, the importance of dreaming and the gaining of new perspectives. At the end of the book Coelho says, “I had changed a lot since I had begun to walk the strange Road to Santiago.” (p249)

Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage (London: HarperCollins Publishing, 2005, first published 1987). This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 35.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of The Pilgrimage.

Reviewing ‘On-Road in the UAE’

On-Road in the UAE is another welcome literary addition to the books written in or about the United Arab Emirates. This book will be appreciated by both tourists and permanent residents. It goes beyond the suggestions offered by tourist brochures and when many signposts are missing or unclear, this book gives travelers practical advice and confidence to venture beyond the familiar, urban tourist spots.

Author Gareth Leggett, is a self-confessed traveler with wanderlust in his blood. His intention is to encourage people to discover the nooks and crannies of the UAE, to experience its natural wonders and to interpret the numerous archaeological signs that tell the story of the ancient inhabitants of this peninsula.

Leggett has written for the ordinary person who does not have a 4-wheel drive or a car that is equipped with GPS. The book describes 17 day trips through the UAE and into Oman (the parts where passports are not needed) with a host of side routes. The directions are simple and clear with line maps indicating the exact distance between crossroads, roundabouts and petrol stations. There are ratings for each route according to the quality of the road, the extent of shade, the availability of amenities, accessibility and the time that each trip takes. To cap it off the author has enthusiastically given his own overall ‘Leggett’ rating.

The book contains a detailed check list with safety warnings related to the unique aspects of traveling on UAE roads. Leggett warns of fast driving Emirati drivers, who treasure their cars like they prized their camels, the lack of indicating, the places where warm clothing is needed and, speaking of camels, the roads where camels and goats tend to wander. A future edition might well include information on how one negotiates roundabouts in the UAE, the way ‘Stop’ signs are commonly regarded as ‘Give Way’ (Yield) and what one does or what might happen to you if you involved in a car or camel accident.

The style of this book is simple and clear and it is small enough to keep in the glove box of your car. It contains lots of helpful information including phone numbers of consulates and embassies, the Arabic words needed to greet people or to ask for the police and the birdlife to look out for in different areas. As well as being a skilful writer, Leggett is an adept photographer, for this book is illustrated with many sensational pictures.

Gareth Leggett, On-Road in the UAE (London: Zodiac Publishing), 2005 is available in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh65.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of On-Road in the UAE.

Reviewing ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’.

It pays to have a snazzy, succinct title although to be accurate, this book should be called, ‘The Hot-Shot Lawyer who sold his Ferrari and became a Monk’.

Author, Robin Sharma, is a lawyer who became a Leadership guru, a Life Coach and the CEO of the multi-million dollar leadership development firm, Sharma Leadership International.

Reading his books or seeing him on CNN, Sharma is an able communicator. This book is not a series of PowerPoint Presentations on coping with stress and finding life’s secrets. Instead, Sharma tells the captivating fable of the superstar lawyer who has a cardiac arrest in the court room which is the wakeup call to discover the things that are most important in life. Leaving the courts he treks the mountains to learn from monks who agree to impart their wisdom on the proviso that he shares these lessons with others on his return. The book is predominantly a twelve hour conversation between this Ferrari-less monk and Sharma. It is a good format for the book but in places the conversation becomes contrived.

Anyone who is working long hours, is having a struggle to keep to their diet and is sensing that their life is empty will find themselves in this story. Just as the lawyer had a values overhaul, this book strikes the note that life is short and that personal transformation is possible. Deviating from the traditional storytelling method Sharma has the monk sharing seven virtues (similar to Stephen Covey’s ‘Seven Habits’) each encapsulated in a symbol such as a garden or Sumo wrestler. Following the seven virtues readers are encouraged to do certain things for twenty days (the time needed to install new habits) which will address all of one’s life—body, mind, soul and spirit.

It is not entirely clear from the book whether Sharma is advocating that readers embrace the Buddhist religion but the monk expresses an eclectic range of truths with a coating of eastern mysticism. Sharma is a skilful popularizer of Buddhism and eastern philosophy who presents wisdom in non-religious ways.

Readers will resonate with the call to simplicity, the need to know yourself, to cherish life and to live in the now. Sharma writes about dealing with fear and how to sleep contentedly. In an age when plastic surgery is commonplace, this book advocates a transformation pathway that changes people from the inside out. Several weeks out of the courtroom and exercising in the mountains with a wise exposure to the sun and a vegetarian diet did wonders for the monk’s complexion and countenance.

Many sayings from David Suzuki to George Bernard Shaw are given that distill wisdom in a nutshell. Who can argue with this adage: “There is a huge difference between making a lot of money and making a lot of life.”

Readers will find this book to be inspirational, like its author. It is a self-improvement book with a veneer of spirituality that is individual (rather than communal) and non-institutional (rather than calling readers to sign up to a religious community). While The Monk who sold his Ferrari prescribes a holistic overhaul, the facet that is least addressed in this book is the development of one’s spiritual life. Whatever is mentioned is framed in ways that will help people to aspire, reach their dreams and discover their true passion in life. Unlike many self-help books which tend to encourage improvement for selfish gains such as success and happiness, Sharma writes about giving to others and how happiness springs from contributing to other people.

Robin S Sharma, The Monk who sold his Ferrari (London: Harper Element, 2004; first published, 1997), is available in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh70.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover.

Reviewing ‘Falconry and Birds of Prey in the Gulf’

It is heartening that David Remple and Christian Gross have produced a home grown book on the falcon, one of the national icons of the UAE and the Arabian Gulf. This volume is a reprint and update of the book first published in 1993. Since the initial launch Falconry has gone through four reprints, such is its popularity among UAE residents, tourists, students doing projects and the growing number of serious falconers.

If one is looking for an activity that is quintessentially Emirati, observing or flying falcons in the Arabian desert is the sport. The book commences with an illuminating history of falconry written by Cheryl Remple that describes the development of the art from as early as the thirteenth century B.C. The book distinguishes between eastern and western features of the practice of falconry and despite the lack of written sources in the Gulf region it sets out the distinctive aspects in the Arabian region. Falcon terminology such as ‘quarry’ and ‘raptor’ are explained and throughout the English text the key Arabic terms are also included. It is interesting to note the Arabic feature in which falcons in the Gulf are kitted out with a burqa or hood.

Authors, American zoologist, vet and founder of the Dubai Falcon Hospital, David Remple and Swiss naturalist, Christian Gross have teamed up to offer a comprehensive but highly practical book. Readers will discover the reasons that motivate people in the activity of falconry and will learn how to capture, train and look after them. The varieties of falcons and other birds of prey are described in detail and illustrated in a host of colorful pictures. The book is furnished with several black and white photos of early and notable Arabic falconers, including the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

The final chapter sets forth the threats facing falcons and their owners today and sketches how the art might develop in the future. Such is the changing face of falconry that the book requires regular updating. While Falconry describes the recent innovation of attaching radio transmitters to the legs or tails of falcons to track them when they get lost it would be important to include in a future update a statement about the threat of bird flu and the 2005 UAE requirement that all falcons be issued with an individual passport. Additional information would be helpful on where prospective falconers might purchase their falcons (if they cannot trap them), the cost of these birds and details about falconer schools and clubs.

This book is an interesting read. It needs to be in every school library and it is a good idea for a souvenir and a gift from the Emirates.

David Remple and Christian Gross, Falconry and Birds of Prey in the Gulf, (Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 1993, reprinted 2007). This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 75.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Peregrine falcon with burqa.

Reviewing ‘My Name is Salma’ by Fadia Faqir

This is the story of a young unmarried woman from the Levant who becomes pregnant and flees the mountains of the Middle East and the bullet of her brother who plans to kill her to save the family’s honour.

Her escape to Exeter in England traces the projected transformation of ‘Salma’ to ‘Sally’ as she encounters a quaint range of people, many of whom are experiencing different states and degrees of being marooned and exiled.

Written by Jordanian/British writer, Fadia Faqir, this novel incessantly darts from dream to reality, one period to another and from place to place in the space of a few lines. This becomes frustrating and confusing for the reader to follow, yet it symbolically displays the mental barometer of a person with no fixed abode and the crazy world of an asylum seeker who feels “released and imprisoned at the same time.”

My Name is Salma is about being black, Bedouin and Muslim amidst the racism and xenophobia of Britain and the feelings of exasperation and anger at “being so foreign.” One enters into Salma’s skin to experience the cultural differences when she attends a wedding and a funeral or does everyday things like drinking tea, going to the pub or using cutlery in a café. Very naturally, readers receive fascinating insights into the Arabic and Bedouin cultures in which Salma was raised.

This novel is about the experience of being a Muslim while living in a culture that is generally unsympathetic to head scarves and in a country where “religion is as weak as tea.” Salma questions her religion, adopts a ‘when in Rome’ approach but in the process of seeking acceptance, feels agonizing shame and crippling guilt.

This volume powerfully confronts readers with the practice of honour killing. One feels through these pages a measure of the terror and injustice endured by this Islamic woman who is judged to have “stained her family” in a way that may only be erased by her death. Fadia Faqir also gives a glimpse into the way this practice slowly sucked the life out of Salma’s separated family.

My Name is Salma is not only a book to read but a novel to inhale and savour. Chapter headings like ‘Sage Tea’, 'Lilac or Jasmine’ and ‘Butter, Honey and Coconuts’ are suggestive of the many ways that fragrances arouse, transport memories and are powerful in their capacity to summon.

This story is spiced with a humour that helpfully lightens the mood and relieves for a few moments the crushing pain of losing homeland, culture, language, freedom, identity, name, customs, family and most excruciatingly, the loss of a daughter.

This is a heavy story but a most important book to read.

Fadia Faqir, My Name is Salma, (London: Doubleday, 2007). This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 66.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of My Name is Salma.

Reviewing ‘The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma’ by Thant Myint-U

It is good to see a new book being written about a country that in recent decades has been shrouded in mystery and beset with violence. This is a serious and interesting book with ample footnotes, based largely upon the author’s academic research.

The River of Lost Footsteps is an unusual book as it is written by someone who has grown up outside Burma. The author, Thant Myint-U, is the grandson of former UN Secretary-General, U Thant and as a boy he grew up in New York with his parents and grandparents and later studied at Cambridge and Harvard. His research has been enriched by listening to stories of influential people like his grandfather and his colleagues.

The writer admits that the book is ‘roughly chronological’, commencing in the 1880s and spanning to the early years of the twenty-first century. ‘Roughly chronological’ is an apt term as the author jumps frustratingly from decade to decade. While dealing with events in the early twentieth century he will pitch in a reference from a modern Lonely Planet Guide or allude to a visit he made to Burma in 1997. Structurally, the book is a disconcerting hotch-potch. Because of the author’s family lineage and special circumstances, The River of Lost Footsteps is a hybrid of research, family history and anecdotes that Thant Myint-U collected on his short visits to Burma.

The book is written “with an eye to what the past might say about the present” and the author is critical of many in the democratic reform movement whose analysis of the contemporary situation in Burma and response has been “singularly ahistorical.” He warns that “we fail to consider history at our own peril.” Having established this point the author tells his comprehensive story of Burma but the book is lacking in critical analysis, interpretive commentary and argued lines that are drawn from the historical account to an appropriate response in the way of activism and international diplomacy.

Thant Myint-U issues a controversial call to end the policies of isolation and trade sanctions towards Burma but his recommendations are neither constructed nor argued out of the long historical account.

While the author writes about the ethnic fighting in Burma since the Second World War there is a surprising and disappointing lack of information about the various people groups and the historical reasons for their hatred of the Burmese. The history of the Karen, one of the largest minority groups, is dealt with in a couple of pages and the Chin people are described in a footnote. Without such information it is impossible to understand the civil war that has been raging for decades. The author has neglected the histories of the minority peoples in Burma to his peril and the detriment of the book. He recognizes the expulsion by the military leadership of ethnic minorities from Burma but he does not convey the magnitude of the atrocities committed by the army, the ethnic cleansing and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

While The River of Lost Footsteps is subtitled ‘Histories of Burma’, it is in reality a history of Burma through the eyes of a Burmese author, looking from the outside. [Some of the book covers are subtitled: History of Burma—see the picture]. This volume would be a very different story if it was written by a member of one of the minority tribes.

Thant Myint-U, The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma (London: Faber and Faber, 2007).

This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 140.00.


Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of The River of Lost Footsteps.

Film Produced about 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan

Author Ian McEwan and Nan A. Talese of Doubleday imprint have teamed up with Powell’s Books and created a groundbreaking way to showcase the novel On Chesil Beach.

They’ve created a short film based on the novel that will tour to over 50 bookstores nationwide from June 13th - 19th.

The film was shot in both England and the United States, and contains an interview with Ian McEwan in London, on-location footage from Chesil beach, an original soundtrack, and commentary from peers and critics, including Nan Talese.

For more information and to watch the film trailer check this link:
Off the Shelf—Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach Movie Trailer and Screening Information.

Image: Ian McEwan.

Reviewing ‘On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McEwan

On Chesil Beach is a book like Ian McEwan’s Saturday or Graham Swift’s Tomorrow, in the sense that it’s central focus spans a few hours, in this novel, only one evening.

There are other features to observe in the background and the frame but the miniature canvas highlights the exquisite description of ordinary actions, the concentrated attention on little details, the magnificent selection of words and the timing of silences that are both enjoyed and endured.

McEwan’s plot for this short novel involves two virgins on their wedding night staying in a hotel at Chesil Beach, Dorset, England, in the year 1962. After a brief account of the wedding in Oxford and their first meal alone as husband and wife the novel describes their movements and feelings from the dining table to the creaky, four-poster bed.

The relief of knowing that the wedding day went off without a hitch, the sound of waves and the scent of flowers, sets the stage for some warm and intense fellowship.

The themes of fluidity and stiffness are captured well by McEwan in this description of the hotel meal:

“The altered breeze carried through the parted French windows an enticement, a salty scent of oxygen and open space that seemed at odds with the starched table linen, the corn-flour-stiffened gravy, and the heavy polished silver they were taking in their hands.”

The author sketches the way that “the times held them”, with the sexual mores of the pre-Pill 1960s, the shaping power of their parents and the one thousand “unacknowledged rules that applied when two people were alone.”

One of the many amusing incidents involves the bridegroom battling with the terror of ‘arriving too soon’ and hitting on the steadying technique of concentrating his mind upon Prime Minister Harold McMillan, “who was everything that was not sex and ideal for the purpose.”

The book identifies the apprehension and anxieties in an evolving relationship, and the often conflicting dynamics of curiosity and coyness, fantasies and fears and nakedness and concealment. It is about the challenge of people in a relationship to patiently learn the language needed to name the unnamable and muster the courage to share true feelings. While the book revolves around a marriage relationship, it provides a useful catalyst to conversation for people in other types of relationships and implicitly stresses the need for communication and negotiation.

On Chesil Beach is about the power of words spoken and left unspoken, not only those that are solemnly expressed in wedding services but the decisions that are made on beds and beaches which then determine the course of people’s lives.

Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach (London: Jonathan Cape, 2007), is available in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh72.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of On Chesil Beach.

Reviewing The Lost Diary of Don Juan by Douglas Abrams

The Lost Diary of Don Juan is a novel which purports to have found the diary of the shameless Spanish seducer of women. The diarist is thirty-six years of age and his entries record his exploits in ‘sensual Sevilla’, a city that is rocking and throbbing with passion at the end of the sixteenth century.

Californian author, Douglas Carlton Abrams has in this book sought to recreate history furnishing the diary with insights into Spain’s burgeoning empire, its growing stocks of gold, the power of the Catholic Church with its Inquisition and the bloody action in the bullring.

The Lost Diary can be read simply as a gripping story about the legendary and lusty libertine who renders a service to lonely and neglected women by skillfully moving from bed to bed. At another level the diary can be understood as a historical thriller focusing on a Spanish Robin Hood who eludes the authorities in the knick of time but amidst such pressure is able to enter into sexual touch and intimacy with the impressive composure and patience of a master guitarist.

For readers who want to think further Douglas Abrams puts into focus the dynamics of lust and love, to reveal, without being moralistic, the ingredients that go into a relationship that is mutually satisfying for partners.

A central question that is raised by Don Juan’s experience and by the author is how one stays passionately married to a partner ‘until death do us part’. In countries like the United Arab Emirates, where up to multiple marriage partners are permitted, Abrams might extend the question and ask how a person might stay passionately in love and loyalty with four marriage partners.

The book presents an old, universal story with freshness as it teases out strands that are pertinent to modern day loving. These issues include the caged and cloistered existence of many women, the preoccupation with virginity, the obsession of many fathers and brothers to maintain the purity and honor of the family and the seductive power of masks and veils. Setting the sexual encounters against the background of the Spanish conquest, religious tyranny and the amassing of treasure raises the question about the relationship of power to seduction.

The Lost Diary is a rich banquet of dancing and dueling, kisses and communion, convents and brothels, fighting and fiestas and pain and pleasure. Like its subject the book begins slowly and sometimes there is fumbling and faltering but it picks up the pace until it reaches its heart-thumping climax.

Douglas Carlton Abrams, The Lost Diary of Don Juan (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson), 2007 is available in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh66.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of The Lost Diary.

Reviewing ‘North Face of Soho,’ by Clive James

North Face of Soho is the fourth of possibly five volumes in Clive James’ autobiographical series, Unreliable Memoirs.

This book is marked throughout by a self-deprecating style and is, according to its author, a further “instalment in a serial confession of how I learned to do the right thing only by doing all the wrong things first.”

Without much reserve James writes of his problems with alcohol (especially when he is seeking to perform on stage with clarity and precision), his inability to manage people, his difficulty in writing lines for anyone but himself and his default position of running away from conflict and disagreement.

Who is Clive James? It is difficult for the reader to hit this moving target who appears in the early pages with hairy sideboards, velvet jackets, flared trousers and paisley cravats but who becomes an actor in the theatre, a reviewer of books, plays and television, an author, travel writer, poet, song writer and television performer.

True to form James says “he is an ordinary person” who hates being over-billed and always feels that he “has not achieved anything substantial.”

Clive James has often been called an entertainer but he does not want to claim this title. He says, “Though the desire to entertain is not to be despised… the best an entertainer can hope to do is to be instructive.” Clive fulfils this role admirably. While this book is awash with witty one-liners that are sometimes showy or offered just for a belly laugh, most of his witticisms are intended to teach, provoke or prick a bubble of illusion. For instance, when writing about the lure of taking drugs James says, “Vice always finds it easy to make virtue look naïve.”

While this volume offers fascinating insights into the events of his life and his hopes and dreads, there is little light shed on Clive James the husband and father. He intentionally leaves his wife and two daughters in the background for fear that they “would combine to lynch me if I went into detail about their virtues.” He continues, “All three women in my immediate family are united in the belief that private life and publicity are incompatible, and I agree with them.”

The lack of family detail is compensated by the ample insights into the literary contemporaries of Clive James, including Graham Greene, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes and Spike Milligan. Many celebrities that James encounters are described in the way a cartoonist exaggerates a certain characteristic. For example, after interviewing Burt Lancaster James wrote, “His teeth looked like tombstones any way, and when he bared them in a smile it looked like a carnival in a graveyard.”

Readers of this book will be treated to many tips on the difficult art of writing well. He says that his own style “works by packing stuff in, not stretching it out, and there is always a danger of trying to say too much at once.” He writes about his struggles with writing and speaks of the way that different editors have helped him. His sentences are substantial and never slack, colourful images abound and his stories are told with relish and gusto. James is often cited as the person with the gift of an apt phrase and this book contains many examples.

North of Soho is a treasure chest of information about writing humorously, becoming a good interviewer, seeking an agent and the knack of getting published.

Clive James admits he is getting better at learning from his mistakes. But, he says, “Without those big mistakes I would never have learned anything in the first place. The graph of your increasing profit from your own errors is the only authentic measure of progress.” It is this down-to-earth honesty, penetrating wisdom and ability to see the constructive contribution of failure that makes this book so valuable, especially for readers who crave the culture of success.

Clive James, North of Soho, Unreliable Memoirs Vol. IV (London: Picador, 2006).

This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 126.00.


Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of North of Soho.

Reviewing ‘The Penguin History of New Zealand’ by Michael King.

The Penguin History of New Zealand by Michael King is the best entry point for people wanting to understand the story of Aotearoa-New Zealand and its peoples.

Although it is a general history it is comprehensive (500 pages) and is immensely readable. Not only has it updated the earlier, standard history of New Zealand by Keith Sinclair but it has given a more extensive treatment to the prehistoric period and a more balanced and integrated appreciation of the history of the indigenous peoples of the country.

Earlier histories were typified by the statement of a geographer who said that “a people with no land came to a land with no people.” As a result the Maori were invisible and ignored in many of the earlier historical accounts. Michael King, however, with his extensive knowledge of Maoritanga (Maori culture and language), has done an able job in writing about the robust interaction of the Maori with those with European ancestry who settled later.

King, who sadly was killed in 2004, shows a remarkable ability to synthesize a huge body of research and present it in a coherent form. His chapter on the Treaty of Waitangi demonstrates his skill at taking a complex event and issue and showing how the treaty has been both constructive and confusing to race relationships.

The author has provided a list of books and articles for those wanting to go deeper. The most disappointing feature of this volume is the lack of footnotes to help readers pinpoint the origin of many fascinating quotations.

King interweaves the various strands of his nation’s development from flightless birds to its citizens who have taken flight and from a strong tie to the Motherland to a nation struggling to discover self-expression and the things that a basic to kiwi culture.

Readers from New Zealand and other countries will come to a better understanding of what makes this nation tick. The Penguin History of New Zealand offers insights into this small and vibrant nation that has produced the All Blacks, many middle-distance runners, the first man to climb the highest mountain of the world, yachting heroes, Kiri Te Kanawa, kiwifruit, movie directors, a nuclear free nation, poets and painters and a cluster of women who have served in the top leadership positions of the country.

Michael King, The Penguin History of New Zealand (Auckland: Penguin Books, 2003).

Geoff Pound

Image: Front cover of The Penguin History of New Zealand.

Reviewing ‘The Secret River’ by Kate Grenville

This historical novel is set at the end of the eighteenth century and tells the story of William Thornhill who is sentenced in London to the penal colony of New South Wales, Australia.

Behind the lines there is substantial research into eighteenth century London, with its shipping culture along the Thames, life in the Newgate Prison and court proceedings in the Old Bailey. As the plot moves across the sea to Sydney there are detailed pictures of life for men and women in the early days of New South Wales as well as insights into the cultural ways of Australia’s original inhabitants.

The book has an easy style that flows like a river current with a poetic rhythm that is pleasing to the ear. Of their new base in the antipodes, Grenville writes, “It was a sad, scrabbling place, this town of Sydney.

It is a delight to read a book that emerges from the southern hemisphere with its description of the ‘vast, unpredictable sky’, the fierce landscape and the raw Aussie expressions of ‘bugger’, nicknames such as ‘Smasher’ and the frank assessment of the I.Q. of two labourers who were “a few bricks short of a load.”

The Secret River is a sad book that sets a husband and wife against the grinding poverty of early England and amid the violent relationships between the English settlers and the first inhabitants of Australia. Having escaped the hangman’s noose, William Thornhill is to experience further hardship in the strange and unfamiliar city of Sydney. Grenville writes: “There were things worse than dying: life had taught him that. Being here in New South Wales might be one of them.” But the experience of slipping from the noose had given to William and Sal a sense of hope to work at creating a new life. Despite their considerable hardship, readers get glimpses into life’s simple pleasures such as when lying in bed together, William and Sal know they have “got each other.”

This story about two ordinary, inarticulate people is about communication. Standing with his life in the balance at the Old Bailey, where lawyers are making claims and witnesses are giving testimonies, William is “struck by the power of words.” As the book traces the developing relationship between Sal and William their partnership is nurtured by words, yet in difficult periods they struggle to find and say the right words. The absence of words and language with which to communicate with the aborigines becomes a barrier to understanding. The power of words becomes as evident as it was when back in the dock Thornhill received his ‘sentence’.

In this book that was listed for the Man Booker Prize, Kate Grenville explores the themes of nakedness and concealment, scars and secrets. The title of the book suggests there might be a river that is deeper and more secluded than the Hawkesbury cutting through Australia, upon which navigation is extremely difficult.

Tracing the voyage from the Thames in London to Thornhill’s Place in New South Wales, this book examines the concept of place and what makes the difference between outsiders and insiders, strangers and settlers. It explores the dynamics when one is forced from one’s home and the longings and dreams to arrive at an existence where one can say this is ‘my own’ or ‘my place’. But even if one has the receipt for the land and a certificate of ownership in the drawer and a villa surrounded by poplars and rose gardens within a protective wall, does this fill the emptiness or is it another prison? What is the remedy for homesickness? What does it mean to be ‘at home’? How does one make a life for oneself?

Geoff Pound

Book Details: Kate Grenville, The Secret River (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2006).

Image: Front Cover of The Secret River.

Reviewing ‘Tomorrow’ by Graham Swift

This book contains the reflections of a wife and a mother the night before an event which is likely to reframe the lives of this family.

The title and the plot from the outset create a suspense that arouses curiosity and motivates the reader to turn the pages. Each chapter alludes to the big event of ‘tomorrow’ and sometimes these repeated reminders are annoying or are they indicators of the anxiety of the storyteller that is being magnified by the darkness of the night?

Gradually the fragments of information are dropped between the lines to disclose the secret and on the way many other family secrets are shared by the mother who is setting the record straight for her children.

This nocturnal stream of consciousness is an intriguing ‘leafing through of the mental almanac’ and is an appreciation of the twists, the turns and the treasures that have gone into the making of this family. These memories that ‘float into the head’ are personal ones but readers will find questions raised and thoughts expressed that will mirror many of their own deep wonderings.

This is a good book because it is about children and cats, family and friends, feelings and fears, the things in family life that stir the appreciation and those which cause one to be afraid.

The storyteller is “pillow-talking to herself.” Some adults will find it gripping while others will feel that the intimate reflections should be left in the bedroom. While the mother tells the story to her teenage children it would be interesting to see how young readers respond to a parent revealing such heart-to-heart and behind the scenes details.

Graham Swift has an easy style and is a wordsmith who plays with phrases and admires the beauty of words.

How do each of the family members and the readers respond to the great events tomorrow?

Graham Swift, Tomorrow (London: Picador, 2007). This book is available from McGrudy’s Bookstores in the United Arab Emirates where it costs Dh 102.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Graham Swift.

Reviewing ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World' by John Wood

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World is the inspiring story of how one of Bill Gate’s right hand men went to the Himalayas to ‘get away from it all’ and discovered a consuming new passion for his life.

Visiting a Nepalese school full of kids hungry to learn but with a library that was empty, led John Wood to establish, ‘Room to Read’, an organization that is now operating in Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and several African countries.

The book does not describe a religious experience with blinding lights and voices from the sky, however, it does suggest the importance of taking time out from the treadmill and scheduling opportunities to evaluate our lives and reestablish our priorities in accordance with those things that are truly important. When a Nepalese headmaster said to Wood, “Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books,” this sentence was to change John Wood forever.

Trained in banking and with a top class MBA, John Wood is no educationalist. The thing he does bring is a voracious appetite for reading that was nurtured by his parents from a young age. Standing in the empty School library near the top of the world John Wood said, “It is hard to imagine a world in which something as random as where you were born could result in lifelong illiteracy.”

This book surveys the gradual rearrangement of priorities as Wood weighs up the wisdom of accumulating more wealth while thousands of children around the world cannot read or write.

For anyone establishing a not-for-profit organization and needing to learn how to cast a vision and get people on board, this story is an ideal text book and case study.

John Wood in ‘leaving Microsoft’ does not repudiate all that he learned in the corporate world. On the contrary, he draws upon the rich bank of experience he received in the management culture and demonstrates how the principles and practices might be translated into the non-profit sector. As the author reflects on his time with Microsoft he gives some inside glimpses into the lives of Bill Gates and other leaders.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World records the journey of how John Wood learned about aid and development. He recognized the futility of merely giving handouts to the passive poor as he embraces a principle that he calls ‘coinvestment’, in which both parties are contributing what they are able, to attain a common goal.

Readers will be inspired by this story and will learn practical tips about how to ask for money, how to motivate people to participate and how to build an organization from nothing. Wood gives important insights into how to employ the right people and he stresses the importance of developing the loyalty of staff and the huge brigade of volunteers.

Leaving Microsoft is not all 'beer and skittles'. John Wood records the painful process of leaving a successful career, informing his boss, breaking the news to his partner and walking away from the trappings of success. He relates that the best advice in going public with the leaving process came from an Aussie mate who said to him: “There are two ways to remove a Band Aid: slowly and painfully, or quickly and painfully. Your choice.”

‘To Change the World’ required significant personal change for the author in readjusting to his new vocation in which he had no important title, no office, no steady income and no plush house provided by the company. He writes engagingly of standing in front of the mirror to practice the answer when somebody was going to ask the inevitable question, “So, what do you do?”

In the period of ‘starting over’ there are some things that do not change—Wood’s enormous capacity for work, his attention to detail, the importance of perceiving the trends, his tenacious approach to asking people for money and his commitment to ‘know the numbers’.

Leaving Microsoft is not written to encourage everyone to ditch their job or become a ‘corporate refugee’. In his promotional speeches John Wood does, however, seek to encourage people to devote some time and money to helping those in the world who have few resources. The book is a challenge to evaluate your life, to become entrepreneurial and to have the courage to do what you believe is right for you regardless of how it looks in the eyes of others.

This book is aimed at a general readership. It is interesting and moves at a lively pace, like its author.

John Wood, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An entrepreneur’s Odyssey to Educate the World’s Children (New York: Collins, 2006).

Image: Front Cover.

Reviewing 'Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years'

This book is a disappointment. As a fan of Michael Palin’s acting and writing I was lulled into thinking this book would be like his plays and programmes—a laugh a minute. However, this collection of diary entries is like eating a plum pudding that is lacking in plums.

This 650 page tome spanning only a decade is according to Palin, “a record of how I fill my days. Nothing more complicated that that.” It is a catalogue of events, not a confessional. It concentrates on recording the diarist’s activities rather than reflecting upon them.

Palin states that his daily diary writing does not strive to be perfectly written and highly polished prose but he writes well, nevertheless, with snatches of wit. The book is replete with references to how Palin slept overnight, his early morning vows to stop drinking alcohol, the ‘depressing pattern of the grey [English] skies’, his detailed descriptions of ordinary lunches and ‘truly epic’ meals, the trips to the pool with his children, the visits to care for his ageing parents and Palin’s long reading sessions while soaking in the bath. One learns prosaic things, including the payment of his phone bills, the series of gingivectomies in the dental chair, his bowel problems (these are given an entry in the index) and getting his waterworks sorted out in France (thankfully these escape the index unless they’re under ‘pee-pee’ or ‘l’urine’.)

However, the diaries do give a fascinating insight into the irregular life of a writer and actor with no fixed daily timetable. It plots the rollercoaster of emotions in response to the publication of reviews or the standard of his performances. The Michael Palin Diaries offer glimpses into the Monty Python team dynamics with the management of individual egos, the urge to aspire to individual success, the pressures of making a quid, the tussles with the censors and the behind-the-scenes spats.

The picture we get of Michael Palin is a person who is often troubled though growing in confidence as his performances are lauded by the public and hailed by heroes such as Spike Milligan. His decision to accept work is often made in accordance with how it will impact on his family. The rejection of high paying commercials because the products are dubious or the scripts are second rate, reveals a person who is committed to honesty and integrity.

This book and the fine photographs will be savoured by Python aficionados, about whom Palin wrote in 1975, “There are a great many people out there who want to know all about Monty Python.” For people whose interest in Python and Palin is not as intense, a short book describing the Python years would be preferable to this huge volume that is a touch self-indulgent.

There is gold within the leaves of this book but it only comes with much dredging. Most readers will want to ‘adjust their set’ or reach for the fast forward button. The retrospective footnotes often achieve what Saul Bellow said about the clever or wicked footnote “redeeming many a text.” The book quickens towards the end of the decade when the Python team is hitting its straps but it suffers from what Palin said about his stage performance: “If it starts well, then there is great laughter all through, but if something goes wrong at the beginning (God knows why) it can go in silence.”

Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006 is available here in the United Arab Emirates from Magrudy’s bookshops at a cost of Dh140.00.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover.

Reviewing ‘Palestine Peace Not Apartheid’ by Jimmy Carter

Whatever one thinks about Jimmy Carter’s prescription for remedying the situation in Palestine there is no doubting his commitment to working for peace in the Middle East.

A major part of his latest book is a survey of the settlement and peace processes, with a chronology of events going back thousands of years and a more specific account of developments from the UN partition in the late 1940s up to the present day.

The partitioning of the land and subsequent reoccupations, with further accords has made for a complex picture but Jimmy Carter has marshaled his facts clearly. This is a useful book for readers wanting to get a clearer understanding of the situation. The inclusion of maps and appendices that record the various UN resolutions and peace treaties also provide a good handle on the subject.

Carter weaves his own story into the account from the time of his first visit to the Holy Land in 1973, through his Presidential years from 1977-1981 and his important post-Presidential involvement especially through the Carter Centre which has monitored elections in the country and made visits for peace. His story is laced with fascinating anecdotes from his encounters with the key players in the region. Readers get a glimpse of the many behind the scenes conversations, as when Carter confronts former Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin about the breaking of his earlier promises.

Writing about a country that has experienced long term conflict and submitting a blueprint for peace where prejudices are so ingrained, it was inevitable that Carter’s solution was bound to be controversial. To discount this book because one doesn’t agree with the author’s prescription is to have missed the point. The book and his recommendations come out of long conversations over many years with leaders and ordinary citizens on both sides of the conflict. Carter has modeled the genuine understanding and commitment to sustained listening which is a prerequisite for any process that might bring peace.

As Jimmy Carter tells his story one can detect his early bias toward Israel that has come from a lifetime of nurture within the evangelical Christian ethos of the USA. Later, as he listens to Palestinians and discovers the way that the divided settlements, the restrictions on travel, the detainment without trial and imprisonments have all contributed to robbing them of their basic human rights, one can see Carter’s views changing. He denounces the ‘imprisonment wall’ which the Israelis have built, leading him to declare, perhaps emotively the presence of ‘apartheid’ separating Muslim and Christian citizens of the occupied territories. Carter is also critical of the reaction by some Palestinians in honoring suicide bombers as martyrs and considering the killing of Israelis as victories.

The outcome is a fair-handed and prophetic book that has challenges for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and important implications for leaders of the surrounding Arab states. Carter is scathing of the current US leadership which has condoned illegal Israeli activities and rarely questioned or condemned Israeli government decisions that have contravened former agreements.

This 21st book written by the 39th President of the United State of America is focused towards one of Carter’s major goals of his life and his retirement—working to ensure a lasting peace for Israelis and others in the Middle East.

True to form, this book is a straight forward account with no frills, diversions or padding. It examines the root causes of the continuing conflict and spells out a clear path to permanent peace and justice in the Holy Land. As a statesman who has worked for peace for many decades, it is significant that this is a hopeful book that builds on the positive factors that are conducive towards establishing a peaceful and just settlement.

Geoff Pound

Details: Jimmy Carter, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the United Arab Emirates at the cost of Dh 108.00.

Image: Front cover.

Reviewing The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

It is clear to see why The Secret is running off the shelves around the world and is giving the Harry Potter books a run for their money. The book is the ink and paper version of the movie, which are products of a big, The Secret business. It has risen to prominence as the author, Rhonda Byrne, has made appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live.

The Secret is a how-to book that promotes success, wealth and attractiveness to the opposite sex. It claims to contain the key to personal excellence in one volume, however, it is a new version of Norman Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking and other books in the self-help genre.

The book is beautifully presented, easy to read and is good in parts. Its chief author (there are twenty-nine contributors) is an Australian woman who found wisdom in her darkest moments and she writes with the conviction that sharing this secret is her life’s mission. The book is helpful in the way it promotes the practice of gratitude, the gift of joy, the need to see ‘the cup half-full’ and the call for people to take responsibility for their life.

The Secret garners its support from the ancient holy books and philosophers without becoming religious or advocating one particular faith. It comes with an attractive veneer of spirituality without demanding any formal allegiance.

It is true that life is to be lived fully and enjoyed but this book communicates the view that humankind or the reader is at the centre of it all: “The earth turns on its orbit, the oceans ebb and flow for You. The birds sing for You…. You are the Master of the Universe.” (p.183) The encouragement to be ‘healthy, wealthy and wise’ (and attractive) has its end in ME—my happiness and my success—not a life lived for the service of others or other altruistic reasons.

The book advocates visualizing empty car park spaces and pasting a one hundred thousand dollar bill on your bedroom ceiling to inspire your dreams and focus your life for the day. How much more useful it would be if readers were encouraged to visualize peace in Iraq and plenty in Darfur. The themes of seeking wealth, health and happiness will always keep the cash registers ringing but The Secret fails to address life’s greatest challenge by not presenting a prescription for defeating death.

This book would be located in the Body-Mind-Spirit section of the bookshop and it rightfully presents an integration of human living. But, the truth framework is flawed. The author makes the claim that the reader is divine but provides no support for this assertion: “You are eternal life. You are God manifested in human form, made to perfection.” (p.164)

The book promotes a prosperity doctrine and rewrites the Scriptures to support the ‘everybody can be rich’ thesis. Byrne claims that Jesus was one of a number of prosperity teachers from the pages of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles who were millionaires, one of a number of prophets (this should be spelt ‘profits’) “with more affluent lifestyles than any present-day millionaires could conceive of.” (p.109) Crucified at the age of thirty-three, with no money in his bank account? Despised and rejected? Does that sound like fun? It doesn’t take a Biblical scholar to discern the falsity and absurdity of this statement.

The style of this book is warm and encouraging but it is high voltage and lacks a sense of light and shade. There is a basic structure to the book and a progression but it is mainly a platform for gurus mouthing their formulae.

The Secret is a literary Aladdin’s lamp if that is what you’re after. Read it, don’t rub it and it will bring you everything you want.

Geoff Pound

Rhonda Byrne, The Secret, London: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE for Dh 70.00.

Image: The front cover of The Secret.

Reviewing The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is the title of Nick Hornby’s latest book and it is also his term for those who work at the Believer, the people who have commissioned him to write a column for their monthly magazine.

The book is a collection of the twenty-eight articles about the books that Hornby purchased and read over the period from September 2004 to June 2006. Each chapter begins with the designated month, his list of ‘Books Bought’ and often quite a different list of ‘Books Read’. The chapters plot the triumphs and failures as Hornby tries to move books from one list to another, for, as the sub-title explains, this is ‘The Diary of an Occasionally Exasperated But Ever Hopeful Reader’. Part of Hornby’s exasperation stems from the perceived constraints and expectations of the editorial team—‘The Spree’.

Nick Hornby is a writer but he makes it clear that this book is not primarily about writing but about reading—the how and when and why and what of this declining art. He explores the reasons why reading has lost its popularity and in the process pricks the pomposity of the elitist critics, with their lists of the classics or proper books that truly educated people should read. One problem he identifies is the misguided notion that many have got into their heads, “that books should be hard work, and that unless they’re hard work, they’re not doing us any good.”

In a confessional style Hornby admits he is easily bored so his selection of books is broad and varied. Hornby asserts, “I’m beginning to see that our appetite for books is the same as our appetite for food, that our brain tells us when we need the literary equivalent of salads, or chocolate, or meat and potatoes.”

Some of the fascinating titles on his lists include, How to Breathe Underwater, How to Stop Smoking and Stay Stopped for Good, How to be Lost and The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup. As the cover indicates, this book is a romp that not only charts Hornby’s literary interest levels but gives the permission that might liberate people from the grind of reading. “Turning pages,” the essayist says, “should not be like walking through thick mud.”

The diary installments contain references to events of the last month, from terrorist bombings to the humdrum activities in the Hornby household and the inevitable reports on the progress of Hornby’s obsession, the Arsenal Football club. The references to these ordinary and unpredictable events illustrate how our reading and responses are shaped by the stuff in our lives and the static in our minds. To support his contention about the damaging effects of domesticity Hornby quotes Cyril Connolly in his book, Enemies of Promise: “There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.”

Hornby’s collection of essays is written in a chatty, freewheeling style. It’s as if Hornby is doing a Google Search, moving at will from one book to the next while making comments on things that intrigued or annoyed him. He has an eye for the zany details. Often books on this paper trail have no relationship to each other although he makes some comparisons and contrasts and at one point he detects a theme and reflects, “I felt for a moment as though certain books were stalking me…” Occasionally Hornby gets serious, as when he lifts the lid on his challenge of raising an autistic child and his dismay in finding only one book on autism that cut the mustard.

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is never ‘sludgy’. It is a rich store of amusing anecdotes, witty quotations, belly-splitting one-liners and brief tasters from some of Nick Hornby’s enjoyable reads. It is best to savor one segment at a sitting and the essays do not need to be read in sequence. It may well release people from so many ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ as it is moved by readers from BOOKS BOUGHT to BOOKS READ.

Geoff Pound

Nick Hornby, The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, London: Viking, 2006. This book is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops in the UAE at a cost of Dh 119.00.

Review of 'State of Terror' produced by Karen Women's Organisation

The subject of the newly launched book, State of Terror, is summarized in its subtitle: ‘The ongoing rape, murder, torture and forced labour suffered by women living under the Burmese Military Regime in Karen State.’

The interviewing, compilation and production of this book has been a major team effort by the Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO).

The book builds on the findings contained in the 2004 publication, Shattering Silences, that detailed the alarmingly high number of Karen women and girls who have been raped by the Burmese military during its occupation of the Karen state.

This new book, with its very recent descriptions of human rights violations, draws on over 4,000 documented cases to reveal that the atrocities committed by the Burmese Military (SPDC) are increasing in their regularity. This trend is supported by the dramatic increase in the number of displaced people in Burma as well as the steady surge of Karen who are crossing the border into Thailand seeking asylum.

A distinctive feature of this 2007 update is the way it has documented a broad range of human rights abuses especially among Karen women and children. In graphic detail, with dates and names, State of Terror records instances of forced portering, the clearing of landmines, rape, beating, torture, murder, deprivation of food and water and various combinations of these abuses, designed to terrorise, subjugate and destroy the Karen culture and communities.

This report is raw and the events described are horrific. The style is not emotive but the testimonies of the victims make for harrowing reading. If is disturbing and difficult to read, it must have been devastating for those who conducted the interviews and wrote up this research.

Blooming Night Zan, who collected information for the report emphasized that the military offensive was still going on. She said, “It was heart-breaking to hear the personal tragedies from the hundreds of people I interviewed. It is unbearable to know this hell is still going on right now, even as people are doing their best to survive. The situation is past critical. The international community must act now to stop it.”

State of Terror is a loud cry to the Burmese (Myanmar) government to stop the abuse and allow the Karen to live at peace in their own land. It is a plea to the Thailand government to offer greater protection and ensure that victims of abuse have access to adequate health and psycho-social support. This book is a clarion call to the international government, to world leaders and ordinary people to keep Burma on the agenda and call for the immediate ceasefire by the Burmese military regime and a cessation of all atrocities.

State of Terror should be compulsory reading for people over the age of sixteen even if it is the most painful book to read.

Details of how a hard copy of the book may be purchased are available from The Karen Women’s Organization and the Women’s League of Burma.

The full text of the report can be viewed or downloaded from State of Terror.

Stop Press: Human Rights activists are currently appealing to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. A written and audio report by Lisa Schlein contains an interview with Blooming Night Zan, one of the writers of State of Terror. This can be read and heard at:

Lisa Schlein, ‘Activists Accuse Burma of Mounting a State of Terror,’ Voice of America News, 28 March 2007.

Geoff Pound

Image: Front Cover of State of Terror.

Reviewing 1000 Numbers and Reasons Why Dubai

The recently published book, 1000 Numbers & Reasons Why Dubai, provides a survey of the growth of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

It is a promotional book compiled by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry to answer the questions: ‘Why Dubai? Why Come? Why Work? Why Invest? Why Visit? Why Stay? Why Live?’

1000 Numbers & Reasons is a list rather than literature. Propaganda not prose. Points to access by people who want to do, not read. If you were wanting to prepare a Powerpoint Presentation to convince your company that it was time to establish a branch in the UAE, this is the book you will need. It provides 1,000 readymade bullet points that will knock over any audience and even cause the skeptics to raise their hands in surrender. When you are asked, ‘What are the difficulties and downsides of penetrating the Middle Eastern market," this book will not be of any help. The book lacks balance and realism. Have all businesses that were planted in the Dubai desert grown exponentially or have any withered? It would be valuable to have a chapter on the pitfalls and pressures of doing business in the Emirates.

1000 Numbers & Reasons should be compulsory reading for economists, investors and entrepreneurs who are wanting to do business in the UAE but, for residents and tourists who are wanting to have all those world breaking records in one compendium, this is the book.

The book not only summarizes the phenomenal growth in Dubai, it also provides a snapshot of works in progress. After picking up snippets of information in news reports, this book gives the best glimpse of what Dubai and the UAE are going to be like in 2010. It contains a thumbnail sketch on the forthcoming Aqua Dunya (the gigantic water theme park), Beautyland and the Dubai Snowdome. It also offers information on lesser known industries such as maritime tourism and floriculture.

The volume, which is the first of many updates, is adorned with ‘testimonials’ and vision statements, like this one from the chief of Emirates Airlines: “We want to become number 1. Nobody cares about number 2.”

1000 Numbers & Reasons is packed with tidbits on cranes and currencies, golf and gold. It is, however, usefully divided into the various sectors of Real Estate, Financial Markets, Banks and Insurance, Islamic Finance, Travel and Tourism, Media and IT, Business and Retail, Trade and Industries and Investment Companies. An index helps locate the facts that are on the tip of your tongue.

The concluding chapters on reports referred to and website addresses are invaluable as the baldness of the points often awaken a desire for more information. For instance, the amazing growth in Islamic banking is recorded but there is little to help the uninitiated know how a bank or business become shariah compliant or what takaful, the Islamic version of insurance, actually means.

Dubai is a city of hyperbole and superlatives and this book offers new ones to mouth. For instance, Vanity Fair is quoted as saying about Dubai, “Las Vegas is a sputtering 20-watt bulb compared with this fire in the desert.”

The drive, dynamism and can-do attitude of this book are best summed up in these words by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to whom this book is dedicated:

“Most of people talk, we do things. They plan, we achieve. They hesitate, we move ahead. We are living proof that when human beings have the courage and commitment to transform a dream into reality, there is nothing that can stop them. Dubai is a living example of that.”

Geoff Pound

1000 Numbers & Reasons Why Dubai (Beirut: BISC, First Edition, 2006) is available from Magrudy’s Bookshops at the cost of AED 75.00 or US$20.00.

Image: 1000 Numbers & Reasons Book Cover.

A Taste of Arabia by Jessie Kirkness Parker

People in other countries often ask, “What food do you eat in the United Arab Emirates and can you get all the food items you want?” To which, I say, you can get it all and more, even Australian Vegemite!

The range of restaurants is broad and varied. Even in the small city of Fujairah, there are numbers of Indian, Chinese and Iranian restaurants and a Lebanese restaurant that looks like a giant version of Freddie Flintstone’s home.

If you asked a local to tell you their favourite food, chances are they’ll say, ‘Chicken Biryani,’ such is its popularity. It is harder to define what is quintessentially, Emirati cuisine.

Jessie Kirkness Parker’s book, A Taste of Arabia: Recipes and Customs from Arabia and Beyond, is most helpful in defining the essence of Emirati food. The book is stylishly presented, illustrated with mouth-watering photos and delightful pictures of early UAE when the author and her husband first arrived in the country in the early 1970s. The book is not just a collection of recipes but fascinating descriptions of Arabian or Emirati culture as they relate to the selection, preparation, serving and enjoyment of food and drink.

With a wash of the hands and a ‘Bismillah’ (Praise be to God), the meal begins. Rice is normally on the menu in the Emirates. Often flavored and colored, it is generally served on enormous platters. Sometimes the rice is mixed with meat, fruit and nuts. The locals don’t worry about rice exceeding its expiry date. On the contrary, they greatly value mature rice and will lay it down for ten years or more.

With the UAE in its earlier incarnation being a sparsely populated country of fishing villages, the harvest of the sea is still common on Emirati tables. There is a variety of fish in the markets and, compared with many other countries, fish is most reasonable. Prawns and hammour, the meaty fish from the groper family, are usually on the menu in UAE restaurants.

Chicken, Parker asserts, has now replaced fish as the major accompaniment of rice. Lamb and beef, stewed, grilled or barbequed, are also popular, with pork not making a show.

Expect to be offered plenty of bread, often served as appetizers with sensual dips, such as hommous. Beans and grains abound—lentils, dahl and chick peas—along with salads such as rocca and tabbouleh. Herbs like za’atar or Arabic thyme, add to the robust flavours.

Some of these recipes might be found in Iran or India, as they are often passed on as people have traveled and settled. So, is there a dish as unique to the Arabian Peninsula as kim chi is to Korea or suishi is to Japan? Jessie Parker says that “the mysteries of the region’s flavors are locked into a unique Arabic spice mixture called biz’har (Arabic marsala)… Secreted into [the biz’har recipe] is the exotic flavour of dried lime, called loomi with its souring qualities of both lemon peel and the bracing freshness of a spritz of lime.”

The Arabian culture has its special food and customs, from the pre-dinner serving of coffee (gah’wa) poured into dinky cups from the curvaceous pot, to the highly versatile dates and distinctive garnishes. Some of the dishes have a strong association with Ramadan and other festive occasions.

Teas, whether traditional or spiced with za’atar or mint, are always at hand and are often used to break a fast. Jugs of lime juice are popular in this hot country but for something more substantial there is laban or drinking yoghurt, derived from the milk of goats or cows and often spiked with ginger and served with a dash of salt.

Interestingly, sweets are rarely served at the end of a meal but are offered with a mid-morning coffee or tea. Parker says, “Middle Eastern desserts are irresistible, mouthfuls of nutty, crunch and sweet, sticky luscious creaminess.”

With such descriptions of down to earth dishes and an appreciation of basic, fresh ingredients one only needs some gastronomical adventure and be able to say the word, Sa’ha’tian—bon appetit!

Geoff Pound

Source: Jessie Kirkness Parker, A Taste of Arabia: Recipes and Customs from Arabia and Beyond (Dubai: Jerboa Books, 2006).

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Magical Stage Play by Joan Didion

Charles McNulty reviews the adaptation of Joan Didion’s book, The Year of Magic Thinking, into a stage play.

It does not seem to be the usual Broadway fare as the retelling of Didion’s grief in the year following the death of her husband has a naked candor:

McNulty records the scene and some of the words from the Didion reenactment by Vanessa Redgrave:

Didion, Hare [producer] and Redgrave have approached their task with a stark Beckettian determination. Stillness rules a set marked by a solitary wooden deck chair and hanging canvases of abstract patterns in muted colors that change with falling dropcloths. Nothing extraneous is allowed to distract from the ensuing trance-like contemplation.

A vision of white and gray, with her hair pulled back to reveal a pair of blue eyes that stare out with an oceanic intensity, Redgrave resembles a mythological figure who has traveled to a place of total darkness and filed a report for our collective enlightenment.

“This happened on December 30, 2003,” she says, naming the date when Didion's husband died of a heart attack while seated in the couple's New York apartment with a second pre-dinner drink. "That may seem a while ago, but it won't when it happens to you. And it will happen to you. The details will be different, but it will happen to you. That's what I'm here to tell you.”

Source: For the entire review see Charles McNulty, Redgrave’s Séance of ‘Magical Thinking, LA Times March 30, 2007.

Image: Vanessa Redgrave