Arabian Nightmare (Contemporary English language fiction) [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1873982054
• ISBN-13: 978-1873982051
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,700,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Curiouser and curiouser, January 21, 1999

By 

flying-monkey (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arabian Nightmare (Paperback)

Quite probably one of the best books I have ever read and a doomed to be forgotten masterpiece of the twentieth century. The Arabian Nightmare is a dark narrative of a hallucinagenic fouteenth century Cairo. Talking apes, magicians, Caliphs and mysterious underworld figures drift in and out of the interlocking tales within tales. This is, as its title suggests, the Arabian Nights gone wrong; it is imposssible to know what is happening or even who is who at any moment. Comparable only to perhaps Gustav Meyrink or The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, this book is impossible to put down and will give you dangerous dreams for many a night. Absolutely superb.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incantatory, alluring, August 9, 2001

By 

Alan DeNiro "alan_deniro" (Oakdale, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arabian Nightmare (Paperback)

This book, in such a relatively compact space, unfolds and unfolds itself, into stories within stories within stories. The cast of characters is continually shuffled around in a landscape that is equal parts real and unreal. (Cairo itself IS a major character in the story.) The results are very entertaining, albeit very dark. The Father of Cats, in particular, is a particularly chilling villian. I read this book for a week, and each night I would read it in bed, before I fell asleep. Although I never had any nightmares from reading the book--the experience of my own drowsiness when reading the book reminded me of the central issues in the book. It teeters between the waking world and the dream world, and the book succeeds brilliantly when the two are indistinguishable.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A journey into lands of nightmare. . ., January 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Arabian Nightmare (Contemporary English Language) (Paperback)

Set in the fifteenth century, this novel ostensibly tells the story of an English spy (or is it pilgrim?) who may possibly have contracted an unknown and unknowable illness while on sojourn in Egypt. The lines between waking and dream increasingly blur, and as with all dreams, the more that is revealed the less clear things become. A marvelous horror-fantasy, at once whimsical and terrifying, as well as a clever pastiche of "The Arabian Nights." Also, the best attempt at conveying the disjointed yet strangely patterned twists of dream logic on paper I have ever read. Highly recommended.