Bangkok 8 is a fantastic book, read it!

A contrived story with weak characterization and laughable plot, salted with a number of pseudo historical factoids. For a much better novel with a similar theme may I recommend Wilton Barnhardt's "Gospel". If you are really serious and want to enjoy the prose of a true poet and classisist; look for and find the long out of print novel by Robert Graves, "King Jesus".

I am not an Anthony reader but read his first book in this series with enough pleasure to give the second offering a try.
In his after word for the first book he gives a tiresome account of his internal bodily functions and crows ad nausium about what a successful author he is and his ability to sell his self admitted, assembly line, literary creations for big bucks at the drop of a hat.
He also laments his inability to be accepted as anything but a genre author. After struggling through half of the tedious "hourglass" I can see why this acceptance has been so elusive. This effort lacks even the substance of a decent comic book, having more the quality of a sort of literary diarrhea. One thing in particular annoyed me, his consistently repeated descriptions of female bodies as "gelatinous", "rippling", and "quaking" in a drooling, unctuous manner, which leads me to believe Mr. Anthony may be an aged chubby chaser. I'm glad he has made yet more money to support himself in his reclusive Florida haunt but a more scrupulous editor would never have passed this thin and tiresome effort on to print.

This is a well crafted book, not the usual word processed [stuff] that passes for popular fiction these days. It is a evocative, dark,literate slice of Americana. Not reccomended for those who like their reading to crank along at the pace of a made for T.V movie. Pinckney has a fine eye for character and detail. If you liked the movie "Sexy Beast", you will probably enjoy this book as well.

This book is a great introduction to the written Arabic. With a little study I easily learned how to read and recognize some basic Arabic. The structure of the language is fascinating. Highly reccomended for the curious.