Middle Eastern Sketches

In this travel narrative, Katz provides entertaining accounts of trips he made to Oman, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Among other episodes, he describes the perils of a cut-rate cruise on the Nile, the variety of portraits of Saddam Hussein on display in Baghdad, why non-Kuwaitis drive more slowly than Kuwaitis, and the difficulties encountered in making telephone calls in Tehran. The author also relates the conversations he had on a wide array of subjects with all manner of people, from cabbies to cabinet ministers. This book is useful for upper division undergraduate and graduate courses on Middle Eastern politics as a supplementary text illustrating the difficulties of undertaking research in this region. In addition, the book will also appeal to the wider audience for travel narratives.