![]() ![]() ![]() Generalizing can be tricky, if not misleading, especially when the peoples examined are what Egyptian diplomat Tashin Bashiur calls “tribes with flags,” but Horwitz and Hansen give it their best shots:Īrabs are fatalists-as their wrap-around word Insh’allah would imply. ![]() Horwitz’s glass is judiciously half-empty: Cairo is “the biggest upturned ashtray in the world.” Hansen’s hubbly-bubbly overflows: Sana, Yemen’s capital, is “beautiful, magical, otherworldly.” From these divergent viewpoints, both authors manage to dispense an Essence of Arab considerably less acrid than war-watchers have become accustomed to when CNN is on the scent. Hansen’s romp is confined to Yemen, an arbitrary “country” that, like the author, is unfettered, exuberant and at least slightly dangerous. Horwitz’s book, while anecdotal, is the more professional, as befits a trained reporter. ![]()
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