The Marrakesh One - Two

by Richard Grenier

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0356102521
• ISBN13: 9780356102528
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Macdonald & Co
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Based on a real film fiasco

Other reviewers are right on, but failed to note that this hilarious novel has a real-life parallel: "Mohammad: Messenger of God" (aka "The Message"), a 1977 flop from Tarik Int'l. Films, produced and directed by Moustapha Akkad. He imagined it would become a Muslim holiday classic, sort of an Arabian "Ten Commandments", shown on TV every Ramadan. Not. The Western version starred Anthony Quinn as Mohammad's uncle; Akkad had to film a second version side by side, with an all-Muslim cast, to quiet Saudi protests. Yet protests dogged the film, forcing shooting to move from country to country, and terrorists did prevent the opening in NY (despite the fact that they hadn't seen the film!). Check out the film's chapter in the Medved brothers in Hollywood Hall of Shame: The Most Expensive Flops in Movie History, which details all of the politics and catastrophic production decisions that doomed the movie.

Critique of US Foreign Policy

While it is many years since I read the Novel, the work appeared a thinly disguised critique of American Foreign Policy toward the Middle East and the Islamic World as it was in the 1970s. Especially the bit about a sunday school teacher named James Earl Carter being responsible for cutting off the CIA funding which was directed to funding various charitable works in Iran, effectively destabilizing Society and resulting in the overthrow of the Shah. Fiction, smiction; that was just a front to get published without getting sued or banned! Well worth a read!

North Africa in the 70's

A quite funny novel demonstrating many of the usual differences of points of view experienced when two cultures clash. Specific to Anglo-Arab circumstances in the 70's, readers who have lived outside their native country, whatever it may be, will recognize the conflicts that arise in any cross-culture environment.You're left with the distinct impression that the author spent many years in the Arab world, loving it and hating it, and probably working for some other country's intelligence service. A funny book on its own, but also a good rare snapshot of life there then.