interesting and accurate although pretty vanilla tales of modern culture of middle east/northern africa. based on the title i was expecting a wittier tale a la Joel Stein/AJ Jacobs but turned out to be more standard fare rather. had a few unique off the beaten path stories but otherwise very ordinary in the realm of others who tackle this subjet. 20years later, Tom Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem is still the goldbearer on this topic Solid introduction to the contradictions of the modern Arab world. The author, the son of an American expatriate oil worker, grew up in Libya during Qaddafi's takeover. He does a great job of talking to ordinary people, admitting the cliche of gaining story ideas from taxi drivers, and paints--as demonstrated violently in the past 4 months--a picture of the Arab world as a place that is young, repressed, and hopeless. Unlike Bob Baer and John Bradley (two other Western authors whose extensive experience in this part of the world allows them to write well on these issues), MacFarquhar has hope, which is good to see and better to see in writing.
Greatly entertaining, insightful and humorous, and a good history refresher to boot!
—mikkkl
Reflections on the Middle East by NY Times correspondent Neil MacFarquhar.
—snorlaks
hilarious- especially if half of what he writes about actually happened.
—nishu_w4u
Interesting, but not fantastic. The best thing about it is the title.
—Bri
Very good story and interesting writer, had some cool experiences
—zalov
