A review by blevins
Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley

3.0

It's been awhile since I've read anything by Christopher Buckley, but this novel is pretty much what you'd expect from him--fast-paced satire involving politics and various related subjects connected to the government. Buckley has made a literary career of mocking Washington types of every stripe and in this zippy novel, he adds some zingers toward the Middle East. The story follows a fetching female government employee sent to a fictitious Arabic country with the idea to rouse up the female population enough to overturn repressive dictatorships. They attempt this by creating a TV channel catered to women. It's extremely doubtful this would work in the real world, but it does provide Buckley with all kinds of opportunities to satirize Arabic culture. While not earth shattering or new [that is if you're familiar with Buckley], FLORENCE OF ARABIA is entertaining and will provide a chuckle here and there.