Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940
by Thomas C. Barger

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Book Reviews of Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940

Book Review: Surveys and Sandstorms
Summary: 5 Stars

I soon discovered that for this young geologist, being "out in the blue" meant living and working for months on end under the open skies of the frequently merciless deserts and gravel plains of eastern Arabia, as opposed to studying rocks and sand from behind a desk in an air-conditioned office. I liked this guy right away! Then, as I read Tom Barger's letters, I enjoyed following the gradual transformation of a green newcomer into a seasoned desert veteran whose colloquial Arabic became so good that he was asked (in Beirut), "Are you a Bedouin?"

This book is sprinkled with descriptions and anecdotes that any reader would find fascinating. For example, everyone knows how important finding water is in a desert, but few would imagine what the Bedouin had to contend with, once they found the precious liquid:

"In general, the water in the Eastern Province would be considered unfit for drinking according to the American sanitary codes which considered 500 parts per million of salt as the absolute maximum that should be found in drinking water. In Arabia, water with 1,000 parts per million was regarded as practically rain water. We commonly drank water with as much as 3,000 parts per million; at one well, we saw some small Bedouin boys drinking water that was later analyzed at 10,000 parts per million...". Now imagine you are sitting around a flickering campfire in the desert under a sky bursting with more stars than you ever saw anywhere else, a sky bigger than belief because it stretches right down to a horizon perfectly flat in every direction. Here's the sort of tale Tom Barger picked up from his Bedu co-workers, perhaps on just this sort of night:

"Several years later in Qatif, a man slipped and fell out of a palm tree, landing on a man below and killing him. The man's widow claimed her blood rights and wanted this man executed for killing her husband. This was a difficult question for the qadhi, the judge of the Islamic court, as the man was innocent because it had been an accident. After much thought, the qadhi ruled that the widow had the right to kill him the same way her husband was killed. She could climb up a palm tree and fall on this fellow or she could settle for her blood money. She settled for the money."

I live in Saudi Arabia and have explored some of the places mentioned in this book, but I have a feeling anyone, anywhere, will enjoy the letters of this young, enthusiastic geologist.

Summary of Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940

Saudi Arabia Books

• Subjects > History > Middle East > Saudi Arabia
• Science & Math