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Title: Important Subject Matter Poorly Handled
Review: With the amount of attention the country gets in the western press, you'd think that there would be a metric ton of decent books out there on the modern history of Saudi Arabia. You'd be wrong.This one by journalist John Bradley was recommended as a good one, since he was one of the few western journalists inside Saudi at the time of the 9/11 attacks he did have unqiue access. Too bad he can't write to save his life. The chronology of the book is confused. The sentence stucture is often awful, and what is often meant to be a telling detail instead comes off as contrived. I am shocked that he has written for publications like the Economist.Though the writing is poor, in Bradley's defense, this book is at least somewhat balanced, and he clearly has a real affection for the culture and some of the people he met there. This isn't jingositic western propoganda (like much of what is written about Saudi) but it also isn't a very good book.
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