Alexandria: The Last Nights of Cleopatra
Authors tend to lose themselves in their subject. After dedicating so much mental time and space, who can blame them for getting too close to the thing they write about? In the tradition of Geoff Dyer, Stothard immerses himself in his love of Cleopatra and the Middle East. After being stranded in Egypt during the Arab Spring, Stothard becomes enmeshed in a country oozing with history. It is the fountainhead of Western civilization, after all. But what does this mean during a time of revolution, when the old is cast aside in search of a brighter future? These are the questions this book tries to address. What remains and endures over time? Apparently those things that can be made into a Cecil B. DeMille or Joseph F. Mankiewicz feature. Regardless, the author is drunk with his surroundings. His personal lust for Cleopatra is obvious while his historical research bubbles over into the present. While Alexander the Great or Ptolemy X (or is that IX, in Stothard’s ambling narrative) may dominate, the focus remains constant on a land in transition. --James Orbesen