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Florence Of Arabia
A Novel
by Christopher Buckley

7.6 based on 7 reviews read critic reviews how did we calculate this? based on 3 votes read user comments rate this book

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• Boomsday

• Official Publisher Site
• Original Short Story [Atlantic Monthly]

Appalled by the punishment of her rebellious friend, Florence Farfarletti, as deputy to the deputy assistant secretary for Near East Affairs, invents a far-reaching, wide-ranging plan for female emancipation in that part of the world.

Random House, 272 pages
09/14/2004
$24.95

ISBN: 1400062233

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Publishers Weekly

Some readers may feel Buckley takes the joke too far, but most will find it all in good fun and excuse the author his excesses. [23 Aug. 2004, p.38]

Wall Street Journal Daniel Akst

Florence of Arabia is not so much a novel as a delightfully savage comic fatwa -- one whose victims could not be more deserving.

Washington Post Charles Trueheart

Christopher Buckley is likely to make some people very angry with this book, but there will be no denying the elegance and, by my lights, the essential gentleness of his wit.

The New York Times Book Review Stephen Metcalf

The imperative to load each sentence with a punch line produces the inevitable clunker ... but the problem lies deeper: the technique is finally not up to the moral crisis it invokes.

Boston Globe Amanda Heller

The author's insouciant worldview notwithstanding, some things are just too inherently unamusing to yield to the sophomoric charm of a spy caper. Perhaps without meaning to, the glib Mr. Buckley creates some surprisingly real characters to man (or woman) his Wasabi insurrection, and what he puts them through in the name of satire is not very funny.

Entertainment Weekly Marc Bernardin

From the title on down, Buckley is all but begging you to notice how witty he is. And it's not hard to agree.

Los Angeles Times Shashi Tharoor

As one has come to expect from Buckley, the premise is a clever one ... But its execution, like the garb of most of the novel's female characters, leaves something to be desired. "Florence of Arabia" falls flat, not even Sunni side up.[24 Oct. 2004, R5]

The average user rating for this book is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

jerry l gave it a9:
great satire. If you've lived in the Middle East, you'll love this one.

Robert G. R gave it a6:
A clever satire that the parties involved fully deserve. However, the work is not up to the level of "The Da Vinci Code." I hate to be a prude or a self-righteous kuke, but I felt that some of the "street language" was gross and not cool. I've heard all of these words while in military service, and have even used some of them at times. But, I believes it dilutes the quality of the book just to make it sound "cool" to everday Americans, of which I am one. Better to "cool" that kind of verbiage for literary purposes and toss it into the garbage can where it belongs. I did, however, openly laugh at times in reading the book. Don't normally do that in such and exercise.

v warda gave it an8:
No one is exempt from Buckley's barbs; though dealing with timely and hefty "mutters," readers need to remember this is a satire. Entertaining and thought provoking.

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