Customer Reviews

Cities of Salt

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

CITIES OF SALT is a highly unusual novel because unlike most, its main character is not a human being, but a city, even a country or a culture. Like the great Mexican muralists, Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, Munif paints the painful, colorful, and confused story of the transformation of a whole society---like Chinua Achebe of Nigeria, he shows what happened when "things fell apart". No single character is found in every chapter,the focus constantly changes,yet the direction remains clear. Peter Theroux faced an immense task, I believe, though I do not know Arabic. He either had to capture the flavor of a language that uses proverbs, quotations from the Qur'an, and indirect approaches to topics and risk English speakers' incomprehension ... or turn the Arabic into more familiar English dialogue, based on general meaning, and utterly destroy the special nature of the text. I would say he has done a fantastic job. You have the feeling of being in another world, where people express themselves in ways unlike North America/Britain/Australia in 2002. It is a convention of Western novels that speakers understand each other, but we know, in real life, that that is not so. Munif recognizes that, especially in a situation of rapid culture change, one speaker may not understand what another is saying at all.

When the word "colonialism" is mentioned, we usually think of Africa, of India or Southeast Asia, or of the Spanish invasions of Central and South America. Secondarily we may (or should) remember the Anglo-Saxon deeds in North America and Australia. Even if we narrow the focus to the Middle East, our "take" on colonialism there usually derives from the British or French occupation of former Turkish territories. CITIES OF SALT, written in the 1980s, tells a story, in other words, that has seldom been brought to the world's attention, that is very far from twenty first century dialogue. This is amazing, this is tragic, because it seemed to me, by the time I had finished Munif's novel, that here lay so much of the origins of Al Qaeda and of Osama bin Laden. The American oil companies, with the agreement and active cooperation of the local emirs and ruling families, came to a society which was entirely unprepared for their arrival and totally uninformed about the consequences of Big Oil's operations. The novel opens with a description of a backwater oasis with a traditional way of life. After 120 pages, American bulldozers uproot all the trees and the inhabitants of Wadi al-Uyoun are exiled forever. Is this a potent metaphor or what ? A port is built on the coast, an airconditioned American compound erected behind barbed wire with gardens and swimming pools, while the newly-recruited Arab workers live in stifling, fetid dormitories. The relationship between Arab and American, worker and boss, is the usual capitalist one, but this (probably eastern Saudi Arabia) is a deeply traditional Islamic society with entirely different values. The characters that oppose change and so-called modernization most vehemently are driven away or killed, but they remain, like spirits, like echoes of the solid, understandable past, for the many people caught in a whirlwind of change. Like those exiled or murdered princes of medieval Europe, people believe that they may appear when most needed. Munif traces the rise of different classes, the change in mentality owing to new social circumstances, the arrival of doctors, merchants, and transportation companies, and the beguiling of the rulers. [Women play almost no role in the novel, nor do Americans ever appear as anything more than unfathomable aliens.] The Americans came for their own profit, the rulers conspired to allow them a free hand in return for unimaginable wealth, (p.595 "was he their emir, there to defend and protect them, or was he the Americans' emir ?" Munif and his books are banned in Saudi Arabia). Some of the people shared in the new wealth, but they were made to feel outsiders in their own land. Many people got nothing. The long-term result of this colonial penetration, so ably and lyrically portrayed in this novel, is known to us all.

CITIES OF SALT, though without love or sex and without strong protagonists, is a lively, colorful, unique novel well-worth reading and free of diatribe. I often thought of the Brazilian writers, Guimaraes Rosa and Amado, who brought whole worlds to life, onto the world stage. Munif has done a similar job. This novel should be much more widely known than it is.

This novel was published in Arabic in 1984 and in English in 1987. It's only the first section of a five-book Arabic-language work that totals some 2,500 pages, covers seven decades and is said to be the longest novel in modern Arabic literature. The second and third sections have been published separately as The Trench and Variations on Night and Day. It appears that the fourth and fifth sections haven't been published yet in English.

This first book covers the period roughly from the 1930s to 1950s. It begins with the pious, poor inhabitants of an oasis in the desert whose peace and social harmony are disrupted by the discovery of oil by American researchers who've been invited into the country. Six hundred pages later, it ends following a mass strike over injustice in the coastal city that's grown up around the pipeline to the interior. In between, it shows the impact of modernization brought about by the development of oil, from the locals' point of view. And the resentment caused by the presence of non-Muslims, the increasing materialism and loss of spiritual and communal values, and a backward, paternalistic local government that ignores the attendant social problems.

The technologically superior Americans, despite their practical competence and good intentions, are depicted in this book ultimately as the real villains, because of their foreignness, utter lack of understanding of the inhabitants' world, and the negative effects of the modernization they've set in motion.

A recurring pattern in the novel is that none of the parties involved comprehend the factors behind events that tie them all together, and none make an effort to understand the other. (One individual who's something of an exception disappears into the desert early in the novel.) For the most part, the locals don't grasp clearly the significance of what the Americans are doing. The latter make no effort to comprehend the locals and their motivations or actions, unless they perceive a threat to the benefits of oil. And the local ruler spends much of his time away from both in his newly constructed palace, obsessed with the workings of dazzling imports like the telescope, stethoscope, radio, automobile and telephone.

The author, who was also an oil economist and political activist, is considered a pioneer of writing that reflected social, economic and political developments in the modern Arab world. A member/associate of the socialist, pan-Arab nationalist Ba'ath Party until the early 1980s, he wrote partly to counter official history, which he believed up to that point had served mainly the interests of the West and the ruling governments and ignored ordinary people's experience.

He based a number of occurrences in the novel on real events in Saudi Arabia, although the country in his novel goes unnamed. There are differences from reality, though: the local ruler in the book is depicted as a buffoon rather than a strong, independent leader in his own right. And there's nothing in the book like a fundamentalist movement that gained power with the state and rising oil revenues, as did the Wahhabis.

I agree with other reviewers that this book is important for showing a widespread point of view in the Arab world concerning relations with the West and the impact of the oil economy on local values. Tragically, this view is characterized mainly by a sense of victimization and religious profanation. In those respects this book, written a quarter-century ago, can be regarded as sounding prophetic themes. Yet the author was committed to socialism, and from this novel alone it doesn't appear that he viewed radicalized religion as the solution.

I wasn't enchanted by the style, which was deliberate in pacing, with lengthy narrations and digressions, said to be influenced by traditional oral storytelling modes, and with an ending full of magic realist visions. Or by the characters, many of whom were stand-ins for various pieties and evils. And I found it difficult to believe the depiction of the paradise on earth that was the oasis before the discovery of oil. In some ways, for example its black-or-white morality and the lack of depth to its character-symbols, this novel reminded me of Soviet proletarian works from the 1930s, with a difference being that its model society seemed placed in the romanticized past rather than the future. How the author reconciled this idealization of the past with his own socialist commitment is maybe something that becomes clear in the later installments of this work.

I can see why this book has been banned in Arab countries. Cities of Salt details the transition of an unnamed Arab emirate from how it had apparently been functioning to a current, oil producing state. The story, taken as a whole is heartbreaking. The story begins before oil is discovered, and tells a tale of a generous, yet human, people. Their Emir, unbeknownst to them, allows some Americans into the country to test for oil and eventually, drilling takes place. On the way, people are driven out of their homes, villages are leveled, lives irrevocably, irretrievably changed. The old way of life is gone, and with it, the general pleasantness and generosity that had once been prevalent. The story is of mainly of a place, the characters only secondary, for their is no true protagonist, save the land. Characters play the lead for a time, but soon something happens, someone leaves, someone arrives and things change again. Cities of Salt is a moving and bittersweet story told in a matter-of-fact manner, a story which mourns the passing of a way of life, without being mournful itself.

This is the first part of the pentology city of the salt.I read this pentology 3 times,and i will read it again and again.In this volume the author described the Saudia,s people"before the oil era"they were poor but happy and how they had changed with the oil drilling and the coming of the Americans,you can feel the nostalgia of the old days.i laugh a lot about the prince when he saw the first radio and how he loaded his gun before he put it on.The next 4 volumes"i do not know how many volumes had been translated to English as i read it in Arabic" described how people there changed,rich but lost their old nobel feelings.you can know easly the real names of the main characters.This book is forbidden in Saudia Arabia ,even there is a debat about rhe real nationality of the author,but surely he feels nostalgia for old days,even the name of this novel,as he said in one of his pages,means ir will collapse for the first rain because it is made of salt.Many members of my family have the same feelings when they read this book,they are so absorbed to the book ,so that they can not even talk to anyone at home.lastely i think this is the second great book written in arabic after mahfouz Cairo triology

Cities of salt is a historical fiction book set in an unnamed Arab country during the first half of the 20th century. It describes the changes in the place, a semi-arid desert, and its local Muslim inhabitants over this time period. Specifically, it shows how the local Arab communities are changed for the worse by the intrusion of Western individuals, Western corporations, and Western society as embodied by the oil corporations.

This society begins as an egalitarian community based on family ties and extended kinships. Everybody knows and trusts each other. Gates, land titles and other ways in which individuals divide up resources do not exist, and all is shared in common. Likewise guns and violence are almost non-existent as conflicts are solved slowly and surely by long and lengthy discussions.

Then Western geologists enter the scene and discover oil. Western oil corporations are quick to follow. To get access to the oilwells, and to ship them out via pipelines requires control of land, which of course is communally owned and used. To solve this dilemma, the corporations try to cajole and bribe the locals to give up rights to these lands. This often did not work, so the corporations resort to a tactic that was used against Native Americans and Africans in the previous four centuries. Specifically, the local tribes had nominal leaders. The corporate representatives would bribe these leaders with modern marvels such as the telephone, repeating guns, television, ice, etc... Slowly these local leaders would switch loyalties from their own tribes to the Westerners. Eventually, these local leaders, and their henchman, would sell out their fellow Arabs, order locals of the land needed by the oil corporations, and back up their orders with their newly acquired guns.

Overall, the egalitarian, communal society that existed was transformed into a dictatorship propped up by Western oil interests. A ruling class was created that was distinct from and unrepresentative of the people at large. Oil, and the control of its acquisition, transportation, and distribution, replaced people and communal consensus as the source of power. And this is how many of the modern Arab nations came into being. All in all this is a great book, probably the best fiction book to read to understand the thinking of Al Qaeda and roots of Arab anger at America. The cloest way to describe it is the Arab world's version of America's Grapes of Wrath; the destruction of a communal and family-based way of life by modern corporations.

What is most interesting about this book is the perspective from which it is told--that of the indigenous people under siege. You wonder, as they do, what is this strange machinery tearing up their wadi, what do these strange rules imposed by the foreigners mean, and how did this incomprehensible thing come to be in their lives. With each new thrust of progress, the unknowns increase. The reader becomes a sleuth, along with the people of the wadi, trying to understand the 'evil' that has taken over their lives. As the mystery unfolds, we see the devastating effects, both culturally and individually, of imposed economic change. This book is a fascinating account of a people trying to understand unexplained change and its effect on their lives-- all in the name of progress.

A story of total culture shock, I'm surprised this book doesn't have a higher profile here with the current level of interest in the Mid-East. The author was born in Jordan from Saudi Arabian parents, and this particular work has been banned in Saudi Arabia and several other Arab countries. The relationship between the Americans and Arabs is seen from the viewpoint of the desert people, whose land is given away to foreigners by their own local rulers who grow rich from oil exploration.

The story begins in Wadi Al-Uyoun somewhere in the desert sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, the reader is transported into an oasis community whose people live much the same way as they did in ancient times, nothing ever changes here, they know very little of the world outside the oasis except the news received from the occasional caravan passing through. One day some Americans arrive, soon many more arrive, then one day all the trees are bulldozed over and the people are moved out and dispersed, and the drilling for oil commences. A few make their way to a place called Harran, and the book follows the development of Harran from an out of the way caravan stop on the coast to a modern oil exporting sea port. Rather than having a main character, the novel is really about the land itself and tells the story of many individuals.

So few great books from the Mid-East translated into English, this is in the same class as Mahfouz's "Cairo Trilogy", but this one's better for those interested in the roots of modern problems between the Arab world and the west. The scene where the people watch the Americans come out in shorts to sunbathe, the chapter with the ship of women arriving , also the emir's obsession with one new toy after another, the telescope, the car and the radio - all is told in a way both hilarious and unforgettable, though a tragic kind of comedy.

The first book of the trilogy, Cities of Salt, describes the discovery of oil in the Arabian penninsula and the effect it has on the people living there. As Europeans and Americans arrive to develop and control the production and sale of the Arabian oil, their presence inevitably changes the indigenous people for good and bad. Munif articulates both the political and personal aspects of this interaction and forms an interesting critique of the rulers' reactions. As both history and literature, Cities of Salt succedes at the highest levels (in the Arabic, he includes much of the traditional dialect) and is helped by a lucid, unobtrusive translation by Peter Theroux

It is about the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia, how it started and its affect on the people of that country. You read almost the first 100 pages just of the description of the oasis -like Wadi Al-Uyoun in the middle of the desert and its people how they live and what they do, just Bedouins living their life peacefully disconnected from everything and everyone around them except for the caravans that brought them sugar and flour and news of those who chose to work in other towns. The title refers to what they used to do before the discovery of oil, which is extracting salt from the sea.

Then, the gradual changes start with the arrival of the Americans, the demolition of their homes and tents, the digging for oil and the construction of the first pipeline. The ruthless greedy rulers who all they want is money and richness demonstrating their power over their own people favoring the Americans and giving them the green light to work and live on their own land as they wish.

The story is not about one character rather than about the city Harran which the Americans created out of nowhere to a famous and rich city deploying its people and all the Arabs around it. What is sad is those Bedouins who know absolutely nothing about the world around them. Even the Arabs from other countries are shown as educated civilized people, but not the Arabs of Saudi Arabia who were introduced to the necessities and accessories of life through the Americans and their neighboring Arabs. Harran itself is divided into American Harran and Arab Harran emphasizing the cultural and religious differences and the way the foreigners looked at the citizens.

Munif describes those situations in a very subtle way that you don't know whether to laugh or cry! He takes you into the heart and mind of each character so you really know how and what they feel and think about what is happening around them. They go with the flow wherever it takes them without any questioning or understanding; at the beginning they don't even know that they are actually building a pipeline!! Even their reaction at the end is not ultimate and decisive!

I think that Theroux delivered the feelings and the impact that Munif intended of his story. He also maintained the essence of the Arabic language and the implied meanings intended. A great book on the conflict of power and money!

Published in 1984, this classic of modern Arabic literature describes the early years of oil exploration and development of the petroleum industry in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. It is told from the point of view of the Arabs themselves, the inhabitants of desert settlements whose lives are forever transformed by the appearance of American engineers who bring to an end a way of life they have known for centuries. There are many themes in this 600+ page novel, and prominent among them is the collision of cultures as Munif's unsophisticated and superstitious characters are often appalled by the behavior of the foreigners in their midst and try unsuccessfully to understand them, often finding reason enough to regard them as infidels and any attempt to accommodate them an invitation to possession by demons.

Munif's is a rambling, episodic story with a host of characters, some central to the narrative for a while and then retreating into the background. The main character, if there is one, is the community itself, the men who work for the company or who make a living in the boom town that springs up around it. We also get to know the emir, who takes up residence there and is introduced to the West through mystifying artifacts of its technology: a telescope, a radio, a stethoscope, a telephone (it is the 1930s). While the inhabitants of the town are promised untold wealth in exchange for the surrender of their way of life, what we see in the book is a gradual decline in their quality of living, and key characters disappear into the desert, grow ill and die, or are killed. At the end, one of these deaths precipitates a labor dispute that Munif leaves largely unresolved, as a sign of an Arab-American future marked by continued troubles.

It's a fascinating novel, translated by Peter Theroux, that reveals in fact very little about the crude oil industry itself. Instead, we come to know in considerable detail the values, beliefs, and life experience of its Arab characters and the fabric of daily life that holds them together. Often at odds with each other and struggling in their differences to preserve a sense of identity in a rapidly changing environment, they represent a social world that is Dickensian in its diversity. But besides that one comparison, it is a book almost unlike any other, and well worth reading for the window it opens onto a revealing view of modern Arab history.