Cities of Salt
by Abdelrahman Munif · first published 1988
2mentions
1recommended by
2HN commenters
2016–2020first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
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…works. I say the same thing every time, and professors I know get pissed: start with Adul Rahman Munif's novels. He is a very, very interesting guy. His stuff in English is scattered and week. His Cities of Salt magnum opum will help you see the petro-insanity from the Gulf side, in a pretty scathing critique, from a Saudi who got his citizenship stripped for what he said. Did I mention he was a hardcore Baathist…
on “A C.I.A. Grunt’s Tale of the Fog of Secret War” ↗…rosy-towards-the-Saudis feel but is some excellent and generally unknown primary documentation of the company’s early years. Another book less charitable to Saudi, American, or even my own role in the country’s history is “Cities of Salt” by Abdelrahman Munif. That was a multi part fiction giving a semi-historical recounting of the establishment of a Dhahran-like town in a Saudi-like country from the perspectives of different local people…
on “The US–Saudi Story, Through the Eyes of an Aramco ‘Brat’” ↗