Book Review: The Road to Fatima Gate

A Book by Michael Totten There has been a flurry of books published over the past few years by Westerners, primarily Americans, describing in depth their brief encounters with Lebanon and the Middle East. Their insights are telling not so much for the informative content, but rather how this budding vein of adventure writers perceives the region and its people. Often misplaced in bookstores under ‘political journalism’, these titles — including Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis’ “Tea with Hezbollah”, Jared Cohen’s “Children of Jihad” and Lee Smith’s “The Strong Horse”  — ought to be stacked closer to the ‘adventure/fantasy’ section.  And relegated to the bin of banality they would be, did they not also wield such a dangerous degree of influence over the shaping of United States foreign policy.  It is in this light which one must regard Michael Totten’s “The Road to Fatima Gate”, released earlier this year by