Customer Reviews

If Olaya Street Could Talk -- Saudi Arabia: The Heartland of Oil and Islam

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IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK takes us out back of beyond. After a tour through a desert kingdom's modern hospital and its politics and inevitable cultural clashes - there have been contract workers from every part of the world in this multi-cultural hospital - we go into the red and yellow sands, the escarpments, the shaded green oases and date plantations, places most of us can only dream of until the oil runs out and tourism dollars are needed. The author takes us into the deserts, under black night skies around a campfire with friends, into you-are-there situations and experiences that are sometimes exciting and beautiful, sometimes frightening and culture-clash dangerous. If you're longing for adventures into these places where few have gone before, if travel magazines and books are starting to feel like comfortable old Elvis movies - only the names have changed - OLAYA STREET will take you into exotics like Yanbu, Taif, Tabuk, and into the extraordinary beauty and desolation of the Empty Quarter.
Along with the desert adventures, OLAYA STREET points us toward a more in-depth understanding of a place and its people so foreign to most of us and our ways of thinking. We see and feel the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, grow from a sandy spot into a modern city of millions, with all the problems and exhilaration that go with such growth and expansion. We learn of the absorption into the city of many of its nomadic desert dwellers, who bring color to the streets of the Old town, with its many date and spice souks, rug souks, and the ubiquitous camels and goats along the side streets.
The author, John P. Jones, also gives us a peek into adventures outside the Kingdom that he and his family experienced during their years in Arabia, in Bahrain, Spain, France, and other European cities and countrysides, and one can hope that these glimpses will be expanded into further writings. But first, read IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK. It is the beginning of a lively philosophical exploration and physical adventure.

Having lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for many years, I can confirm that this excellent book provides the reader a very truthful, honest, and insightful view of expatriate life in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a beautiful country where I raised a family, made multiple lifelong friendships, and enjoyed my job working alongside many wonderful Saudis and other Arabs.
The country is immensely beautiful and this book describes in detail a young family's many journeys into areas in Saudi Arabia that few outsiders rarely see and experience.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has asked the question: "Why did you stay in Saudi Arabia so long?"

As another expat who spent many years, built a family & life, and had a wealth of unique experiences in the Kingdom - I read John's book with varying emotional reactions.

His book starts as a light-hearted narrative of a simpler, more naïve (from our perspectives) time in the KSA. Most of us who lived there in the 70s or 80s felt the same combination of adventure, freedom, and security on this peninsula of such antiquity and new-found modern vibrancy. The living, the work, and the travels were wonderful.

After the "Desert 1" war, we (as many) observed the accelerating cultural/social shifts described faithfully by John - not only in Saudi Arabia, but in the Middle East as a whole. As we decided to repatriate in 2000, I read the accounts of the Jones' last years with a two notable reactions: the curing of any latent desire to return, and sadness for all of the rather unbelievable gaffes on both sides that have led us to this dark place in history.

Most of us long-termers have many stories from those heady days, but John's taken the time and energy to publish his, and for that I thank him. If you want excellent insight into this Kingdom that is so enigmatic and crucial, read John's book. If you prefer not knowing: see the movie and watch corporate media.

IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK is interesting and entertaining. Part biographical, part travelogue and part commentary; John Paul Jones, the author, takes the reader with him through his 25 year journey as an American expatriate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During his stay, Olaya Street went from a sandy rural area used by sheep hearers, to an urban center lined with international stores, the Rodeo Drive of Riyadh. The growth of the street mirrored the evolution of Saudi Arabia from a Middle Eastern Arab State with little infrastructure to one of modern marvels.

Jones shares the joys, concerns, and adventures of his extended stay in the Kingdom. It is a true reflection of an expatriate's experience abroad and a refreshing report of western life in Saudi Arabia. If you have had an expatriate experience in the Middle East, reading this book will open memories. If you have not had this experience, reading IF OLAYA STREET COULD TALK will open your imagination into the opportunities for adventure and excitement expatriate living can provide. This well written book is a great read and I recommend it strongly.

This book is a refreshing addition to the spate of publications that thump readers over the head with political ideology or religious exhortation.

I, too, lived in the Kingdom for twelve years overlapping the author's stay, but I never met him. I have read many of the books that have popped up during the last decade, written by people who have lived there. Many authors have an exaggerated agenda and/or lack of real knowledge and participation in the culture of Saudi Arabia. Westerners seldom participate fully, if ever, but John Paul Jones does not pretend to offer explanations, excuses or condemnations of an ancient culture that matured on the other side of the world, independent of Western technology or philosophy until recently (historically speaking).

He offers something more interesting--an account of how individuals from these cultures relate to one another on a personal basis, how they find ways to accommodate differences that cannot be truly reconciled, and how they sometimes cannot find ways. He also underscores the obvious---that East and West have actually come together for the development of both, and have done so admirably in major ways. This message has gotten lost, especially since the atrocities of 9/11.

Any Westerner who has lived in Saudi Arabia will recognize the honesty of this book. It reads like a letter to a good friend, and does not aim to be a literary or scholarly treatise. It brings in aspects of the author's family life and his experiences in Vietnam. It bridges the cultural gap with elements of popular Western culture, as is evidenced in the title, derived from Baldwin's classic, "If Beale Street Could Talk."

Mr. Jones is well grounded in Western culture, yet manages to live and write with an attitude of objectivity that has served him well, and has facilitated his invaluable contributions to the well-being of both the Saudis and his fellow expats. This book is an addition to that legacy.

Like the shifting Saudi sands that obscure old tracks and reveal new ones, John Paul shares the many geological and social changes he experienced during his tenure in Arabia. Present during Saudi's explosive transformation from a nomadic to modern state, he provides a fascinating prospective and remarkable insight into how these changes affected personal relationships. A great read.

I enjoyed the author's perspective on the Middle East. Where were the people who have an intimate knowledge of that part of the world when our government was making such ill-advised decisions regarding invading Iraq? I especially liked the travelogue sections which gave me a glimpse of the "working people" of Saudi Arabia. I had always thought of Saudi Arabia as a barren, hostile desert with nothing of value other than oil. Guess I was wrong. This book is a worthy addition to any library.

Once I began this book, I couldn't put it down. "If Olaya"... gives insight into the 'real' Saudi as it was in the seventies and the changes that have taken place up to today. It allows the reader to get a vivid understanding of the Arabic culture both before and after the current political sitauations in the Middle East. In that very few North Americans have had the opportunity to live in Saudi, our beliefs of what life is like there are based mostly on what we read or hear in the media. This book is a must-read for anyone who really is curious about the truth about life in that part of the world. The experiences of Mr. Jones and his family are amazing, and makes one feel that you are right there in the desert re-living it all. If you have an interest in Saudi Arabia, you will love Olaya Street.

In this book Mr. Jones gives the reader a most insightful, humorous, and truthful look at the Saudi Arabia he personally witnessed and experienced from the late 1970's to 2003. His experiences are a wonderful window into the cultural, social, and religious life of an emerging Saudi Arabia. A must read for anyone who wants to know the real Saudi Arabia.

I am a son of one of the Animals, as in Papa Joe and The Animals (see chapter 9 of this book), and I know the author. With that disclosure made, let me say that John Paul Jones does a great job of presenting larger truths about Saudis, and their country and culture. His book thoughtfully articulates something that I too learned while living in Saudi Arabia, and something that many of us often forget: people are people. Saudis, like Americans, can have honor, character, loves, dislikes, prejudices, and broad or narrow perspectives. In the particulars, Saudis may not always be just like "us", but in the Biblical sense they too are our neighbors. Amen, Brother Jones.