itibaren 6575 Persingen, Hollanda
** spoiler alert ** It took me 9 days to finish this book. I'm actually surprised at myself that I managed to finish it. Every time I put the book down, it took everything I had to pick it back up. I love the horror genre - I adore it when an author can creep me out and send shivers down my spine. This one, for me, fell far short. It grossed and disgusted me. If I had to compare him with another author in this genre, I'd pick Stephen King. Kin is the master at creating incredible situations that, although sometimes include gore and perversion, he adds a psychological factor, and it's that psychological factor that gives me the creeps and sends shivers down my spine. Bentley Little used the gore and perversion as a forefront of the story, and it puts a downer on the entire thing. Knowing I had more and more gore and perversion to look forward to is what made me take 9 days to read it. It takes a kid, Ryan, to figure out what's going on. And to watch him sacrifice himself so that his family can get away, after everything that goes on at the hotel, is upsetting and no way caps the story. It seemed completely ridiculous. For the story to need an innocent child to sacrifice himself ... ugh. While the history of The Reata is intriguing, it's the only aspect that is.
Must be read with a grain of salt, as it's written by two "democracy means the rise of the middle class" political scientists who cite Huntington and Fukuyama without irony. With that said, I have found no more comprehensive treatment of Iranian political economy over the course of the 20th century. Unfortunately, this is what Dabashi's new book should've been, minus Gheissari & Nasr's repugnant politics.