Dubai

I opened this book by accident but couldn't put it down. When I read it on the plane, I started to wonder who knew about it and were they judging me for reading indulgent sex scenes between an ambitious retired Army colonel and young, sexy women? But that's not really the theme. I had not heard of Robin Moore but of course had known of the French Connection and Green Beret movies. His writing is similar to Ken Follett's- heroics, adventure, murder, intrigue, sex, politics... But I learned so much about the world I was born into that I got a lot out of it. I was born in Berkeley and was always told to reject sexy female stereotypes, and here are the very examples of why I should reject them. It gives insight into why feminism is so important. Not only are the western men mainly interested in power, money and sex with beautiful young women but the Arab characters are also fingered as debauched and demeaning. I learned so much about the world that was around me when I was born and it made so many cultural attitudes clearly depicted. The real theme of the book, though, is about the people who want power, money and women and the conditions under which they get them. As a social and environmental activist, I felt like it was all so clear on how people tumble into wealth and political shenanigans. The eery part of the book is when the author predicts that Iran/Iraq will be the continuation of Vietnam. I felt that George W. Bush must have read this when he was young and our war there a fait accompli. Read this if you want to learn more about the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East, and the late 60s-early 70s expansion of US influence. Unless Wikipedia used it as a reference, it confirms much of the information, so I found it a useful historical fiction.