THIS FIERY NIGHT

by Joan Vatsek ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1959

An effulgent novel of present day Egypt is heavily pomaded, peopled and plotted and uses the splendor that was hers to no good end- only violence. The Tower of Siloam is a ""fanatical nationalism"" ready to collapse on those who are near- and so it does; on Madame Charlotte Zaki, very rich and very alone in a fabulous house with only a presumably faithful servant; on Yedid Bey, British trained and incorruptible police chief, and his lovely daughter Jeannette- to marry a man as yet unworthy of her; on an English engineer, Henderson, reluctant to leave the life he has found of women other and younger than his wife; on a mission at Ismailia and the saintly Sister Teresa; on English officer Peter Walsh, who now falls in love with the Anglo-American Hillary. It is Selim Bey, bankrupt and corrupt, who uses a nationalist slogan- Egypt for the Egyptians, for his own advantage, works up the fever heat of hate which ends in assassinations and assaults and mob massacre- the deaths of many here before some sort of peace and political purpose is restored.... A spectacle, probably closer to California than Cairo; the publishers will do their best to make it go and it may well- on something of the level and the scale of The Image Makers.

Pub Date: April 15, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1959

Categories: FICTION