Sandstorms: Days and Nights in Arabia

by Peter Theroux

"[A] stunningly candid portrait of culture and politics in the Middle East."― Los Angeles Times Book Review In this provocative and incisive memoir, Peter Theroux reveals the Middle East only as a true insider can. Stationed as a journalist in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for most of his seven years in the region, Theroux explodes the romantic images of Arabia, but replaces them with the even more intriguing reality of fanatic Muslims, overwhelmingly rich and powerful royal families, and the vast gulf in understanding between Arabs and westerners.

Genres: Travel, Middle East, Nonfiction, Memoir

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written and published after the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s and before the Gulf Wars that followed, Peter Theroux's book about working as a journalist in the Middle East seems at first a little dated, but eventually its point of view assumes a kind of currency. The political alliances of Arab and nonArab nations in the Middle East are, in his telling, like constantly shifting sands, and appearances are forever deceiving. In one form or another the past is all present anyway. Eventually, any point in time is nearly as good as any other. Or so it seems in this entertaining, informative, and sometimes confusing book.

What Theroux sets out to do is to shatter every easy Western assumption about life and history in the Middle East. With something of his brother Paul's eye for the incongruous, he tends to dwell on contradictions, ironies, and hypocrisies, and just about no one escapes being revealed as an unreliable narrator of the stories they have to tell. Most revealing in this regard is his account of working as a journalist in Saudi Arabia, a monarchy awash in oil wealth and a brand of radically conservative Islam. From this vantage point, we see the rivalries, prejudices, and grievances that characterize the Saudi view of other Middle Eastern nations. The Israelis, we begin to see, are only at the end of a sliding scale of animosity directed at everybody else in the region, including surprisingly the Palestinians. Change location to another country, as Theroux visits Cairo, then Jerusalem, then Damascus, and the perspectives are all altered again. Altogether, the book is like trying to view the Middle East through a kaleidoscope.

Some focus is gratefully achieved in the final chapters as Theroux visits novelist Abdelrahman Munif, whose classic work of fiction "City of Salt" he has translated. Ironically, in the company of a writer of fiction, he brings the reader to a clarity of vision that the earlier chapters of the book have shown to be utterly elusive. Maybe dated, but still a fascinating look at worlds that remain a mystery to most Westerners.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I was grateful for the traffic jam, and wanted it to last.” Theroux’s final sentence, and how i feel about this book—it got me through the throes of my late third trimester (with Tehran and the Egyptian food festival) and golden sleepless postpartum days, and filled the insatiable Baghdad without a Map sized hole in my heart.

This book captures a very specific (and not often documented in book length form) moment in the Middle East—after the Iran-Iraq war but before Persian Gulf—which is usually lost as post-9/11 narratives are anachronistically read back into it. The Middle East has changed explosively in the years since publication, and what others describe as outdated in his work, I found to be a charming and perfectly preserved snapshot / time capsule. Plus, it's funny in a whip-smart way that has perished in the age of mass communication.

Theroux is of the last generation of great journalists—instinctively and enthusiastically rustling up beats, truly embedded in the culture he writes about. (The great penultimate moment for this breed was Yugoslavia, and we simply haven’t seen it since ~2008).

Tony Horwitz (RIP) is my perennial favorite of this genre and Theroux delivered the same immersive, funny, pathos-filled, historically informed dispatches. I am sad to see he hasn’t written more full length books in this genre. I def want to read his intel book even tho it has barely any reviews or online presence for some reason (?). And his Sadr book, although he admits he doesn’t reach any solid conclusions abt the case.

I am DESPERATE for more first-person journalistic narratives from the late golden age of American reporters. Maybe try Robert Kaplan next? I have two of his books on my shelf. I want personal experiences informed by history, not history shoehorned through personal experiences. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Many books that approach this genre fall into one of two mistakes: 1. write a dry history only peppered with personal anecdotes or 2. write a maudlin saga of “finding themselves” against a foreign backdrop. He does neither, but manages to be perfectly authentic. This book is really the meta story--the story behind the story of the Sadr book. He is authentically writing about his experience—his experience, bc he is perpetually curious, just happens to be the unquenchable search of knowledge and cultural immersion, getting to know Arabia and marveling at everything. He’s describing facts and realizations bc he’s excited to find them out, not out of some prescriptive duty of documentation, or some solipsistic urge toward showing off your self-actualization. Can relate. Elements of factual reporting and self-reflection of course exist, but they aren’t forced or artificial.

The whole narrative is oriented toward the THING (the object of study), not toward the self or toward the reader.

Theroux’s journey through Arabia chases the elusive guiding star of the disappeared Imam Moussa Sadr, through whom he explores intra-Arab and broader intra-Islamic relations at this specific junction of world forces. Particularly revealing was the contemporary description of Iran’s involvement in Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the plight of the Shiite minority throughout the Arab world.

I often felt out of my depth with the assumed baseline knowledge of a now-past Middle Eastern status quo, but gleaned more from context than anything I could have systematically taught myself.

Higher quality writing than anything you’ll find from most modern journalism, plus without the stultifying fear of bias that sanitizes and strips all reporting of its personal and experiential qualities. The best way to combat bias is not to surgically remove it, but to empathize with the writer (even with disagreement) in order to form a picture of the actual situation. More information can be directly telegraphed into the understanding via vibes than can be translated from vibes into language and then deciphered back into vibes. Living transmits meaning, and reading about living is a second best-- infinitely more powerful than colorless extractions of info.

In a dreamlike sequence, Theroux finally gets to meet his hero, author Abdelrahman Munif, whose heartfelt banned books got Theroux through his stultifying days and nights in artificial Arabia. Munif addresses the only topic that matters for contemporary Arabian literature, but the one which authors frustratingly avoid: OIL. Theroux, moved by Munif's candid depiction of this economic and cultural earthquake, translates Munif's three-part Cities of Salt for the English reader. The uncertainty endemic to oil kingdoms hovers like a dark cloud, and no one wants to discuss the origins nevermind the end.

The oil will dry up, and then what? We haven’t made it to this juncture yet, but I wonder what Theroux (or Munif) would think of the current hypercapitalist Arab world. A novel of Dubai would be a dystopian (utopian?) postscript. But he’d probably expect it—The deserts will keep coughing up shimmering mirages, borders will be redrawn, ancient religious wars will rage amid the encroaching skyscrapers, all the same players rolled onto the map in slightly different iterations until the end of time.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO. GREAT. It's written from the point of view of an American expat living in the Middle East and interacting with Westerners who have a very superficial understanding of that region, and being an expat in the same position, I got such a kick out of it. So much of it is dead-on: the way Arabs from different countries talk about each other, the way Westerners talk about the Middle East...even 40-50 years later, those things ring so true. And yet, there's a lot that's changed, and reading about those things was a delight, too. I highly recommend this book for anyone who's familiar with or interested in the region.

[Lianne]

I picked this up at a book sale because I mistakenly thought it was by Paul Theroux, one of my long time favorite travel authors. In fact, Peter who is Paul's brother, has been a journalist and adventurer in his own right. Peter Theroux's memoir traces an obsession to uncover the truth about what happened to Imam Moussa Sadr. This incident occurred even before the first Gulf War, so by now it has become almost ancient history. However, the disappearance of this Imam shows some of the background of Iranian politics in the post Shah period. History is written by the winners, and Moussa Sadr could have rivaled Khomenei so that was why he was eliminated probably in Libya with the complicity of Colonel Qaddafy. Theroux uses the cover of his legitimate journalistic identity and his fluency in Arabic to travel widely and ask questions of the intelligensia. Because of his dark hair and swarthy complexion he is able to "pass" as an Arab in many situations. The memoir is engagingly written in a style that uses a lot of dialog. He writes about topics that would become even more familiar and compelling to us: oil, rivalries between sects and regions. Who knew that Paul Theroux's brother would rival him in the travel genre? Peter is more hard driving and less curmudgeonly than his famous traveling brother Paul.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This writer is Paul Theroux's brother. This book is about the Middle East, as advertised. The book is older, written in the 90's, so it is a prelude to unhappy events now in the Middle East. I read it when it came out so I, again, have to dig deep for my material, but I found it informative about the Middle East region and about the culture of Arabia. Since two of my very good friend were living in Arabia and still do, I felt more informed about their experiences in that very different atmosphere. Just to say, the minute I took it back to the library I rushed out to buy it. I couldn't find it at the book store so I didn't put any more effort into the purchase. A few years ago I found the book at a used book store and bought it immediately. All to say, I thought it was worth reading more than once and passed another found copy onto my friends living in Arabia.

[Mykle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up for my Dubai research, and it's by far the most entertaining book in that stack. Even though not much actually happens -- the author spends most of the book on a dead-end assignment writing non-news for censored newspapers in Saudi Arabia -- his observations of the Arabs and their many visitors are witty and sharp. The recurrent theme of the book is how and why the Arab world and the Western world remain resiliently ignorant of each other, despite the best efforts of some, plus a laundry list of shared interests. It's a broad chasm, to be sure; but thanks to Peter Theroux, at least I can finally grasp the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library because the cover caught my eye: pyramids, sand, Tut, and a smiling white guy. Peter Theroux lived for several years in the Middle East, working as a journalist and writer. I enjoyed his remembrances of Cairo - he went to a cocktail party in the building where I had my first office! - and I learned quite a bit about Saudi Arabia - and Americans in Saudi Arabia - through his eyes. When he starts getting into Shia/Sunni politics and intrigue in the early 1980s, though, I confess I was out of my depth. I think this book would be most enjoyed by people who have lived similar experiences, and people who haven't would be perplexed.

[Nancy Schober · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this ages ago but it still stays with me. It was the sort of book the keep me enraptured so that I stayed up all night reading. At about 2 a.m. I was done and I felt like I would have to sweep the sand out of the sheets before I could fall asleep.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

written in the '70' and '80's but still relevant. he writes mostly about cairo, saudi arabia, little about jerusalem and damascus. get through the first 1/3 and its better.