Thursday 2 January 2020

Book review: The Sheikh’s Batmobile, Richard Poplak (2009)

This book of journalism is a breath of fresh air, and provides a view of the Muslim world at variance with the types of narratives we normally receive from the nightly news or, even, from forms of popular culture such as the cinema. Whether it’s a punk rock in Jakarta, reality TV in Lebanon, or bodybuilding in Afghanistan, here in this book is a way of finding a different reality. One that suits any taste.

I bought it a long time ago and it has sat, unread, in my library for probably the best part of a decade, until I pulled it off a shelf the other day looking for something unusual. I certainly found it. Poplak is a Canadian but was born in South Africa and his own experience of popular culture informs his investigations of manifestations of it in the countries he visits on his journey.

This book is a lot of fun to read and can be enjoyed by anyone, although I was a bit surprised to see a reference to a “jet engine piston” in one chapter. This is clearly a solecism but the editors didn’t pick up on it. Overall this is a smooth production.



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