I didn't enjoy the writing, so this was a struggle even at the 50 page mark. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. Instead Seymour creates highly believable characters, complete with foibles, weaknesses, irrational impulses and some strengths. Review by Patrick Seale. The West's current struggle with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists makes A LINE IN THE SAND all the more topical even though it's fiction. He does not sink into the mire of purple prose. You can support the development of the CAGEMATCH.net website and database backend via Patreon! France wants it in Tripoli. I gave it a four because the book is very well researched, cited and entertaining. I really liked his writing then. I did not finish this- I gave it 100 pages, but perhaps it’s one to pick up later. But I did not know about the role of France in the region, how devious and powerless at the same time it was. Seymour never fails with his detailed, sophisticated, multilayered novels. Because the other side of the line … It would have been interesting to get a further perspective on this sorry episode from the another view point such as from the peoples who lived there but that aside I found the book very well written and informative. In the end, guess what??? Refresh and try again. We lovers of wonderful drinks, we alcohol hobbyists, must stand in the sea, up to our necks, together. Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2015. Also based upon my understanding of the book, it seems that T E Lawrence was the first who applied the pure terrorist tactics with his Arab pupi. It is nice to see that he just keeps getting better. Frank Perry was engaged in espionage in Iran and as a result of his activities the Iranians want him dead. The best book I've read about the Middle East for some time, James Barr's extraordinary history traces many of that bedevilled region's contemporary tensions to the machinations of French and British politicians and diplomats during the last decades of their two countries' empires. Nov 25, 2012 Jim rated it it was amazing. User Reviews Review this title 19 Reviews. They split the pip. I am reviewing the novel A Line In The sand by Gerald Seymour which is a very good thriller and which I borrowed from a friend. There's a problem loading this menu right now. And we must stand on our side of it as the tide comes in, as it washes over our feet, our knees, our waists. “This speedy retreat left Georges-Picot under the impression that ‘What the British want, is only to deceive the Arabs.”, “When Husni Zaim seized power from Shukri al-Quwatli on 30 March 1949, Syria's economy was a parlous state and its army had been beaten the previous November by the Israelis. But Zaim's reign did not last long. Britain wants it in Haifa. So if it worked for the Jews then, it is less surprising that modern terrorist do not think their efforts are futile. He ranks with the best - Greene, Le Carre, Deighton and Ludlum. Only the Americans come out with any glory - in the early years wielding their growing economic power to force the British and French to move towards freedom and democracy for the Arabs. I knew the role of the British in Palestine. A Line in the Sand is undeniably unique to American Arson’s catalog in several respects. The action goes along at a nice pace and it is about a fairly topical subject, the nuclear program in Iran. ), but felt smarter and more informed about this delicate and explosive region once I finished it. James Barr has achieved this with consummate ease. This episode may be far from following "protocol" as some of the reviews have stated but. A Line in the Sand is undeniably unique to American Arson’s catalog in several respects. I’ve taken great pleasure in reading Mr Barr’s book on the Sykes-Picot Line and how it developed (and on what happened afterwards). Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border, by Rachel St. John, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 2011, $29.95. See All Audience Reviews Line in the Sand … He kept me interested. The problems of the region seem intractable, views on either side utterly entrenched, and those of us with the luxury to be thousands of miles away struggle to make sense of it all. James Barr has achieved this with consummate ease. By James Barr Simon & Schuster, £25. An eye opener into what were the events that led to the division of the middle east. Moderately enjoyable romp through the shockingly petty British-French rivalry in the Middle East post-WWI. Since then I've worked in Westminster in politics, as a leader-writer for the Daily Telegraph, in the City and most recently in Paris. If you ARE a Texan and are interested in knowing what it really means to be a Texan and how we came to be the way we are (and frankly, we don't care if others like the way we are or not), then you will LOVE this book. The strength of a Line in the Sand is that it contains more details, blow by blow accounts and personal insights into all the shapers of the Modern Middle East. Some chapters were more like three stars and others were five stars. The movie is amusing, a good action work , plenty of … Line in the Sand is the story of two US Marines lost in the wastelands of Iraq fighting insurgency, the environment, their own ideologies, and eventually each other, to survive. This is another tightly plotted thriller from Gerald Seymour that is awfully hard to put down once you start reading. Or did it? Hawaii Five-0 Season 7 Episode 14 Review: Line in the Sand Dale McGarrigle at January 20, 2017 11:59 pm. The main characters in "A Line in the Sand" all have their own weaknesses, strengths and motivations. First, it is less introspective by far – a few tracks are more personal, namely “Wolf Pack”, but others are more generalized or directed externally (or specifically focused on external events). Hide Spoilers. They have no compunction to killing so why should we, the UK or Israel have any qualms or guilt about killing them. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2006. If there’s anything Line In The Sand truly proves, it’s that the band has the energy to at least sound reinvigorated, but it’s the coherency of the entire record that cracks the façade. Hide Spoilers. He always manages to deliver a tautly woven, well plotted story. Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2019. I was torn between giving this book 3 or 4 stars. ... A Line in the Sand, adds some spice to the usual accounts of this decisive moment in the history of the Middle East. Some chapters were more like three stars and others were five stars. There are no critic reviews yet for A Line in the Sand. There are a few very dull chapters in this book that don't really need to be entire chapters. Syria's Hafez Assad and France's Jacques Chirac in 1998 . From the effort to break up the Ottoman Empire to the mutual backstabbing between the World War Two "victors", the whole history is a uniformly shaming indictment of the Western allies, almost unique in producing virtually no heroic personalities at all. And that the terrorist tactics was one of the main decisive factors for the Jews to achieve the statehood in 1949. If you want to know why the Middle East and some parts of North Africa are in a state, read this. It boasts some amazing DPS for PvP players, putting it high on … The tension builds but the ending is anticlimactic and fizzles like a wet firecracker or put another way, it's like eating Chinese food. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. He's just discovered Seymour, and said that A Line in the Sand is the best of the lot, especially for someone who doesn't normally read suspense novels. Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2005. Interestingly this book was written in 1999 which is probably a little before that became big news. August 26, 2011 Print this page. The only other suspense/espionage writer I know who's killed off protagonists or had them fail anywhere near as much is John LeCarre, and even he doesn't do it anywhere near as often. Reluctant allies against the Germans, the British and French had to divide the Ottoman spoils, and the agreement essentially “drew a line in the sand” from Acre to Kirkuk, the north falling under French protection and the south to the British. Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2002. The cons. Having already had one new identity, when they discover his new identity he refuses to move to a new life again. The narrative of the Middle East is a fascinating tragedy, well told by James Barr. Written by an historian it is well researched with an array of primary as well as secondary sources. A Line in the Sand is populated by some of the twentieth century's most fascinating figures - Winston Churchill, T.E. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. The only snag is that it can be overly detailed at times. Review: A Line In The Sand. A jolly fun romp between a mildly dysfunctional odd couple on a fantastic east Mediterranean cruise. Nevertheless the book is nicely divided into 4 parts which make the chronology of events easy to follow. Seemingly both aware of the untenability of their old colonial habits, the U.K. and France nevertheless sought, from 1916 onwards, to ensure that they each retained strategic control of parts of the swathe of land stretching from southern Turkey to the Sinai, and from the Mediterranean to Mecca, following the disintegration of Ottoman rule. Line in the Sand is a new Linear Fusion Rifle that hit Destiny 2 with Season of Dawn. A very well researched book that makes it easier to understand the foreign policy chess that was played with middle east, This is an excellent read for those who want to see what lies behind a lot of what we thought we knew about recent middle eastern history and how the two colonial powers of Britain's and France's self interest pretty much set the tone for the bloodshed and misery of local people and their own military over the following decades. The blurb above gives you a good all-round picture of the scope of this book. This is a neat thriller which undeservedly seems to have been rather overlooked by the general public. With that experience, I can tell you that Barr excels at taking what is a complex and intriguing series of historical events and rendering them as dull as watching water evaporate. Now, I could probably find a way to connect the present situation in the Middle East to something one of the relevant parties did there between 1915 and 1949—and it would be a major link. You can trace the impact the two decaying empires had on the current conflict as well. Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2011. And we must stand on our side of it as the tide comes in, as it washes over our feet, our knees, our waists. Great plot, great characters, great writing. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. None of the actors come out of this well. For example, the author spends pages and pages on the dispute between the British and the French about the proposed route of the oil pipeline from Mosul to the sea. Four stars overall. I really enjoy reading these thrillers by Gerald Seymour. Seymour weaves these together with great skill to create a taut, tense thriller. This was a fairly uneven read. The consequences are playing themselves out to this day for viewing on our broadband connections: One of the first things reported about the new "Caliphate" erected by ISIS in Iraq in recent weeks was their achievement in tearing up the Sykes-Picot agreement, the focus of this story. The Fosters Season 5 Episode 13 Review: Line in the Sand Jasmine Blu at January 30, 2018 9:00 pm . Line in the Sand details the dramatic transformation of the western U.S.-Mexico border from its creation at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848 to the emergence of the modern boundary line in the first decades of the twentieth century. ... A Line in the Sand, adds some spice to the usual accounts of this decisive moment in the history of the Middle East. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. We’d love your help. Its been a while since we've had an old fashion game of "Where's Jude?" Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East. While it doesn’t sound like the most thrilling of experiences, this book turned that impression around. I was appalled by the violence employed by all the actors, the duplicity of the colonizers, the terrorism of the Zionists (! They split the pipe and it goes to both ports. But, Seymour clashes these characters against community, family and friends and regular law abiding citizens who just want to live their day to day lives peacefully and away from guns and violence. The events in this book are fascinating, but they were portrayed in such a long, drawn out style, with so many forgettable people that I quickly became bored. Throughout my life the phrase Middle East crisis has seemed something of a tautology. After being booked by cops over a petty crime, the film's plot begins to slowly unravel as you begin to learn more about Banzai and the circumstances that got him to where he is. The audacity!! Seymour writes about pyrrhic victories where the so called winners move on with what life they have left while the losers end up either dead or in jail. I just told you in a few sentences what it takes the book a very long slog of a chapter to convey. Highly recommended. Now, I'm back in London. As such, it's an engrossing novel by plot-meister Gerald Seymour. 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