Arabia: Through the Looking Glass

by Jonathan Raban

Book Overview

ARABIA is the story of Jonathan Raban's magic carpet ride through Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Egypt and Jordan. Not only does it reveal the Arabs and their culture, it also introduces us... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 033030058X
• ISBN13: 9780330300582
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Landmark Cross-Cultural Journey

The first of Raban's books about the complicated inter-relationships between Arabs and the West. "Jonathan Rabin was living in Earls Court when the Arabs arrived in Britain.... The streets and squares around South Kensington and Earls Court rapidly turned into London's Arab Quarter. There were Arabic graffiti on the walls, Arab cinemas, Arab kabab houses, Arab groceries, Arab butchers. Yet the people themselves remained unknown, even unknowable." "Puzzled, curious, and sharp-eyed, he set out to meet his new neighbors." "...Raban began a long looping journey around the Arabian peninsula. His trip through Bahrain, Quataqr, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan took him deeply into a fascinating and much-misunderstood society." "Arabia Through the Looking Glass opens up a world of amazing cities crowded with vivid and memorable characters."

Travels through Arabia of the 1970s

This book is a travelogue of a journey Jonathan Raban took through some Arabian countries in the late 1970s. Raban's journey started in Bahrain, followed by Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan. Although the trip took place in the 1970s, much of what Raban observed and commented upon is still very much visible today. Today, more than ever, Arabia is divided into the have and have not countries, with Saudi Arabia setting the cultural standard for the haves. Yemen, Egypt, and Jordan still export labor to the have countries, with Yemen leading in the supply of police officers, Egypt with schoolteachers, and Jordan with technicians. Raban set off on his journey with a little training in Arabic from an Egyptian teacher in London, and had only 3 months to observe life and conditions throughout the lands on his itinerary. Three months is a very short time to take in much of consequence, particularly with his language limitations. Nevertheless, Raban was able to cut to the quick and make some very astute observations that still ring true twenty years later. He picked up on intense respect locals had for museum exhibits and other efforts to preserve local culture in the face of rapid development. He found someone who pointed out to him the incredible love Arab men show for their children "You see an Arab father, he's fantastically proud of his kid...They'd do anything for their children, the Arabs." Raban's description of the landscape in the Gulf is very apropos: "It was at that moment in the evening when the low sun goes squashy in the Gulf and coats everything it touches with a soft, thick light the color of broom. It gilded the wailing six-lane highway. It gilded the sandy roadside where I walked. It gilded the long trail of garbage- -the crushed Pepsi cans, discarded refrigerators, torn chunks of auto tire, cardboard boxes, broken fan belts lying the dust like snakes, the building rubble, polystyrene packing blocks, and a rather-long-dead goat." But here Raban didn't attempt to capture the accompanying smells, the essences of the well-used slaughterhouse wafting over the sand at the end of another hot day, the rotting diaper washing up on the sand of what could be a picturesque beach, the sweating Bangladeshi municipal worker in his one uniform, who makes his living and puts all of his children through school back in Bangladesh by chasing the garbage across the dunes, day in and day out for twenty years.At the beginning of his journey, Raban assessed the state of cultural exchange going on in the cosmopolitan Gulf: "What appeared to be unique to Bahrain was the way in which so many nationalities had landed upon one small patch of ground, coming together to create not a cosmopolitan city but a multitude of tiny provincial hamlets. Few expatriates ever bothered to learn more than a word or two of Arabic; they had no Arab friends; they were comfortably ignorant of the lives of the people with whom they shared this meager a

Arabia Remembered

Jonathan Raban has brought to the fore many of my memories from having lived in the Middle East for five years. I was there during the oil boom of the 70's, the time he chronicles in this book. His ability to convey his experiences without condemning or romanticizing is truly unique. When I see the incredulous look on the faces of others when I tell them how it was then, I sometimes doubt my own recollection. Raban tells me not to doubt. He was there, he saw the same, heard the same, smelled the same and felt the same. This author continues to be my all-time favorite. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand the Middle East and it's people.

Timetraveling

Do you like travelogues? Put Raban on your list. He apparently is a student of the Mark Twain school of travelogue writing. I stumbled onto a copy at the local University which was culling its stacks with a book sale. What a find..I will read every Raban book. Arabia puts you on the street in Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan in the middle of the 1970's oil boom. JR paints great pictures and expands your vocabulary too.

Not Obscured by Sandstorms

I enjoyed "Arabia" by Jonathan Raban, particularly as I read it together with Peter Theroux's disasterous "Sandstorms." The difference between the two writers is enormous: the former is engaging and interesting; the latter makes me wonder why he bothered. As I live in Bahrain it was interesting to read his observations about being here two decades ago. He paints vivid pictures with words and I found it a very enjoyable read. This was the first of Raban's books I have read. I look forward to reading the rest of them.Paul Cleaver Bahrain