‘One of the most delightful travel books in thirty years’ New York Times
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Book Description
‘A wonderful, rushing, crowded, enlightening voyage . . . A book which, in its ingenious understanding, its acceptance of a very imperfect world, and its energetic and constant fascination with human variety, should do a great deal to dispel the easiest and therefore the most prolific paranoid deception which the Western imagination has now fabricated in its desperate attempt to avoid facing reality’ Angus Wilson, Observer ‘A gem of a book, full of events and people and philosophy’ Sunday Telegraph ‘With an eye for the striking scene and entertaining incident he combines a perceptiveness of deeper realities that makes Arabia more than an amusing travellers’ journal’ Daily Telegraph ‘A very enjoyable book . . . It is racy and entertaining travel writing’ Cosmopolitan ‘The advent of a new travel writer of the first rank is an occasion to celebrate. Such a discovery is Jonathan Raban, whose Arabia is a tour de force’ Yorkshire Post
About the Author
Jonathan Raban is the author of Passage to Juneau, Bad Land , Hunting Mister Heartbreak, Coasting, Old Glory, Arabia, Soft City and the novels Foreign Land (1985) and Waxwings (2003). His awards include the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Royal Society of Literature's Heinemann Award, the Thomas Cook Award, the PEN West Creative Nonfiction Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award, and the Governor's Award of the State of Washington. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta , Harpers, the New York Review of Books, Outside, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, and other magazines. In 1990 Raban, a British citizen, moved from London to Seattle, where he now lives with his daughter.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book just before a visit to Jordan and found myself much more comfortable because of the knowledge and insight it offers. Yes, it is just one man's view. But Raban combines perspicacity with surprising humility. He has a mind like a razor, but the demeanour of the barber's assistant. Lots of laughs and gasps. Non-fiction at its very best.
Warning: you will want to visit the Yemen after reading this book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book is sublime and pure pleasure to read. Raban is the perfect dry comic. The chapter on Yemen was particularly evocative and perfectly captured the place. I am rather surprised the reviewer above came away wanting to visit Yemen though- for me it just reminded me of the wonderful reasons why I escaped! But then I suppose it is fun to visit some places- less so to stay.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Ivan Kinsman
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having started off with Jonathan Raban's 'Coasting', I moved on to 'Hunting Mister Heartbreak', 'Badlands' and 'Passage to Juneau'. Now I have just finished 'Arabia' which he wrote during the oil boom era.
Reading fairly widely and enjoying travelogues like Eric Newby's 'The Last Great Grain Race' and Laurie Lee's 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning', I believe Raban's liquid limpid style is everything that one requires from a writer. His prose technique conjures up a myriad of impressions in the reader's mind and you become instantly immersed in the world that he has laid out on his blank canvas.
Perhaps one of his greatest attributes is his ability to provide both an intimate and highly appealing portrait of the characters he meets on his solitary travels. I was particularly struck by his young studious Yemeni taxi traver and the lustful moustachio'd major in 'Arabia'. He can also conjure up beautifully-crafted, rather hangdog descriptions of the lands he passes through, using an incredible wealth of detail to elicit the atmosphere of a place.
This is writing at its best. He is a 'must read' author and, in my opinion, one of the few elite living writers.
Reading fairly widely and enjoying travelogues like Eric Newby's 'The Last Great Grain Race' and Laurie Lee's 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning', I believe Raban's liquid limpid style is everything that one requires from a writer. His prose technique conjures up a myriad of impressions in the reader's mind and you become instantly immersed in the world that he has laid out on his blank canvas.
Perhaps one of his greatest attributes is his ability to provide both an intimate and highly appealing portrait of the characters he meets on his solitary travels. I was particularly struck by his young studious Yemeni taxi traver and the lustful moustachio'd major in 'Arabia'. He can also conjure up beautifully-crafted, rather hangdog descriptions of the lands he passes through, using an incredible wealth of detail to elicit the atmosphere of a place.
This is writing at its best. He is a 'must read' author and, in my opinion, one of the few elite living writers.
Format:Paperback
This book provides a fascinating snapshot of the Arab world of the late 70s. How was the sudden vast wealth generated by oil being utilised and what impact was this having of Arab culture and everyday life?
Written with Raban's usual slightly world-weary but extremely honest take on things, this is well worth a read.
Written with Raban's usual slightly world-weary but extremely honest take on things, this is well worth a read.
By Philip Spires
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
At the end of the seventies Jonathan Raban wandered across the Middle East. Arabia was the book he wrote after impressionistic visits to Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan and, briefly, Lebanon. Paradoxically, the book starts and finishes in London, because it was there that questions about Arab identity and culture arose in the author's mind.
In Earls Court the author muses on the question, "Who are the Arabs?" At the time in common prejudice they had a reputation for association with terrorism, being fundamentally religious and having uncountable wealth. So it seems that times have not changed that much...
So Jonathan Raban resolved to find out for himself. Unlike most authors of travelogues, however, Jonathan Raban saw his first task as learning the language and, as a result of this laudable approach, Arabia is perhaps more of an achievement than it otherwise might have been.
In a nutshell, he found Bahrain seedy and Qatar rich but built in a scrap-yard. Abu Dhabi was new and squeaky clean, eager to impress, while Dubai seemed to be populated by business sharks, opportunistic, pragmatic but obsessively driven and eager to excel. All Yemenis appeared to be overactive dwarves on a spending spree. Egypt was big and scruffy, and Jordan was like Switzerland with parties.
You will gather immediately that Arabia is not an in-depth study of Arab culture, society or indeed anything else. Its pages are heavily populated with stories of expatriates, the sort of people who might be eager to talk over a drink in a bar. Though he quotes Thesiger, Jonathan Raban seems to have neither the inclination nor the means to follow the explorer into the desert. This is not a criticism. He also quotes Alice, but does not venture into wonderland.... Read more ›
In Earls Court the author muses on the question, "Who are the Arabs?" At the time in common prejudice they had a reputation for association with terrorism, being fundamentally religious and having uncountable wealth. So it seems that times have not changed that much...
So Jonathan Raban resolved to find out for himself. Unlike most authors of travelogues, however, Jonathan Raban saw his first task as learning the language and, as a result of this laudable approach, Arabia is perhaps more of an achievement than it otherwise might have been.
In a nutshell, he found Bahrain seedy and Qatar rich but built in a scrap-yard. Abu Dhabi was new and squeaky clean, eager to impress, while Dubai seemed to be populated by business sharks, opportunistic, pragmatic but obsessively driven and eager to excel. All Yemenis appeared to be overactive dwarves on a spending spree. Egypt was big and scruffy, and Jordan was like Switzerland with parties.
You will gather immediately that Arabia is not an in-depth study of Arab culture, society or indeed anything else. Its pages are heavily populated with stories of expatriates, the sort of people who might be eager to talk over a drink in a bar. Though he quotes Thesiger, Jonathan Raban seems to have neither the inclination nor the means to follow the explorer into the desert. This is not a criticism. He also quotes Alice, but does not venture into wonderland.... Read more ›
By Mr. N. Foale
Format:Paperback
The author only stares at Saudi Arabia from a plane window. That is a bridge too far for this book. However his journeys - including in the U.A.E., Jordan, and poor-relation Yemen - tell a universal tale of people balancing traditional and modern values. In particular he describes how the region has managed its oil wealth. His meditations on Arabian labyrinthine architecture suggest that you blink away the mirage of Arabia in your head, take a meander, feel the reality of the dry desert sand in your nostrils instead.
Read this book if:
- you have travelled to Arabia and recently suffered an attack of xenophobia (its not easy to be an economic underclass after all)
- you've watched too much Western TV / read too many Western newspapers of late
- you're back from Arabia and can't sus what it was all about
In conclusion this book is as relevant today as when it was written, and no doubt will remain so (at the very least) until the oil stops flowing.
Read this book if:
- you have travelled to Arabia and recently suffered an attack of xenophobia (its not easy to be an economic underclass after all)
- you've watched too much Western TV / read too many Western newspapers of late
- you're back from Arabia and can't sus what it was all about
In conclusion this book is as relevant today as when it was written, and no doubt will remain so (at the very least) until the oil stops flowing.
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