the previous reviews pretty much say everything I would say. I didn't find it all that funny. I would put it right up there with the [Olivia Jules] book. ( )

In the spirit of Lawrence of Arabia who freed the Arabs, so also Florence of Arabia bravely set out to free the women of the Middle East from gender injustice in an oppressive theocracy. Every sentence in this story is packed with humor, farce, irony, satire, irreverence, mockery, or exaggerated stereotype. An example of this writing style is contained in this example where the author describes a fictional country as the Middle East's preeminent "no-fun zone," unless"one's idea of fun includes beheading, amputation, flogging, blinding and having your tongue cut off for offenses that in other religions would earn you a lecture from the rabbi, five Hail Marys from a priest and, for Episcopalians, a plastic pink flamingo on your front lawn." As you can see, Christopher Buckley is an equal opportunity insulter with his politically incorrect view of the world. The whole book is a satire about American-Oil-Arab relations. But since this book is focused on the middle east, the Arab Muslim part of the word takes a big hit. The United States, France and the United Nations receive their licks as well. However, it appears that he let Israel off easy. He probably didn't want to hurt book sales.

The following are some example quotations from the book that illustrate Buckley's clever japes and juicy bits:
About the Israelis:
''A single Israeli fighter pilot could shoot down the entire Royal Wasabi Air Force and still have one hand free to hold his bagel''
About the native population:
"Wasabia's population was booming, owing to the fact that every man could take up to four wives. You were hardly considered manly unless you had twenty children. As a result, it was an increasingly young and thirsty nation."
About the French:
"Did not France have her own proud history of screwing things up? Look at Algeria, Vietnam, Syria, Haiti -- Quebec -- all still reeling from their days of French rule. Clearly, France was ready and eager to show the world that she, too, could wreak disastrous, unforeseen consequences abroad, far more efficiently and almost certainly with more flair than America."
About American officials:
"Senators pounded their podia, demanding answers. The president declared that he, too, wanted answers. The CIA said that although it had no official comment, it, too, perhaps even more than the president and the senators, wanted answers. The secretary of state said that there might in fact be no answers, but if there were, he certainly would be interested in hearing them."
About the United Nations:
"The secretary general of the United Nations said that he was reasonably certain answers existed, but first the right questions must be asked, and then they would have to be translated, and this would take time."

Beneath the silly stuff contained in the story there is an underlying political thriller plot that involves matters of life and death. The kind of the justice system to be contended with is illustrated by this quotation from the book where it describes the harsh justice dealt to two women who were apprehended while out to pick up some milk and the dry cleaning. They were picked up by the religious police because they were unveiled and unescorted by a male. "It was quite obvious, declared the mukfellah official who announced their sentences, that they had been on their way to fornicate with loathsome blackamoor cooks. There was no actual evidence of this, but the advantage of a religious judiciary is that you don't need evidence." As the tension builds in this environment toward the end of the book, the humor takes on the ambiance of gallows humor. (Not gallows in this case, but rather a chopping block for beheading. -- Chopping Block Humor?) The reader knows from earlier incidents in the book that execution of uppity women by beheading, stoning or being whipped to death are real possibilities. Florence is guilty of being uppity to the extreme, so her fate is very uncertain as the plot nears its climax. There's even a high speed chase scene. If the humor were stripped out of the book's narrative, the remaining plot would be grim indeed. This is not a children's book.

Since problems caused by investment bankers are currently in the news, it is interesting to note that readers who make it to the end of the book will learn that money fund managers play a role in the story. Is it possible that Mr. Buckley was providing an early warning, in 2004 when the book was published, that investment bankers can be counted on to make a mess of things in 2008? Thus, the book is prophetic in addition to being humorous.

Christopher Buckley must have inherited his writing skills from his father, William F. Buckley Jr. The younger Buckley is obviously a very intelligent and skilled writer to be able to pack so many, and often subtle, humorous barbs into the text. Mr. Buckley may be intelligent, but I'm not so sure he showed wisdom in mocking the culture and faith of millions of people. Furthermore, a few among those millions of people have a record of reacting in less than desirable ways to such irreverence. There's a general inference that the fictional countries in the book are stand-ins for two of the emirates located on the Arabian Peninsula. I trust that the conditions described are exaggerations of conditions in those countries. So upon reflection I don't think this book contributes much that is helpful to intercultural understanding. ( )

A fairly amusing parody of American dealings in the Middle East. It contains so much death and suffering, though, that the humor becomes a little jarring. ( )

Quite good -- not Buckley's best, but quite good. It's a comedy-thriller about Florence, a low-level US State Department bureaucrat who gets ticked off when an Arab woman she befriends comes to a bad end from her husband, and decides to launch a feminist revolution in the Middle East, by starting a women's TV channel that teaches women how to stand up to men. ( )

I don’t know how I feel about Christopher Buckley’s Florence of Arabia. I really enjoyed it as a piece of satire, but I have a hard time with the message of the book. The satire focuses on a couple of different topics: American dependence on oil, Islamic fundamentalism. It chiefly focuses on women’s rights in strict, Taliban-style sharia countries. One the one hand, I firmly believe that women should be treated equally–socially, economically, and legally–with men. But on the other hand, I don’t think I (or the Western world) has the right to tell other people how they should live. As a relativist and a liberal, I have never been able to reconcile this.

Buckley takes pains to have his characters point out ever now and then that not all Arab (meaning Muslim) women want to be “liberated.” It occurs to me, though, that everyone should be able to expect basic human rights. (Which begs the question, what are basic human rights? Well, the UN drafted and passed a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.) Even though Buckley was trying to be humorous, and even though I really enjoyed this book, it makes me think unhappy thoughts, thoughts that are hard to put into words. Why are there places in the world where women are oppressed, abused, and not allowed to change their situation? Why are religions interpreted to create cultures like the Taliban?

I don’t know how he does it, but Buckley creates satires that work like they are supposed to: first you laugh, then you think. For days. And days. And days.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, the Textual Frigate)