The Trench

I consider myself a professional reader but took a long time to get through this novel; most readers--I suspect--should not pick it up thinking that it's a casual read. Two reasons: The author, Abdelrahman Munif (1933-2004) takes us across unfamiliar territory, inside a Persian Gulf nation during its transition from camel-herding to skyscrapers (1955 to about 1962), and, secondly, the characters's dialogues and unspoken thoughts are recorded so precisely as to be journalistic or sociological. Here's what I mean: it's obvious that as oil money flows to the top people, i.e., the Sultan and his family and friends, the people at the bottom of the social ladder (camel and sheep herders, farriers, and lower tradespeople) find their peaceful villages razed or turned upside down to accommodate the Sultan's desire for palaces and shopping. As a compensation for the loss of village life, the Sultan showers gifts of cars and cash on people lower down the social ladder, but the forces of social change are too fast for most and they see the Sultan's financial generosity as either waste or a power play.Secondly, the relationships among characters, including their interior thoughts, are detailed because the author felt that if he painted his canvas with light, impressionistic brush strokes no one would believe the story he had to tell. Munif used precise, reporter-like quotations in all conversations. This necessity for detail accounts for the 554-page length, but the reader will see why. The novel could not have been a page shorter, in my view, because the exhaustive detail shows us how regulated Saudi life is/was, how every individual must have a strategy for survival, how relationships and loyalties are characterized by suspicion and arbitrary emotion. At times, when the scenes showed that a character's emotions were over-the-top, or over-drawn, and paranoid, I felt I was reading a satire by Jonathan Swift during the early days of struggle with Britain's own absolute monarch.The author never mentions "Saudi Arabia," but he mentions other nations; so I figure that by default the setting is S.A. The identity of the two cities (former villages) of Mooran and Harran become clearer if you consult a good map: Harran in the novel is a seaport, Dhahran, and Mooran (the village that is wantonly leveled for palaces and skyscrapers) might be the capital Riyadh. It seems to me that the author, Munif, was a good Muslim, and would never have written anything about Mecca or Medina, the holy cities; blasphemy would have been contrary to the novelist's art, this tale of modernity coming to Muslim towns.The arc of the novel is determined by the career of Dr. Subhi Mahmilji, his rise as the Sultan's counselor and Palace insider. Mahmilji is the only character who is in the entire novel from the beginning to almost the end. Several things are `untranslated' from the author's original Arabic; many characters seem to have two names, but I had read somewhere that "Abu" is a title of respect for men, "Umm" or "Ummi" for women. In other words, Dr. Mahmilji is also Abu Ghazwan. It's clear that the original audience for this tale of culture clash and turmoil was Arabic reading people; even in English translation, the novel has an insider feel to it partly because there are no American characters, except by brief mention, and the Doctor's son goes to an American college.Another paradox: there is no trench in The Trench; the title is metaphorical, it seems, for the ditches or abysses which people dig for themselves, e.g., you dug your ditch, now lie in it, or a trench as a predicament so deep that you can't see the bottom. I won't spoil it for you, but notice the development of Widad, the doctor's wife, also look for Muhammed Eid, Abdelaziz al-Ghamdi, Hammad al-Mutawa the head of the Security Agency, Rateb, Samir Caesar, Umm Hosny, the Sheikha, and Prince Fanar.The author seems to identify with the camel-herders and working class characters like Shamran al-Oteibi, the manager of the outdoor market, and his son Najm, the bookstore owner, and Saleh al-Rushdan, men who are developed more after the novel's half-way point when they find some solace in Zaidan's Coffeehouse (after the village has been totally rebuilt from oil revenues). Also, the reader should keep in mind that because the setting is the late 1950s, roles for women are very limited; with only marriage and shopping as possibilities, there is little that Widad and Umm Hosny can do, but they are fully-developed characters. Few people escape Munif's observation and his analysis. I am thankful that he wrote as he did, that he was able to get it published, and that I went the distance with his tale. Perhaps, Munif saw the changes coming in Arab and Muslim societies; in retrospect, this novel could be an argument that only a system of democracy can handle oil wealth as a national asset not the private money of those at the top of the food chain.

This is indeed part two of a trilogy; the first book is "Cities of Salt," and the last is "Variations on Night and Day." However, Western readers are likely to be confused by the thread of narration; Book 1 describes the effects of American oil industry on the fictional Sultanate of Mooran (1940's?) while #2 dispenses with the Americans to focus on the intrigue and cultural shifts in the sultanate (1950's?). Book 3 returns to before the discovery of oil, and features the British-born Hamilton, modelled largely on St. John Philby (father of Kim Philby).I am very sorry to have to refute the incredibly snide Kirkus Associates review, which joyfully embraces the trope of squalid, vile Yanks and noble, complex Britons. Kirkus' reviewer needs to actually read what the writer says rather than regurgitate his own prejudices. Mooran has nothing whatever to do with Jordan; it is clearly a medley of Saudi Arabia and the Trucial States (for one thing, there is not a significant volume of oil in Jordan). It's difficult to make the case that the Doctor's son, who indeed attends graduate school in San Francisco, is corrupted by "American values" (whatever the hell those are!); the only Americans he interacts with are employees of the State Department, and are agents of state policy, not "American values." This book describes an entirely different world from either Iraq or Kuwait, and the reason Munif "cannily" keeps the USA or the oil offstage is that he's done with them.Munif does indeed write about what he feels like, and the vignettes are narrated in whatever sequence he wants. He returns to earlier points in each narrative to achieve whatever point he needs to make. This is not an especially clear-cut polemic against any nationality; the Arabs are perfectly capable of acting on their own "values" (they're not "half devil and half child"); it is LITERATURE, and very fine literature at that. It involves very rich and vivid character development; the characters have their own motives and respond to events in plausible ways. It is a sad and tiresome business to spend so much time refuting another's review, but readers would be justly deterred if they believed Munif was merely ranting against some vile alien influence. He is not; his narrative is a beautifully and spontaneously woven fabric woven from existentially human threads.

It might be forgivable for a beginner novelist to write book which is so long but totally lacks any development of characters. But to claim that this book series be "highly acclaimed" would be a big stretch.Indeed, book sets the stage in a city of Mooran, and within 560 pages fails to move elsewhere, except brief mentioning of trips to the US or Mecca. All right, even in static circumstances the author could have thought of some events, maybe court intrigues, love affairs, assassinations, etc. - the kind of things our life has plenty of. Instead, the author describes a bunch of self-sufficient people who just happened to be close friends of Sultan, and these people simply waste the lives as time goes by. Well, by "wasting" I mean that they build palaces, buy luxury cars, and some of them even create philosophical theories. Maybe this is indeed what happens in Arab world, which I am not very familiar with, but politics in the US and Europe is much more dynamic, nowadays as well as before.So, the author presents those rulers as totally uninteresting, boring people. All right, if that is the case, why spend 500+ pages describing them? Sometimes, I have impression that the author was paid on per-page basis, so he was simply working as "typewriter" - just type what comes up to your head, and God will sort it out...

Item arrived on time in excellent quality. Thanks.

This is the second book of the trilogy by Abdelrahman Munif. Although I'm sure that these books are very meaningful to citizens of Saudi Arabia, I had a hard time relating. I have read all three but the first book, "City of Salt" was my favorite.

nach "Cities of Salt" als zweites Buch der Trilogie habe ich mir "Trench" gegeben.Es ist flüssiger zu lesen, verständlicher, weil näher an "unserer" Zeit und es ist nicht unmittelbar nötig sich voher die "Cities of Salt" durchzulesen.Der Übersetzer ist der Gleiche, also kann es nicht daran liegen.Die Geschichte(n) sind spannend und spiegeln gut die Zeit und die Personen wieder.Da ich weder auf Arabien, noch auf den Author spezialisiert bin, kann ich aber doch sagen, daß es gut geschriebene Unterhaltung ist.Empfehlenswert - gab mir einige Einsichten in der ÖlThema - die Titel der A.Munif Bücher sind nur über ausschweifende Gedankengänge nachvollziehbar, was der Buchqualität aber nicht den geringsten Abbruch gibt

Arrived on time. It was like described.

Used and good.

Very good