Product Description

Dhahran Palace Hotel, Saudi Arabia, 1991. The U.S. forces are massing on the border with Iraq, preparing to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. There are rumors of SCUD missiles, talk of the possibility of chemical attack, but in fact, nothing is really happening. With no story to report, the press is getting restive.

The Sand Café is a satire of modern war reporting that mercilessly exposes the life of the foreign correspondent: endless trips in pursuit of a really big story, gathering frustration, and brewing jealousy directed towards other reporters. Neil MacFarquhar, a veteran of the Middle East foreign press corps, has written a woundingly witty black comedy of those who bring us news from the front lines.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #544818 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781586484347
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
The frustrations and follies of contemporary war reporting are skewered in this jaundiced, juicy dispatch, datelined Saudi Arabia during the 1991 Gulf War. Sent to cover the story of a lifetime, wire service reporter Angus Dalziel finds himself with a view mainly of his hotel room. Harassed by Saudi officialdom, stifled and spoon-fed by U.S. Army press minders, Angus struggles to unearth real stories about military corruption, the repressive Saudi society America is defending and front-line reverses once the longed-for fighting begins. Watching his comrades veer between frenzy and torpor in their media bubble, Angus ponders the rot at the heart of journalism—especially the shallowness and vanity of television correspondents, one of whom uses up his tent mates' precious drinking water to shampoo his hair. First-time novelist and New York Times Cairo bureau chief MacFarquhar has this milieu down cold, though some of his tent poles are romantic clichés. A triangle between Angus, a cable-news babe and an egotistical producer yields much brooding over the transience of reporters' love lives, and the dichotomy between serious print journalists and TV airheads is a little facile. But media insiders and casual readers alike will relish his stock of witty observations and nasty anecdotes, while gleaning timely insights into the corruption of the news business. Michael Moore this isn't, but look for the book to serve as a kind of "physician, heal thyself" for the current wartime media, with corresponding talk show play. (Apr.)
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Review
"Few novels so honestly portray what reporting abroad is like in the era of the American colossus" Washington Post"

About the Author
Neil MacFarquhar has worked as a correspondent in the Arab world for more than twelve years, including the last five as the Cairo bureau chief for the New York Times. His current assignment is covering Islam in North America for the Times.

Customer Reviews

Becoming a Journalist or Dating One
This book should be mandatory reading for anyone who wants to become a journalist or date one.
Imagine M.A.S.H. meets Sex in the City with a little Jon Stewart thrown into the mix. A crowd of mostly youthful, virulent, edgy thirty-somethings with fire in their bellies as well as their loins are stuck for seven months in a 190-room Saudi hotel desperately looking for the next big scoop and a little warmth, with very limited supplies of either available. They lie, they cheat, they broadcast the most intimate details of their sex lives with colleagues, they literally hit each other, and somehow they still manage to broadcast the news.
The relatively small number of excellent journalists heroically stand up to a bewildering gauntlet of obstacles from cut throat colleagues to a dominating Pentagon, which tries to assert complete control over what the American public is allowed to learn about the Gulf War.
The writing in The Sand Caf? is terrific, insightful and hilariously funny. I read every chance I got. There's a lot to learn from this tour guide about how the media actually covers a war or fails miserably in the attempt through laziness and incompetence. Aside from getting an appalling sense of how the news is made, I also learned much about the military, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Arab attitudes towards one another and the West, about fanatics and why they are tolerated, about Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, not to mention a bit of history. All in all it's a great orientation to an ever-important region.
I loved reading it, and so will you.

engrossing, topical, stylish and very funny
This is a great novel - engrossing, topical, stylish and very funny. With this it also manages to reveal a great deal about how the press shapes and limits our understanding of war and of the Middle East/Islam. The educational side - usually coveyed in hilarious anecdotes - all mesh, and I came away exhilerated. It is also incredibly relevant to the current Iraq war and illuminates the failure of communication and understanding between the US and the Arab world. This important novel should be very, very widely read.

a thoroughly enjoyable read
This is a great book written in sparse language about journalism, love, the desert and loneliness. It's also the closest thing most readers will ever get to experiencing what exactly goes on behind the scenes during the reporting of a war. I should know. I've covered 8 wars over the last 20 years. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the media, the egos involved and how the quest for face-time and the love of live shots distorts the news. I'd also recommend this for anyone who wants to be drawn into an intriguing story about a dashing guy looking for love in all the wrong places.