Reviews
i finished this catastrophe of a book.. too tired. Review to come later My thought at the end of this book was simply this: My only defense is this book actually started out really well, i read chapters 1-8 and i was thinking "oh shit this is going to be gooood." Alas this book turned out to be absolutely underwhelming, chock full of middle east stereotypes: starring your favorite recurring themes such as, westerners are evil "...the caliph was a leader in the struggle against the corruption of the West, the brutality and depredation of a global order the West imagined to be 'natural'. He prayed that his every choice, his every act would move his country closer to the day when its people would rejoin the ummah, the people of islam and he would be their rightly guided Caliph in more than name" Martyrdom: "you or your followers may die tonight, the caliph had told the members of his command hours before. if so, your martyrdom will be remembered- always! Your children and your parents will be sanctified by their connection to you..." Attending Univeristy in America just so said "terrorist" can be convinced on how trash they are and further cement his belief that they should be killed (phew that was a long one): he had spent 2 years obtaining a graduate degree in engineering from the University of Maryland, in College Park. he had been he liked to say, in the heart of Darkness...When the 24 year old graduate student returned to his native land , it was with an even greater sense of urgency. Injustice prolonged was injustice magnified. And he could not say it enough-the only solution to violence was more violence sanctifying the land of infidels: The blood of the infidel will indeed flow the caliph said...These palms will brim with Peter Novak's blood" Anyways you get the gist. Somehow muslims don't get to have starring roles in books except they want to blow up someone (preferably American), hate democracy (i swear if i hear the word Westerners or the west again i might scream)and whatever negative thing you can think of. and filled with everyone hates America lines: "You, Americans have never been able to wrap your minds around anti-Americanism. You so want to be loved that you cannot understand why there is so little love for you" ...You Americans think you know-nothing is what you know. Americans live in big house, but termites eat at foundations Mehn it was soooo freaking tiring.. Also not really a big red flag but i was kinda upset that UN Secretary General was referred to as West African?? What in the hell does West African mean sef? Is there some sort of defining feature for West Africans? Was West Africa a country?? I really wouldn't have taken offence but the author says here "Zinsou uttered a sentense in the complex tonal language of Fon spoken by his father's people. Zinsou pere had been a descendant of the royal court of Dahomey, once a significant West African empire" so obviously dude has a country which is present day Benin Republic by the way. Also Dahomey has ceased to exist first as a kingdom around 1904 then as a republic in 1975 when it was renamed Benin Republic, Let's say calling him West African isn't even a big deal, was it freaking hard to use the name of his country? This book isn't worth it really.. Read at your own risk.
