Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
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Writing Style Reminds Me of Kingsley Amis -- Another Oxford Master

I loved this book

"It was such fun to be going off to fish for our country."

I enjoyed the questions for discussion at the end of the book more than the book itself!,

.....east meets west, or vica versa

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Paul Torday
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0151012768

Amazon.com

British businessman and dedicated angler Paul Torday has found a way to combine a novel about fishing and all that it means with a satire involving politics, bureaucrats, the Middle East, the war in Iraq, and a sheikh who is really a mystic. Torday makes it all work in a most convincing way using memos, interviews, e-mails, and letters in clever juxtaposition.

Dr. Alfred Jones is a fisheries scientist in Great Britain who is called upon to find a way to introduce salmon into the desert in Yemen. The Yemeni sheikh will spare no expense to see this happen. He says:

It would be a miracle of God if it happened. I know it... If God wills it, the summer rains will fill the wadis... and the salmon will run the river. And then my countrymen... all classes and manner of men--will stand side by side and fish for the salmon. And their natures, too, will be changed. They will feel the enchantment of this silver fish... and then when talk turns to what this tribe said or that tribe did... then someone will say, "Let us arise, and go fishing."

Such is the sheikh's vision. He tells Alfred: "Without faith, there is no hope. Without faith, there is no love." Alfred has no religious faith and has been mired in a loveless marriage for twenty years, so these words seem fantastic to him.

Alfred and Sheikh Muhammad connect immediately through their mutual love of fishing, despite Alfred's misgivings about the viability of the project. The Prime Minister's flack man tells Alfred that he must persevere and succeed because Great Britain needs some positive connection to the Middle East, something other than a failing, flailing war. These kinds of political alliances are always shaky at best, and when things start to go sideways, allies have a way of disappearing. Alfred soldiers on, with the help of the lovely Harriet, Sheikh Muhammad's land agent, and the project is readied for opening day, when the Sheikh and the Prime Minister will have a 20-minute photo op.

All of the faith and good will in the world cannot overcome the forces ranged against them, bringing tragedy to everyone involved. Despite all, Alfred's interior life is changed immeasurably. He says in the end: "I believe in it, because it is impossible." --Valerie Ryan

Book Description

Dr. Alfred Jones is a henpecked, slightly pompous middle-aged scientist at the National Centre for Fisheries Excellence in London when he is approached by a mysterious sheikh about an outlandish plan to introduce the sport of salmon fishing into the Yemen. Dr. Jones refuses, but the project, however scientifically absurd, catches the eye of British politicians, who pressure him to work on it. His diaries of the Yemen Salmon Project, from beginning to glorious, tragic end, form the narrative backbone of this novel; interspersed throughout are government memos, e-mails, letters, and interview transcripts that deftly capture the absurdity of bureaucratic dysfunction.

With a wickedly wonderful cast of characters—including a weasel-like spin doctor, a missing soldier and his intrepid fiancée, and Dr. Jones’s own devilish wife—Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is the whimsical story of an unlikely hero who discovers true love, finds himself first a pawn and then a victim of political spin, and learns to believe in the impossible.

Customer Reviews:

Writing Style Reminds Me of Kingsley Amis -- Another Oxford Master.......2007-10-17

This book delivers a writing style which is both new and rejuvenating.

Classically loyal to the concept of bureaucratic ploy, the plot of the book delivers a contradictory premise: evidencing a government bureaucracy becoming involved and fulfilling a "dead at arrival" concept of infusing salmon (a cold water fish) to the hot arid lands of Yemen.

Conscripted by his government to aid in the development of a sheikh's passion to deliver fish of the northern hemisphere to his equatorial land, the protagonist, Dr. Alfred Jones, initially eschews the requests demanded of him. It is preposterous, he thinks -as does anyone else. To be called upon to deliver an act which would ordinarily be deemed an exclusive right for the almighty, Dr. Jones understands that he needs to keep his job and thereupon surveys the concept and architects the impossible dream. And, does it become realty? You will have to read it to find out.

The writing style is what makes this book both comical and seemingly relevant. It includes: numerous e-mails between Jones and his career-driven Oxford educated (he is too) wife who leaves his home for an opportunity to make even more money than he does (a fact she too often reminds him about in their e-mail correspondence); journal entries by the protagonist; articles from various newspapers; transcripts of television accounts; transcripts of interrogations relating to criminal and other acts; intergovernmental memoranda; intergovernmental e-mails; and (my favorite), transcripts of Parliamentary sessions which involve the salmon issue as well as lost soldier Robert - whose betrothed works with Dr. Jones.

The prose often delivers other delicious items. The dialogue of the rogue fishing-bitten sheikh displays enormously talented diplomatic statements which only trained diplomats or monarchs would recite - flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly.

As the book evolves, the characters dive deeper and deeper into bitter sweet alliances, trysts and victories. And, you just have to continue as the writer lures you to see "if it all works out."

For anyone wanting a quick and delightful read, I recommend this book.

I loved this book.......2007-10-07

As I read the previous reviews, I find that I share some of the criticisms of the people who hated the book. And from the reviews, it appears you either love or hate this book. I was intially put off by the style, that is that the book is told in emails, diary entries, etc. I find that unnerving and disjointed, and it causes the reader to have to constantly switch gears, so to speak, and I find that much more difficult to read than a straight narrative. By opening the book with emails, with all that to/from/what time information, I think the writer violated that first of all literary commands: Hook 'em from the beginning. ("It was a dark and stormy night...")
However, there is a point at which you do get hooked, if you can slog through the beginning. So it seems to me that the people who hated the book do so on issues of style. The people who love the book, including me, do so on issues of content.
There is a great deal of humor in the book, not always subtle as one reviewer suggested. The Quiz Show scenario, in which a Yemeni citizen wins a dishwasher to take to his non-existent, bombed-out, electricity-free village, is an example. But the rest of the humor is the kind that makes you smile, rather than laugh out loud.
Ultimately, the book does a stunning job of bringing home the point that none of us know what will happen tomorrow. We live, love, dream, and make plans based on hope that we will be there to see the dreams and plans come to pass. But if we don't, the life lived with those hopes and dreams is reward in itself. The book has an unexpected climax that is quite shattering. And uplifting at the same time. So...read this book. Go for content. Style is the author's perogative.

"It was such fun to be going off to fish for our country.".......2007-09-23

(4.5 stars) One of the most delightful and original satires I've read in ages, this debut novel pokes fun at every aspect of British society, from government spin-meisters and crass politicians to marriages of convenience, TV interview programs, consumerism, and the belief that many of the world's problems would be solved if only other people were "more like us." This satire is particularly refreshing, however, since the author writes it with a smile on his face, preferring to prick balloons with his witty needling, rather than wield a rapier in a slashing attack.

The absurdity begins on the first page, when mild-mannered and unimaginative Dr. Alfred Jones, a fisheries specialist, receives a letter asking for his participation in a project to introduce Scottish salmon and the sport of salmon fishing into the wadis of the Yemen during the yearly rains. Alfred finds the whole idea ludicrous and ignores the letter, until the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and eventually the prime minister weigh in. The PM's office favors this effort for its "environmental message," the new links it will forge to a Middle Eastern country, and not incidentally, the huge, positive news story that may push stories of Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia off the front page.

Through letters, e-mails, memos, diary entries, newspaper articles, records of the House of Commons, interviews, and even intercepted al-Qaeda e-mail traffic, the story of Alfred's efforts to create a suitable environment for salmon in the mountains of western Yemen unfolds. Gradually, Alfred becomes intrigued with the research possibilities of the project, and his contact with His Excellency Sheikh Muhammad ibn Zaidi bani Tihama, an avid salmon-fisherman who lives part of the year on a Scottish estate, broadens his vision and stimulates his imagination.

Within the framework that includes the salmon project, Alfred's love life (or lack of love life, since his wife lives in Geneva), and the sheikh's broad vision of a more peaceful world achieved through fishing, the author pokes fun at modern life--government officials who take credit for all Alfred's work, foreign policy which reflects the belief that the Middle Eastern poor hate the British because they do not have TV and material benefits, and even a communications expert who proposes a "Voice of Britain" TV channel with a quiz show in which poor Iraqi contestants can win dishwashers. Not even the British army's "Bereavement Management Center" escapes the author's sharp eye.

As Alfred accepts the sheikh's "belief in belief," he grows emotionally, and when the prime minister insists on going to the Yemen for the first release of ten thousand young salmon into the wadi, the scene is set for a grand finale. Filled with timely observations, an entertaining cast of characters, and a unique and well-developed story line (though the conclusion is a bit weak), this novel breaks new ground. There are not many satires that can be called "charming," and there may be even fewer novels about salmon fishing that can completely captivate those of us who have never climbed into a set of waders. Mary Whipple

I enjoyed the questions for discussion at the end of the book more than the book itself!, .......2007-09-09

I got used to the story being in the form of letters, e-mails, interviews and diary entries and it seemed to get easier to read as the story moved along. However there were sections I skim read that I found plain boring.

Although I could see the political satire in the story I would have to question the description that it's a `...feelgood comedy...' as suggested on the back cover.

The intelligent conversation and observation came mainly from Sheikh Muhammad who was a likable and respected figure. I liked his observations on the class snobbery in Britain...maybe that WAS the comedy ;)

When we first meet Dr Jones (Fred) he has `...moved on from religion...' and gives talks on 'Why God cannot exist'. As the story develops he learns about faith from both the Sheikh and the Yemen project. However, although I appreciated his personal journey, I never got to really like him, I just felt sorry for him.

All in all it was 'okay'. A little dull, but readable.
Thankfully though, there are plenty more books on the shelf ;)

.....east meets west, or vica versa.......2007-09-08

....mr torday has clearly seen the disconnect between the thought patterns of east and west and wittyly puts the two together in a funny story. as yemen is a low literacy society however he doesn't manage to match up the "behind the scenes" communications there as he does in the antiquated empire-remnant british segements of the book. a nice read but not compelling, more so if you've ever visited yemen and can visualise the ironies, or been involved in the bureaucratic niceties of modern britain.

Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen: Ruling Families in Transition (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)

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Islam, Memory, and Morality in Yemen: Ruling Families in Transition (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)
Gabriele vom Bruck
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation

ASIN: 1403966656
Release Date: 2005-10-13

Book Description

This book tells a story of a Yemeni hereditary elite that was overthrown in the 1962 revolution in North Yemen, after enjoying exclusive rights to the leadership of the Imamate, the religiously sanctioned state for over a millennium. Rather than concentrating on recent political history, this book highlights the personal predicament of those targeted by the revolution. What is their sense of "past" and "self" in a transformed political setting where in some respects the mark of distinction has become a mark of disrepute? Focusing on the cultural politics of memory, the book explores how--in making sense of their current lives and formulating responses to adversity--members of the elite remember.

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Great peds anesthesia handbook

Pediatric Anesthesia Handbook
Terrance A. Yemen
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
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ASIN: 0071586873

Book Description

A quick-access, pocket guide that provides anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists with a wide range of important procedures for treating pediatric patients in and out of the OR.

Customer Reviews:

Great peds anesthesia handbook.......2005-05-04

This is a concise problem oriented handbook of peds anesthesia. Unlike other similar references, this handbook offers a somewhat different, albeit more practical approach to anesthetic care for children. Rather than illustrate how to do a tonsillectomy, or how to do a ureteral reimplant, this book addresses braoder issues that can be applied to a vast array of surgical procedures. For example, there is a chapter that deals with the anesthetic considerations of children with neuromuscular diseases such as DMD, CP or myelomeningocele. There are chapters that look at such diverse topics as approaches to managing children with congenital heart disease as well as children with a URI. What I like about this book is that it focuses on anesthetic management issues of children with various disease processes as opposed to simply managing the surgery. While knowledge of the surgical procedure is very important, any competent peds anesthesiologist knows that not every tonsillectomy carries the same considerations. If we approach our care in that way, I believe that we risk becoming technicians as opposed to physicians.

This is a great little reference for trainees. It also would work well for attendings who need a quick review of relevant pediatric anesthesia topics. The burn and trauma chapters could stand to be revised in the next edition.

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Jewel of a Book

Yemen: Jewel of Arabia
Charles Aithie , and Patricia Aithie
Manufacturer: Interlink Publishing Group
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Binding: Hardcover

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A History Of Modern Yemen

ASIN: 1900988151

Book Description

Yemen is the land of the half mythic Queen of Sheba and the "Arabia Felix" coveted by ancient Rome. Yemen's history is ancient indeed, and much is still in the process of being discovered about this country and its influence on the ancient world. Both the country and the book help open the mind to new understandings of the growth of Middle Eastern civilization and the myriad influence of the past on the present.

As the traveling world awakens to the extraordinary glories and richness of Yemen, this large format, full-color photography book will surely become the visitor's standard compendium about the country.

Prepared by a husband and wife team, Charles and Patricia Aithie, deeply knowledgeable about Yemen's landscapes, cities, history, art, and archaeology, this book provides the factual grounding that no visitor will be able to do without. The work is wonderfully illustrated by the authors' photographs-and, as one of the most photogenic countries in the world, makes for a visual feast.

Customer Reviews:

Jewel of a Book.......2007-01-03

Exquisitely photographed, this is a wonderous book to behold. It has enough text to make the pictures interesting, and is well worth reading even if you're illiterate, for the beauty of the pictures, and the stories they tell. I recognized many places in my travels, and found many places I still hope to travel too. The only thing missing would be some pictures of the unique island of Suqutra, although there are a few paragraphs of text about it. This book is for any lover of Yemen, or anyone interested in finding out more about this amazing country.

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea

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An Entertaining and Educational Read
"a compelling search for buried meaning"
Best travel book I've read
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Perhaps, one of the best travel books I have ever read.

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea
Eric Hansen
Manufacturer: Vintage
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In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon

ASIN: 067973855X
Release Date: 1992-02-04

Book Description

In 1978 Eric Hansen found himself shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him safe passage to Yemen, he buried seven years' worth of travel journals deep in the sand and took his place alongside the animals on a leaky boat bound for a country that he'd never planned to visit.

As he tells of the turbulent seas that stranded him on the island and of his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later, Hansen enthralls us with a portrait -- uncannily sympathetic and wildly offbeat -- of this forgotten corner of the Middle East. With a host of extraordinary characters from his guide, Mohammed, ever on the lookout for one more sheep to squeeze into the back seat of his car, to madcap expatriates and Eritrean gun runners- and with landscapes that include cities of dreamlike architectural splendor, endless sand dunes, and terrifying mountain passes, Hansen reveals the indelible allure of a land steeped in custom, conflicts old and new, and uncommon beauty.

Customer Reviews:

An Entertaining and Educational Read.......2007-09-26

This is a fascinating (and educational!) travelogue about the geography, environs, people, culture and customs from a part of the world that too few people are familiar with. In an odd coincidence - while I was reading this book - a veritable storm-in-a-teacup whipped up, as US DEA cracked down on qaat (khat) chewing across the country.

"a compelling search for buried meaning".......2007-05-01

It is truly a gifted writer who sets you down in a strange and foreign land such that the boundry between the narrative and your personal grasp of the story is effectively blurred. Eric Hansen is such a writer.

Hansen is pursuing the grail of his buried notebooks in a off-limits military zone on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. His story, and it is a great one, is about the cultural adventures he experiences in his hope to retrieve a lost part of himself, the journals he had buried 10 years previously.

"So intent was I on uncovering the traces of my past that no object or thought seemed too insignificant. Even the litter spoke to me that first morning. I wandered aimlessly, searching for deeper meanings."

His depictions of Yemeni culture are riveting & compelling, a culture that is still holding on to its ancient orientations. Hansen becomes captivated by the Yemeni people & their customs. His search for the buried notebooks moves to the background as his visa is extended and he settles into the daily round of an ancient way of life.

"That morning, for the first time, I was willing to admit that the search was not going well, and that maybe it wasn't important anymore. Accepting this fact, I caught a glimpse of my own fate. Regardless of what the notebooks contained, it was clearly my need to wander to remote places and lose myself in strange situations that had drawn me back to Yemen . . ."

Narrative entertainment doesn't get any better than this - most highly recommended.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

Best travel book I've read.......2006-09-24

The author has written an engaging, entertaining, beautifully discriptive book of Yemen. I visited Sana'a about 15 years ago and his book really hits the mark. I particularly enjoy how Mr. Hansen captures the culture and attitudes of the Yemen. He knows that that that culture is 180 degrees from Western culture and he treats Yemeni religion, customs and attitudes with respect and openness - yet does not patronize as do many other travel books.

His writing is witting, self-deprecating and honest - completely enjoyable.

Yemen, Beneath the Veil.......2006-08-27

I second the views of several reviewers that this is one of the best travel books they've ever read. Hansen takes us through Yemen as if we were riding (or sailing) with him. I never gave much thought to or knew much about Yemen but, thanks to Hansen, I have a new and positive view of it. His willingness to get out and experience many facets of this country enriches his descriptions. His good humor and sensitivity to its people are gratifying. But this is more than just a travelogue. Hansen's quest for his buried notebooks is a compelling story in itself. That plot and this venue combine to make this an irresistible and meritorious book. I look forward to reading more from this intrepid and gifted writer.

Perhaps, one of the best travel books I have ever read........2006-01-28

Having read literally hundreds of travelogues, I must say this is simply one of the finest I have ever run into. Eric's experiences are unusually wonderful, and his writing is magical. His focus on the Yemeni people and their lives and experiences make this book far more engaging than travelogues that focus on personal experiences, interpretations or places visited and described.

Kudos Mr. Hansen! I thought I had travelled enough and read enough about other people's travels. Your experiences are illuminating and incomparable.

-a

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In the High Yemen
Hugh Scott
Manufacturer: Kegan Paul
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0710307861

Book Description

Scott gives a fascinating account of an expedition that took place in 1937 to the Yemen when that country was closed to Europeans by Order of the Imam. Ostensibly a scientific expedition, it posesses great political, cultural, and anthropological interest. The tense negotiations which preceeded the expedition and its ultimate success assured that this work remains perhaps the most important account ever written of that forbidding land that occupies the southern half of the Arabian shore.

The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut (Modern Library Paperbacks)

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Fascinating Tale of a Time of Adventure, Lost Forever
existentialist trek through Hadhramaut
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The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut (Modern Library Paperbacks)
Freya Stark
Manufacturer: Modern Library
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Yemen: The Unknown Arabia

ASIN: 0375757546
Release Date: 2001-07-24

Amazon.com

In 1934, a 42-year-old Englishwoman named Freya Stark arrived in the British-governed Protectorate of Aden on a singular mission: to locate the fabled, long-lost city of Shabwa.

Located on the high Hadramaut plateau in what is now Yemen, Shabwa was renowned in antiquity as the source of frankincense. Little visited even then, it was also thought to be a particularly forbidding place; Genesis mentions it as the "enclosure of death," and the Roman geographer Pliny reported that it contained 60 great temples and wealth beyond measure. That was good enough for Stark, who, having not long before made a difficult passage across the badlands of Iran, thrived on improbable adventures. And so, by burro and whatever mechanical conveyances she could find, she ascended the high mountains into a world that was sometimes perilous, but that also sometimes approached fairy-tale dimensions, as when, climbing the Hadramaut, she writes, "The path kept high and open, until gradually the valley clefts narrowed again upon us, and shut us in walls whose luxuriant green made a romantic landscape of the kind usually only invented in pictures."

Stark never reached Shabwa; laid low by measles, she had to be evacuated from territory overrun in any event by warring religious factions and gangs of bandits. Though cut short, her time in the Yemeni highlands yielded this superb travel narrative, full of uncommon vistas and milieus (harems, bazaars, and Bedouin camps among them). Anyone who values tales of adventure well told will find Stark's body of work--and this book in particular--to be full of treasures. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

In 1934, famed British traveler Freya Stark sailed down the Red Sea, alighting in Aden, located at the tip of the Arabian peninsula. From this backwater outpost, Stark set forth on what was to be her most unforgettable adventure: Following the ancient frankincense routes of the Hadhramaut Valley, the most fertile in Arabia, she sought to be the first Westerner to locate and document the lost city of Shabwa. Chronicling her journey through the towns and encampments of the Hadhramaut, The Southern Gates of Arabia is a tale alive with sheikhs and sultans, tragedy and triumph. Although the claim to discovering Shabwa would not ultimately be Stark's, The Southern Gates of Arabia, a bestseller upon its original publication, remains a classic in the literature of travel. This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, Stark's biographer.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating Tale of a Time of Adventure, Lost Forever.......2006-03-01

I found this book absolutely fascinating as it described a time, only 70-odd years ago, when there truly were unexplored reaches, where legend and history still co-existed, and where a culturally sensitive and aware, and properly respectful traveler could find peaceful and fulfilling adventure. This book is even more interesting now, given the changes in the Middle East in the past ten years. Can one imagine making the same kind of journey in Yemen now? Of course not; it would almost be suicide. That time has long since been destroyed, everything about this book but its pure physical setting gone, so this memoir is even more poignant and compelling.

Stark has an eye for detail, as jaundiced as it is with the unavoidable Orientalism of her time and socio-cultural context. This can be forgiven/overlooked, and she's a lot more fair and obliging when describing those she encounters than the majority of her contemporaries. She's at her best when describing the landscapes she is encountering, the stark desert and wadis, the unexpected lushness of the oases and tucked-away mountain crevices where all the shades of green burst forth.

More than anything, what comes through in this book is Stark's grace and abiding respect for the people she meets. She has taken the time to learn their language, and is familiar with their culture, and takes pains to encounter them in terms that will make them comfortable. She does not attempt to bend anyone to a Western European point of view. This is not to say she is subservient or fawning; she most certainly stands up for herself when it is required. But throughout the book and on this journey, her continued success comes from her honesty tinged with her respect for the region and the people with whom she is interacting. This engenders respect for her in return.

I found the three maps in the beginning of the book at first absolutely invaluable as references to Stark's locations and progress. I then found the maps to be absolutely infuriating, due to their black/white printing, the too-small script, the confusing order of the maps, the contradictory scales and place-name differences, etc. I ended up abandoning the book's maps and opening my unabridged atlas to Yemen and tracking her movement there. Editors: if you're going to offer maps in a book like this, make sure the maps are actually worthwhile and readable.

Two scholarly additions to the book are good. Stark's appendix on the "Southern Incense Route of Arabia" is a fascinating account of exactly what she was looking for, and what brought her to the Hadramaut in the first place. It's her indirect formal scholarly statement of motivation. This appendix would have been well-placed as a foreword to this book, serving to establish her motivation and objective. Stark lists her sources, and they're offered as a listed bibliography immediately after the appendix. There is also an index, but for whatever reason, many of the persons and places in the text are not included, and there is no cross-referencing. For example, the names of individual wadis are placed in the index as "Sidun, Wadi," and are not cross-referenced with a "Wadi Sidun" entry.

Bottom line: If you're one of the many readers newly interested in Islam, Arabs and the Middle East, and are looking for some context beyond the latest book on extremism or terrorism, something to add depth to what you think you understand, then this book will do you well. If you're looking for some insight into the cultures and traditions of Islam, this also will move you in that direction. If you're looking for a glimpse into a time when the West and Islam actually got along on a basis of mutual respect, this enjoyable book will tell you about it.

existentialist trek through Hadhramaut.......2004-01-28

Trekking over the desolate, rocky plateau that lies between the coast and the interior valleys of Hadhramaut, Freya Stark travelled in 1935 with a group of Bedu and a government slave-soldier. The area has been known as Aden Protectorate, the Qu'aiti State of Shihr and Makalla, South Arabia, the People's Democratic Republic of South Yemen, and is now part of united Yemen. She visited several of the interior towns, almost never seen by Europeans at that time (though the RAF did maintain a presence), and has written beautiful descriptions of the unusual physical environment as well as a kind and sympathetic treatment of the people she met. She talked in Arabic with the ladies of the harim as well as with the rulers, scholars, and ordinary men of the communities. Stark aimed to travel to Shabwa, a long-lost ancient city much further in the interior of the Arabian peninsula, to an area then contested between Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Illness prevented her from doing so. This book then, is an account of her curtailed trip. She was evacuated by airplane from the interior, lucky to be alive. I always like travellers who respect the people they visit and who do not condescend. Freya Stark is certainly among them. For a travel book that describes a time long gone and a place still far from the beaten track-do you know many people who have been to Shibam, Makalla, Tarim, or al Qatn ?---you cannot do much better. You might use it as a guide as to how you could get along with people of a very different culture to your own---step number one, don't try to force them to adhere to your value system.

However, one thing about this book puzzled me. Compared to most travel literature, it is a most existentialist piece. "Here I am, travelling through remote Hadhramaut." That's cool, but we never find out why she was travelling to Shabwa-well, OK, it is old, it is a kind of `forbidden city', and it might hold ruins of interest---but why her ? Who was she ? What was her purpose ? What were her qualifications ? I realize full well that we can read her biography, we can look her up in the encyclopedia or on Google, that she wrote many other books. But, I had never read anything else by her, knew nothing of her life. I wondered who she was. The book offers absolutely no clue. Why did the rulers all welcome her ? How did she have such good connections with the powers that be in Aden ? I put this existentialist atmosphere down to a kind of British reticence, a reluctance to reveal much about oneself, not the proper form, etc. That is all well and good, each to her own culture, but it does cast a cloud of vagueness over the whole book. Compared to Wilfred Thesiger in his "Arabian Sands", Stark tells little of her aims or background, but is more willing to accept the Arabs as they were, not as she wished they would be.

a woman adept at cross-cultural encounters.......2002-02-04

As a Christian worker in China, I had first-hand opportunity to see how we "foreigners" interacted cross-culturally. (Usually, the most successful of us were those who were not on a Mission from God.) Having seen people badly suited to live abroad and admiring those who were very able to do so, the joy of this book by Freya Stark was reading about a woman operating cross-culturally with a world-class ability to encounter persons with a much different backround than her own. Her sheer delight in her Bedouin companions is vicariously enjoyable.
Of course, this book journeys not just across cultures but across times, beginning with the author's introduction, which discusses the antiquity of the regioun she explores, especially in the time of great trade in frankincense, which made the region, for a time, wealthy. It is also reflected in the ancient culture and historical monuments and artifacts the author encounters.
Moreover, Freya Stark writes (wrote) beautifully. This book will appeal to anyone who is curious about other peoples, other lands and other times or who enjoys good writing.

Amusing and Enlightening Tales of Travel.......2001-10-24

In 1934, Freya Stark determined that she would follow the ancient frankincense routes through the fertile Hadhramaut valley to locate and record what was left of the legendary lost city of Shabwa. In 1936 she published _The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut_ which, as did many of her thirty-odd books, became a best seller. It is now republished by the Modern Library, and is a welcome reminder of a brave, erudite, and witty explorer. The current volume has as an introduction a capsule description of Stark's life by her biographer, Jane Fletcher Geniesse. Born in 1892, Stark was only able to indulge in travel in her thirties; she realized that there was a hunger for knowledge about exotic Arabia, and she schooled herself in the language and history of the area, through which she traveled by foot, car, donkey, and camel well into her eighties. She lived to be 101.

The explorations of these exotic lands are rendered now more strange and lovely by time. Few of us will get to see the lands Stark loved, but we will never see them as she did. For most of the steps along the trail described in this book, Stark was the first European woman to come that way, and that she did so unaccompanied by a European escort gave the Bedouin, the learned men, and the sultans something to admire and wonder at. One who thought himself a leader of her group attempted to exclude her by bringing her meals to a separate area. "He was showing a Victorian disapproval of females who do not keep themselves to themselves, a thing I find dull and difficult to do." She finds that she very much likes being in the middle of the group, even as an outsider. "To sit over the fire with one's fellows in the evening, when the work is over and the talking begins, is the only sure way of keeping harmony and friendship. I never had any difficulties with my beduin and found nothing but friendliness and an anxiety to serve in every way, and I attribute this chiefly to the fact that we had our meals together..." On the last night being with one group, one of the Bedouin thanks her for sharing food together (rather than keeping separate as he had expected the European traveler to do), and says it has been pleasant traveling with her. "'Here we are now,' he said, 'all together. And tomorrow?' - he opened his hand out wide - 'all scattered, where?' After this question, so sad, ancient, and universal, we looked in silence to the darkness and the stars."

Stark's quest was unfulfilled because of all things, measles. The discovery of Shabwa awaited a German traveler the next year, for she was too sick to continue toward her goal. One of her hosts, as she was ailing, reassured her: "Here we have no sickness; we are well or we die." She was carried off in a plane of the Royal Air Force, to whom in gratitude she dedicated her book. Her work is a perfect illustration that journeying well, and not achieving the destination, is the better accomplishment. It is impossible to come away from this volume without admiring this spunky, amused and amusing woman, nor to share in her admiration for those among whom she traveled. "The magic of Arabia," she writes, "which so many have felt, is due perhaps less to the sun-wrinkled arid land itself than to the innate peculiar nobility and charm of its people."

Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
Average customer rating:

Wonderfully reflexive ethnography

The finest ethnomemoir I've ever read.

Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
Steven C. Caton
Manufacturer: Hill and Wang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
Yemen | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
Cultural | Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Yemen: The Unknown Arabia

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A History Of Modern Yemen

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ASIN: 0809098822
Release Date: 2006-10-03

Book Description

In 1979, Steven C. Caton went to a remote area of Yemen to do fieldwork on the famous oral poetry of its tribes. The recent hostage crisis in Iran made life perilous for a young American in the Middle East; worse, he was soon embroiled in a dangerous local conflict and tribal hostilities simmered for months. Yemen Chronicle is his extraordinary report both on events that ensued and on the many theoretical—let alone practical—difficulties of doing ethnography in such circumstances. Caton also offers a profound meditation on the political, cultural, and sexual components of modern Arab culture.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully reflexive ethnography.......2007-01-09

I liked the book as a model for what unexpected issues can come up during field work. I especially liked how reflexive the author was in his observations.

The finest ethnomemoir I've ever read........2006-10-03

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Eric Hansen, and Kevin Rushby have all written excellent books vividly describing Yemen. They give us exciting travelogues and detailed descriptions of qat. And yet this book is the finest I've ever seen to describe what it's like to actually live there, and what modern Yemeni culture is. I felt like I was actually there, in a remote village to the East of Sana'a. I wanted to go to Yemen and experience more of the life Caton describes.

He shows us the mentality and life of the tribe in ethnography; he makes us part of his life through memoir. This allows us to simultaneously experience the emic and etic and gain the best of all worlds, understanding life through the eyes of ourselves and the observed. I feel for Caton as he frankly confesses his failings or perceived failings. He writes honestly, and at times more honestly than he realizes. Because Caton has such a thirst for poetry this book is an artistic work as well, and the poetry interspersed throughout the war and reconciliation attempts addresses both sides of the mind. It was fascinating to see how the possibility of war rested in large extent on what poems were produced, and how well-crafted the poetry was. I am inspired to learn and hear more Arabic poetry through this book.

Average customer rating:

eh
Entertaining travelogue about Yemen
decent book at best
excellent travel book on a truly unknown part of Arabia
Gemillee- Beautiful al Yemeen

Yemen: The Unknown Arabia
Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Manufacturer: Overlook TP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Yemen | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
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A History Of Modern Yemen
Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea
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Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
Yemen Map by ITMB (Travel Reference Map)

ASIN: 1585671398

Amazon.com

Englishman Tim Mackintosh-Smith was studying Arabic at Oxford when he visited Yemen, a forgotten country at the heel of the Arabian peninsula, and became obsessed with the place and its language. He's lived there since 1982, and this book--marketed as travel writing but more a blend of personal memoir and national history--is the result. There are certainly travel episodes, such as a trip to the remote island of Susqatra where the Gulf of Aden meets the Indian Ocean. Yet Yemen is more the product of a man gone native than a visitor with an itinerary. Indeed, Mackintosh-Smith offers a forthright defense of the country's lotus-like drug culture, which centers on qat, a leaf that produces a narcotic effect when chewed. "We qat chewers, if we are to believe everything that is said about us, are at best profligates, at worst irretrievable sinners," he writes. Although international health officials have warned against the drug, Mackintosh-Smith assures us this is all "quasi-scientific poppycock." The leaf, he says, helps its users to "think, work, and study." Yemen is surely an exotic land, and one of its charms--fully revealed in Mackintosh-Smith's digressive prose--is the way it has remained quaintly Arabic and seemingly immune to the modern forces transforming its neighbors. Well-received upon its initial publication in the United Kingdom, Yemen may come to be recognized as a small classic. --John J. Miller

Book Description

Yemen is arguably the most fascinating and least known country in the Arab world. Classical geography described it as a fabulous land where flying serpents guarded incense groves. Medieval Arab visitors told of disappearing islands and menstruating mountains. Our current ideas of this country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula have been overrun by images of the desert, by oil, by the Gulf War-but there is another Arabia. Writing with an intimacy and a depth of knowledge gained through thirteen years among the Yemenis, Mackintosh-Smith is a traveling companion of the best sort-erudite, witty, and eccentric. Crossing mountain, desert, ocean, and three millennia of history, he reveals a land that, in the words of a contemporary poet, has become the dictionary of its people. In Yemen: The Unknown Arabia we witness the extraordinary in the ordinary. Yemen is a part of Arabia, but it is like no place on earth, and Yemen is a book in which every page is filled-like the land it describes-with the marvelous.

Customer Reviews:

eh.......2006-03-04

I suppose I expected a bit more with this book, I mean, it was okay...the author provided a concise conveyance of the history and culture, but I have a hard time believing that the Yemenis are steeped in such ridiculous superstition (mostly because I'm of Yemenite descent myself.) I further was deeply annoyed by his generalist comments not only concerning the Yemeni people, but particularly the Hadramis; for me it bordered on rascist. I also which he spoke more about the people and customs of Socotra, and what the indigenous Socotri language sounded like as opposed to Arabic. But obviously the author loves his adopted homeland or he would've left it a long time ago.

Entertaining travelogue about Yemen.......2006-02-27

This is a travelogue of a Brit's visit to and exploration of Yemen. The author paints a beautiful and romantic picture of Yemen with text that is both easy and enjoyable to read. I knew virtually nothing about Yemen before reading this book, and I purchased it from Amazon on a whim. I was not disappointed. Although there is some discussion of history and politics in this book, the author's primary emphasis is describing the scenery, the people, and the culture that he has experienced on his travels. If the author's goal was to convey a bit of the complexity of Yemeni culture, some of the natural beauty of the Yemeni landscape to a Western audience, and a part of the rich history of Yemen, he has succeeded. I found the author's description of a sailing trip to Suqutra, an island off the coast of Yemen, to be particularly evocative. The `ritual' of qat was also surprising and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn about Yemen from a Westerner's viewpoint, particularly if one looking for an entertaining, not scholarly, account. Some of the less enthusiastic reviews of this book state that the account is too idealistic. This is probably a fair criticism, but I do not view this as a drawback in this type of book.

decent book at best.......2004-05-05

Apparently a reprinted version of Travels in Dictionary Land (if it was different i didn't notice) it gives a good historical and social look at Yemen but mostly in an overly exotic manner. The book and its many anecdotes, however, are very useful as a basis for further research. The chapter on traveling to Socotra is fascinating as well. At times, the reading seemed difficult to an American who is not accustomed to British humor or idioms, but rarely is the meaning lost. While this book is good for light reading or to get an idea of some of the historical, geographical and social aspects of Yemen, the idealistic vision of traditionalism grows tiring. If you're looking for serious commentary on what it is like to live and work as a foreigner in modern day Yemen, look elsewhere.

excellent travel book on a truly unknown part of Arabia.......2004-01-14

Often times reviled throughout history as a backwater, often backward, author Tim Mackintosh-Smith does a wonderful job in showing Yemen as an intriguing land, an unknown section of Arabia, bringing to the reader some of the history, culture, people, and geography of this much neglected corner of the Middle East.

Mackintosh-Smith provides an excellent primer of Yemni history. Yemen we find out once hosted powerful pre-Islamic civilizations, South Arabian states like Saba, Ma'in (whose massive and expertly produced stone works later overawed the Romans), Qaban, and Hadramawt, wealthy merchant kingdoms that grew rich on their tight control of aromatic gums - particularly frankincense and myrrh as well as cinnamon brought from India - in great demand among the Pharaonic Egyptians for medicine and for the process of mummification, by the Assyrians, by the Greeks, the Romans, the ancient kingdoms growing rich on spices rather than oil. Many of the lands were cultivated thanks to the Marib Dam - a massive structure that finally collapsed in the sixth century, that according to legend was destroyed by a rat with iron teeth - or to very impressive irrigation works, via stone tunnels cut into the living rocks of the mountains, some tunnels 150 yards long and big enough to drive a car through and still used to supply water to highland villages over 2000 years after they were built. With the collapse of this civilization - linked by many to the collapse of the Marib Dam - there was a Yemeni diaspora of sorts, as many Yemenis were in the vanguard of the early conquering armies of Islam, spreading throughout the Arab world as far as East Africa, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, and even Spain. Later on the Rasulid sultans ruled southern Yemen between the 13th and 15th centuries, making their capital of Ta'izz a wealthy and cosmopolitan capital, its rulers patrons of many of the sciences, producing astrolabes and magnetic compasses while the rest of the Islamic world was in ruins thanks to the Mongols. Modern Yemeni history is also well covered though I found it at times confusing.

The author visited many areas of Yemen. He hiked down canyons and dry wadi (seasonally dry river beds), warned by the locals of the tahish, a cow-sized, hyena like Yemeni bogeyman, though more likely in danger of the sayl, a roaring chest-high wall of water that can suddenly fill canyons thanks to distant highland rains. He viewed many mountain villages and homes perched precariously over such wadi, its citizens living on centuries-old terraces carved into the mountain, designed to catch and slow the descent of every bit of precious water that rains upon the mountains. He sampled a great variety of Yemeni foods, such as saltah (stew based on vegetables and broth topped by hulbah, fenugreek flour whisked to a froth with water), rawbah (soured milk from which the fat has been removed to make butter, popular on the island of Suqutra), qishr (a drink made from the husks of coffee beans, the bean of which have long been a major Yemeni export), and baghiyyah honey, said to the finest in the world and produced only in Yemen by bees pasturing only on ilb trees. He encountered a few of the Jews of Yemen, only a few thousand of which are left, identified by their corkscrew curl side locks. He viewed a bara', an Islamic tribal festival still practiced in the mountains, looking like a dance but more akin to a medieval tournament, a place to display skill with weapons and with heavy connotations of honor and tribal solidarity. He wrote of the qabili - the mountain tribesmen - who are regarded by city dwellers as yokels but also regarded with pride as part of their ancestry, regarding them as honorable people, ones practicing great hospitality to strangers, with many symbolically becoming a tribesmen by adoption of the asib, the tribesman's upright dagger. He visited those who were sayyid, male descendents of the Prophet, often whom devote their lives to Qur'anic knowledge, forming a class that has long had a critical role in Yemeni politics and religion. He visited Aden, one of the greatest ports in the world, its "craggy profile" formed by volcanic activity, a weird city thanks to local topography, not "one city but a series of settlements separated by outriders of the central peak, Jabal Shamsan," many of those settlements quite distinct in character, a city once contested by the Ottomans, the French, and held by the British for the better part of two centuries. He visited two sub-cultures within Yemen that don't always Arabic; the Mahris, located east of Hud along al-Masilah, racially distinct and following the very un-Arabic matrilineal descent system, and the native peoples of Suqutra, who until relatively recently many did not speak Arabic at all but rather Suqutri. Indeed the Island of Suqutra, once called the Island of Dragon's Blood thanks to one of its most famous exports, a blood red resin from the dragon's blood tree (_Dracaena cinnabari_, actually a member of the Lily family), is the subject of the last chapter, an island 260 miles from the Yemeni mainland, closer to Somalia than to Yemen, a country that once practiced very un-Islamic adult public circumcisions and witch trails into the late 1960s.

Well covered is one of the most famous and unique aspects of Yemeni culture, the chewing of qat. A dicotyledon known to science as _Catha edulis_, it is chewed by groups of men socially, the qat chews often important arenas for the transaction of business, discussions of politics and religion, to accompany weddings and funerals, or simply to unwind with friends. Qat is recognized to have a huge variety of sub-types by many Yemeni connoisseurs, with many esoteric rules; qat from a tree over a grave is to be avoided, and qat from lower branches (qatal) is the least prized of qat.

I really enjoyed this book, which boasted some interesting sketch book type illustrations, a glossary, and a good bibliography.

Gemillee- Beautiful al Yemeen.......2002-08-07

I enjoyed this work. The author spends time focusing on most areas of Yemen- the Hawdramat, Sana'a, Aden, the mountains, and Suqutra. It would have been nice to have more detail on the coastal areas and the writing at times isn't excellent, but it is a very serviceable text. MacKintosh-Smith writes from the perspective of someone who really got inside the culture- as much as a traveler can get. He retains an etic perspective, and does not live, grow, and die with the Yemeni. But this is one of the few travelogues where one can find information on qat, and even the author using it on a regular basis (though it remains classified as a drug at the same level as cocaine by the U.S. government).

It is also one of the few places where you can find a modern description of travels in Suqutra, which is worth getting the book by itself. The chapter on Suqutra describes a land isolated biologically for millions of years, displaying evidence of gigantisism as you find in Hawaii, where few predators have controlled the growth of fauna and especially flora. There are cucumber trees there, and others that look like upside-down umbrellas. Much of the flora and fauna are unique to the island. Further, severe storms six months of the year prevent access to the island. So, while over the years there have been invasions on the coast of the island by different parties, it has largely grown up unscathed into modern times. The language diverged from South Arabian in about 750 BC, and the people seem to be a mixture of Arabic, Greek, Portuguese, and Indian- but no one knows for sure. While they do now have cars (301 of them), the cigarette lighter is still an unknown machine. And since the government severely limits non-Yemeni visitors to the island, this is a rare and exciting bit of a story of what the people are like. I only wish there was more about the island.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Overview
Rich with details

A History Of Modern Yemen
Paul Dresch
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Yemen | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Yemen: The Unknown Arabia
Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation
Yemen Map by ITMB (Travel Reference Map)
Tribes, Government, and History in Yemen (Clarendon Paperbacks)
Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea

ASIN: 052179482X

Book Description

Yemen's modern history is unique and deserves to be better understood. While the borders of most Middle East states were defined by colonial powers after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, a single Yemeni state was not formed until 1990. In fact, much of Yemen's twentieth-century history was taken up constructing such a state, forged after years of civil war. The book is augmented by illustrations, maps and a detailed chronology.

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Customer Reviews:

Excellent Overview.......2005-05-24

I spent three months in Yemen last year and bought this book before I went. I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be the perfect primer. A HISTORY OF MODERN YEMEN gives a clear, accessible account of the civil wars throughout the twentieth century that preceded the union of the two Yemens in 1990; and towards the end it offers penetrating insights into the way a new upper class has emerged along with a new desperate underclass. Paul Dresch is also good at highlighting how, despite unification, a north-south divide continues to plague a drive for a true national identity. This book struck me as unusally accessible for the general reader/traveller considering it is principally aimed at academics.

Rich with details.......2003-10-30

I first picked up this book to validate its' authenticity, being from Yemen myself. To be honest, I learned a few facts that I was able to impress my colleagues with. Thanks!

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