Amin Maalouf: Books I forgot were good

In today’s The Globe and Mail there is a review essay about terror that included a review of In the Name of Identity by Amin Maalouf. I knew that name was familiar and, browsing his site, realized he had written two great novels I had forgotten, one a historical novel, Leo the African and the science-fiction novel, First Century after Beatrice. I’m embarassed that I didn’t connect those two novels. Time to read more of his work, especially on identity and terror as an antidote to the possible orientalism of Western writers like Bernard Lewis.

As the Globe reviewer, Todd Gitlin, writes, “Tracting the failure of modernization in the a Arab world, he (Maalouf) unveils the inner logic by which religious sealots recruit.” (“Tomes of Terror”, The Globe and Mail, “Tomes of Terror”, D23.)
For a critique of Lewis, whose book What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity int he Middle East is an accessible summary of a liberal (and problematic) view of Islam, see
M. Shahid Alam: Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry? in Counterpunch.