Book Review
"Florence of Arabia": Humor as sharp as an Arabian scimitar

By Adam Woog
Special to The Seattle Times

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Christopher Buckley's wily comic novels show no fear of controversial subjects. He's taken on a first lady accused of murdering a philandering president ("No Way to Treat a First Lady"), UFO conspiracy enthusiasts ("Little Green Men") and the tough, tough life of a tobacco-industry lobbyist ("Thank You For Smoking").

Now, in "Florence of Arabia," Buckley swings at one of the hottest topics of them all, Middle Eastern politics, and it's a hit.

Buckley novels share certain traits. They're really funny, despite covering serious topics. They've got their fingers pressed firmly on the American pulse. They're built on Buckley's intimate knowledge of life in the nation's capital. And they share some of the genial, hell-for-leather energy embodied in the Blackford Oakes spy thrillers written by Buckley's father, William F. Buckley. (But they have more swear words.)

So it is with "Florence of Arabia."

OK, let's deal with that title first. It's a good one, but it's not original.

According to legend, Noel Coward coined it after seeing the movie that made Peter O'Toole a star, remarking that if O'Toole had been any prettier it would have been "Florence of Arabia."

"Florence of Arabia" by Christopher Buckley Random House, 254 pp., $24.95

To be fair, Buckley has not tried to claim the gag as his own. He has admitted in an interview that he just swiped it.

Now, the plot: Florence Farfaletti, a canny and energetic State Department specialist in the Arab world, is aghast at the downward spiral of women's rights in the Middle East. This feeling sharpens when a friend — married to one of the 10,000 crown princes in a royal Arab family — is sentenced to certain death simply for trying to escape from the D.C. mansion occupied by her husband.

Outraged, Florence develops a corrective. She'll use highly focused television shows to introduce radical notions of female emancipation across the Middle East.

Not surprisingly, the State Department shoots her proposal down. Then she encounters a mysterious stranger with deep government connections and apparently unlimited resources. Uncle Sam, as the stranger calls himself, offers to bankroll the operation.

Before she knows it, Flo is in the tiny nation of Matar (pronounced "Mutter" — don't ask), along with her hand-picked operatives: a cynical but brilliant bureaucrat, a cheerfully amoral public-relations guy and a two-fisted Special Ops agent.

The plan goes well at first — in fact, it exceeds Flo's wildest dreams. TV Matar is a smash! Viewers avidly gobble up shows like the sitcom about comically inept religious police (pitched as "Friends from Hell").

Then it all starts to fall apart ... and Flo realizes that there are slight complications. She is, in fact, just one cog in a complex scheme to drastically alter the political landscape of the Middle East.

Not that this is a particularly true-to-life landscape, mind you. What do you expect in a world where Matar's closest neighbor is the sovereign nation of Wasabia? Or a world where religious leaders, fond of the occasional gift, are called moolahs?

The book has moments of great seriousness, and even some genuine suspense. Mostly, though, Buckley plays it for laughs. He has especially big fun with names — take that of the leader of Wasabia, the venerated King Tallulah. Buckley also savors the occasional dubious source material, as when he cites "David Vremkin's magisterial history ... 'Let's Put Iraq Here, and Lebanon Over There: The Making of the Modern Middle East.' "

It's really pretty astonishing that Buckley has produced a comedy out of this stuff. After all, fanatically religious and controlling cultures of any stripe aren't known to be capacious barrels of laughs. Not to mention violence against women or anyone else.

Nonetheless, Buckley manages to make consistently large-hearted, wickedly informed fun out of nearly everything going: not just the Arabs but the CIA, the State Department, snooty French diplomats, priapic Arab princes, you name it.

Oh, and exploding camels, too.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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