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Thu 12 Dec 2009Grappling with the paradoxes of a closed kingdom
BOOK OF THE DAY:Inside the KingdomBy Robert Lacey, Hutchinson, 404pp; £20
GOOD BOOKS about Saudi Arabia are about as rare as hen’s teeth. Most either tend to the luridly sensationalist or fall prey to Orientalist trappings. Very few manage to get under the skin of the place – hardly surprising given it remains one of the most closed societies on earth. Robert Lacey comes closer than most, with his latest offering proving a worthy sequel to his 1981 book, The Kingdom, which was banned by the Saudis. As with the first book, Inside the Kingdomis the fruit of years spent living in Saudi Arabia, not as a typical expat cloistered in compound life but as a well-connected writer who straddles the space between outsider and insider.
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