Gone with the Shamal

The author takes us on a sentimental and humorous journey into a time and place impossible to be known or seen again. He grew up in the oil fields, deserts, and the American compound at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in the 1940s and 1950s, long before the fabulous petroleum wealth under the sands dramatically transformed that nation. Arabia, then, was a country filled with disease and destitution, populated only by small bands of desert nomads and impoverished, illiterate villagers. With affection and a sense of loss, James describes his and his friends' antics and adventures as American boys in a typically American town set in a strange faraway country many decades ago. His memoir often reads like episodes out of Leave It to Beaver, but the Beaver never lived in such a distant place, nor was he surrounded by a landscape, culture, and a people who were starkly different from his and his fellow Americans. Nor did the Beaver or his brother, Wally, travel around the world, experiencing many often-amusing adventures and mishaps on five continents.