Contributions

  • Theroux, Peter. - Contributor

Publication

1987 - Random House, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

156,750 words, Guess

Page Count

627 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • Goodreads1184369
  • LibraryThing42579

Classifications

  • LCCPJ7850.U514 M8413 1987
  • DDC892/.736

Description

Banned in several Middle Eastern countries, this novel records the encounter between Americans and Arabs in an unnamed Gulf emirate in the 1930s. As oil exploration begins, the destruction of an oasis community amounts to "a breaking off, like death, that nothing and no one could ever heal." The promise inherent in the creation of a city divided into Arab and American sectors provides the novel's most striking revelation: here not merely two cultures, but two ages, meet and stand apart. Alternatively amused and bewildered by the Americans and their technological novelties, the Arabs sense in their accommodation to modernity the betrayal of their own traditions. Highly recommended, if only for its cross-cultural insights. --L.M. Lewis, Library Journal.

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