Customer Reviews

Storm Over Morocco : Finding God in the Midst of Fanatics

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What were the rest of us doing while Frank Romano was on his own pursuing a personal quest for faith and understanding in Morocco during the 1970s ? This was an intriguing and intimate glimpse at one man's personal relationship with Islam. Frank Romano, an accomplished attorney and scholar, shares with the reader his almost naive embracement of life and religion in stark contrast with the sands of Muslim beliefs.

In the current world of distrust in which we now live, the author seeks to enlighten the reader to basic concepts of the requisites of Islam as seen through his own impressionable eyes. It neither negates nor substantiates the fundamentals of the religion, but seeks to inform and educate the reader.

The encounters challenging Frank throughout his time in Morocco imparts to the reader to stay up late at night just to finish the next chapter. It is without a doubt, worth the read for the adventure and the message Frank Romano is sending to us. He sought solace in the Islam religion, did not find it there, but in turn, successfully communicated his diverse spirituality into the establishment of global interfaith conferences.

Read Storm Over Morocco, you will finish the book knowing that Frank Romano is truly an amazing man.

Frank Romano, Parisian lawyer and prominent organizer of interfaith events, has penned his personal experience of traveling as a young student to Morocco in search of a cosmic reality that seems to be the source of order and meaning in human existence.

Romano's Storm Over Morocco, is the author's true account of how he could no longer enjoy the ostentatious life of Paris because it had become routine and unexciting. He was inspired by the faith of a Muslim Moroccan, and traveled to Morocco with him, where got himself into a web of fundamentalist Muslims. How he got out of the situation makes _Storm Over Morocco a page-turner.

While Romano's story may sound like being set against Muslims, he makes it clear in the prologue that he is narrating his experience without any hostility towards any group. The book offers a moving description of the mysteriously dark and shabby streets of Morocco, the hospitality of its people, the cohesion, and the air of silence teeming with conflict between fundamentalists and the more liberal Muslims of the country.

The impact upon the author's own way of thinking about his encounter with fanatics is surprisingly uncommon. As the story's end shows, Romano is inspired to pursue his quest for the ultimate spiritual realty instead of harboring negativity against the narrow-minded followers of religion. His aim of arranging for interfaith dialogue between people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds transcends all biases.

The message of Romano's book is very clear: seeking peace through understanding and integration.

Armchair Interviews says: Worth a read to expand your worldview.

Even though the book is a bit self absorbing I did find it to be
a intriqing look into one man's personal quest for a realtionship found in Islam with a dose of reality thrown in. I didnt since any hostility
toward any group although he certainly would have that right after the
experience he had. It was a very personal and eyeopening adventure and the author does a good job of explaining all of the emotions that were
felt.

I totally enjoyed this thrilling yet soul-searching book. What Frank Romano went through in trying to find a universal, peace-loving religion and ending up a prisoner is unbelievable! How he managed to escape from his captors and not end up brainwashed is nothing short of amazing. This is a definite must-read - I thoroughly enjoyed sharing Romano's life journey, and all the suspense surrounding the escape was a bonus along the way. Great book - so much knowledge and detail - I gained a whole lot from this novel.

Storm Over Morocco...Finding God in the Midst of Extremists, Frank Romano; World Wide Audience, Inc. (2nd edition; 2009)


Five "Storms" were stacked neatly on a Café Fiore coffee table. After reading random pages, against my better judgment & solely because I wanted to continue to encourage the widow who has created this wonderful neighborhood café, I bought one.

This, in turn, led to an uninspiring introduction to a previously-unread author, who in his acknowledgements profusely thanked a gaggle of editors & associates for having "greatly contributed to the quality of this 2nd edition." I got as far as the first seventy-three pages; one can only imagine the quality of the "unimproved" text on those same pages in the 1st edition.

As far as I can gather (without sacrificing the time necessary to read something that in its entirety might have, instead, benefited from having ONE competent editor), here's the theme of the book:

Young, idealistic man from Northern California studies philosophy at the Sorbonne in the 1970s; already profoundly imbued with a burning thirst for religious knowledge, he becomes entranced by the siren call of Islam after becoming friends with restaurant busboys (seriously); zips down to North Africa where he throws himself into the study of the religion & in the process, discovers that Muslim extremists in Northern Africa are aggressive, prolific & dangerous;

After being basically incarcerated by his paranoid religious "teachers," he later narrowly escapes, making his way northwards back to Paris where he now resides; having since acquired a "PhD" [p. 342; sic], he now practices law both in France & the U.S.; despite his largely horrific experience, he had attained his heralded goal of making the vital religious discoveries that had previously eluded him.

The theme that there are murderous Islamic extremists might have been new news to most Americans in the 1970s (in the unlikely event that, at the same time when Vietnam war wounds were still white-hot & the Cold War was still in high gear, they'd pay attention to anything else going on overseas).

But in 2011, to be informed of this, there simply is no reason to plow through 342 pages of often trite & banal writing (unless you have been successfully brainwashed into believing that it is your duty to slog through a reader's purgatory, eerily similar to the existence of the religious & spiritual hell that Romano had failed to anticipate on the day when he got on the train at a Paris station on his way to Morocco).

The author's intent, without reservation, is honorable. He is - & it is no small asset - likeable. And his candor is commendable. But for every original, beautiful expression - "Paris, resounding with mysteries & shadows of love, lies & truths..." - there are five or six phrases or entire sentences straight out of the dime novel/pulp fiction templates.

And the verbosity - one example, among many: "The train in front of us was already moving" as Romano & others were frantically to get on board. The fewer words that express the same action, the better. Where was the editor who, with a practiced eye for narrative pace, would have cut it to "That train was already moving"?

(Of course, the train was in front of them. Who runs backwards to catch a train?)

Finally, the foreshadowing. Used with wary discrimination, there's no better device with which to create intrigue. But when we've been warned for the 6th or 7th time by Romano that the younger version of himself is about to get himself into big, big trouble - even before he leaves Paris - it's irritating: ""Yes - we know that already! Do you not remember stating that five times previously? Just tell the story, alright?"

My most serious objection concerns the memoir's dialogue. Entire conversations are remembered, verbatim - decades after the speed of sound has carried them off, forever, never to be heard again.

"Storms" obviously doesn't abide by the non-negotiable requirement that quotation marks are used only for exact quotes. Either Romano has a photographic memory (it's possible), kept elaborate notes (unlikely, particularly given his ragtag existence south of Gibraltar), or they've been conscientiously reconstructed, imaginatively.

If circumstances existed that created the necessity of taking understandable liberties with this requirement (in order to create a more vibrant, interesting & still factual memoir), then an exculpatory note that this had been done should have been provided. No such explanation exists in either the Introduction or the Acknowledgments.

SOM failed to make the grade. I regret this. But for all of the above reasons - & finally, because I just noticed that editors Kimberly Hotz & Mike Strozier could not have been bothered to double-check the correct spelling of "Ph.D." - I'll let this train pull out of the station without me.

A poorly planned (unplanned?) search for "universal religion" leads the author into a cult-like conservative religious community in Morocco. But if you saw the words "fanatics" and "fundamentalism" and are expecting references to Osama bin Laden, Iran, or burning American flags, be aware: you will not find them here.

This is a travel narrative. But what's most disturbing to me about Romano's trip is that this guy apparently had no clue what he might be getting into, and didn't bother doing ANY homework about the country or culture to find out before leaving. He just wanders off to North Africa, expecting mystical desert experiences, I guess. His narrative comes off as 'new age'-y and self-absorbed. An unprepared solo traveler, Romano misunderstands basic aspects of Muslim religion and Moroccan culture (such as sacrificing a lamb to roast for the feast of Eid al-Kabir) and feels increasingly alienated as a result. Out of his comfort zone and vulnerable, he gets mixed up in a super-conservative religious crowd whose members believe that he wants to convert. Finally, having managed to get himself into pretty hot water with them (quite an accomplishment in the desert) he drifts in and out of paranoia as he attempts to 'get out' and back to France.

The subtitle of this book is "Finding God in the Midst of Fanatics." It should have been "How NOT to Travel." It's worth reading for that reason only. Do the exact opposite of what Romano did, and you should have a great time.