Name of the Beast

Easterman has painted an overwhelmingly dark vision of an Egypt literally demolished by a fundamentalist Islamic revolution, a country not only terrorized by religious police - the mutahsibin - but ravaged by the plague and hemmed in by a 50-foot-high wall created with material supplied by the tearing down of the pyramids and other ancient monuments. It is a truly horrifying image, vividly portrayed. The lead characters are interesting and well-rounded, and Mr. Easterman is clearly intimately acquainted with Cairo and its environs. His expertise in Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages also contributes to his portrayal of the culture. However, I think the motivation of his villain, al-Qurtubi, is rather thin, especially this Spanish former priest's reason for converting from Catholicism to Islam. The story goes to some lengths to identify al-Qurtubi as the Biblical Anti-Christ, but then does very little to follow through on how his particular actions fit that identification. And there's a whole big build-up of dreams and historical prophecies having to do with a mysterious black pyramid, which is eventually produced from under the sands of the desert, but it only serves as a brief setting for a plot to kidnap the Pope - the pyramid itself seems to have no other significance. The majority of the story concerns the trials and tribulations of the hero and heroine as they try to escape the religious police and various henchmen of al-Qurtubi. To me, one of the weaknesses of the story is the assumption that the forces of the Islamic revolution would be able to instantly assume complete control of an entire country and coerce millions of people into labor gangs that tear down the pyramids literally overnight and build a 50-foot-high wall around the country, while closing hospitals and suppressing the news that plague is raging and thousands of people are being arbitrarily shot for simple things like reading a translation of "The Tale of Two Cities". I am in the unusual position of having been through the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, so I can vouch for the suppression of things like music, nightclubs and movies; but I can also tell you that a brand new, untrained government does not do anything in a very efficient or organized manner - not even the persecution of foreigners suspected of being spies! (And Iran wasn't suffering the additional whammy of a plague!) I have trouble believing his bad guys would have had this kind of total control over any country. Other than that, my principal problem with this story is that it is so extremely dark that it was difficult to make myself keep reading.

A chilling portrayal of religious fanaticism run amuck. It seemed all too real, at times generating a palpable sense of discomfort and fear. Taking into account the times we live in and the fact that this book was written 11 years ago, the plausibility of the story seems less and less extreme. A genuine page-turner with finely etched characters and a dramatic sense of place and atmosphere. Mr. Easterman's expert knowledge of the region, the culture, religion and language are put to exemplary use in this fantastic journey into a world shaken to its very foundation by madness and violence. My sole complaint involves the ending, which seems a bit rushed and forced, but, nevertheless, does not wholly disappoint. Highly recommended.