Olives Paperback – November 20, 2011

News reports, documentaries, blogs and the like can inform us of the harsh realities of our world, make us aware of the facts, but often it takes a narrative to bring home what such facts mean to the lives of the people affected. Mr. McNabb has done just this in his novel, "Olives - A Violent Love Story". Although fictional, his story is effective in illuminating social and political situations existing in Jordan and Palestine in their effects on the lives of his characters.The story follows young journalist Paul Stokes as he arrives in Jordan to produce a magazine on behalf of the Ministry of Natural Resources; he quickly runs afoul of the law, develops a relationship with his Palestinian coworker, Aisha Dajani, as well as with her wealthy and well-connected family, and is approached by less-than-savory British official, Gerald Lynch, to spy on the Ministry and the Dajanis over water resource projects. These water projects are also being bid upon by British companies and are of great concern to the Israeli government.While Mr. Stokes seems to be adept at his primary vocation, he is well out of his depth when it comes to dealing with the unfamiliar social and political situations he has been thrust into, and spends a good deal of time fretting over his actions, and not without reason. While his occasional social faux pas might be smoothed over with time and patience, doubt is placed in his mind about the motives of Aisha and the Dajanis, who are rumored to have ties to terrorism. And though compelled by his tenuous legal situation and Lynch's badgering, he has no stomach for the illicit gathering of information that has been assigned to him.As the relationship between Paul and Aisha develops, the reader gets to know more about her family and the effect that the invasion and occupation of Palestine had and continues to have on them. While her family has parlayed their dispersion into a successful merchant enterprise that spans the Middle East, the loss of their own homeland weighs on them daily, while those relatives who remain in what is left of their family's farmland in the West Bank daily face the pressures imposed on them by the constant Israeli encroachment. Appropriately, these realities give weight and urgency to the political game being waged in the story.Mr. McNabb's story telling and pacing are quite absorbing and will keep the reader interested throughout. I did find the first chapter to be a bit hurdle-ish; it seemed too much of an attempt to open the book artfully and with a slow reveal, but it didn't quite come off for me. Still, it did serve the purpose and was better than stark exposition. And once into the second chapter the story progresses at a very even pace and builds admirably. It definitely proceeded into "couldn't put it down" territory.The motives of some of the the characters are a bit murky. The story is told solely from Paul Stoke's perspective, so the others' reasonings behind their actions involving him can be a bit of a mystery, certainly no less to Stokes than the reader. Why does Lynch bother with such a small fish as Stokes? Could the mild espionage he desires to have carried out not be better done by others? One might be tempted to ask why Aisha and the Dajani family take the newcomer Paul into their confidence so quickly. But then, almost all males of our species could reasonably ask what it is that their women see in them, so the mystery there could be no more than the common one.Indeed, the darkness in which the reader is left, in some areas, is the very same that Paul Stokes is living in, and so serves well to put one a little more fully into his shoes.The subject and setting of the book are ones that have not received enough honest exposure in Western literature. The mass of such writings that concern the Middle East in general and Palestine in particular are by far in favor of British and American motives, and too rarely question the policies or actions of the state of Israel. McNabb has provided a novel firmly aimed at a Western audience that presents the issues and situations very even-handedly. I hope to see many more and similar works from him in the future. Even more, I hope that their intended audience reads and absorbs them, to the result of a better understanding of the region.

It is unusual for me to write reviews of narrative books, but in a way I think it is still work-related, as the author is a longtime friend and colleague.This book has a plot, so I won't throw in any spoilers, also because the plot did not really surprise me: there's a Brit who goes to work in the Middle East, with all the predictable cultural clashes and stereotypes; I had sort of expected Alex to write about this because he is most opinionated about it, and always found his tales and blog posts very entertaining.There are spies, bombs, beautiful girls, some romance, lots of action - you may mistake this for a Fleming thing, also encouraged by the pleasantly light (in a positive sense) writing that's so characteristic of Alex.There's also a surprise ending, and I must say the cunning way he approaches the last pages fooled me. Yes, I was surprised, the way a sudden kick in the crotch surprises you. I even had to go back a few pages to make sure I hadn't missed something. In retrospect, the way the plot seemed as thick as ever when only a few pages were missing should have alerted me, but I was hooked, or perhaps this is one cue you miss when you read an ebook.I also think that the one thing I didn't like at first - a slow start - was instead the initial rolling of the giant stone that gradually picks up speed until it falls of the cliff.It's a well written and carefully edited tale - something I deeply appreciate as it reveals love for quality, and I kept wandering how many of the characters mirrored people Alex met in his middleastern sojourns; do Aisha, Daoud and Gerry/Gerald exist?The book did not dissipate my impression that the author is a little one-sided when it comes to "the Izzies", but the terrible entanglement of the many issues afflicting the area is very well-rendered and we're left with the feeling that, if a solution exists, it will have to be dug out of that arid earth with our fingernails, one bloody bit after the other.A good page-turner, but not for the holidays, and yes, I will buy the next one.

I met McNabb on a writing web site four years ago, when he was writing comedy books. I had no inkling he would turn into such an excellent writer of proper books.The subtitle of Olives says it all, really, about the nature of this book. It's a story of love mired in the violence of hatred across borders, hatred fuelled by the abuse of religion. It drew a very visceral reaction from me, and the ending was as sudden as it was unexpected.What is interesting about this novel is that the main male character is not very likeable at all, but, contrary to what people say, that is one of the book's strengths, because Paul Stokes is like we all are, deep down - hot-headed, unthinking, driven by his emotions, a coward one minute, a brave man the next.McNabb's language is spare, and all the more forceful for it. The descriptive passages of the book are elegantly simple, and the pace and plotting of the book simply elegant. I read this book in 6 hours' of train journeys, which means I lapped it up.If you want a fast-paced book which, to all intents and purposes, is a thriller which tells us about life and love, then this is the book for you.

I do not know Alexander McNabb, but like him I am a Middle East 'veteran' and long-term resident of Dubai. I am also a regular reader of McNabb's entertaining blog and through this have followed his trials and tribulations in completing Olives and getting it published. So I was delighted to be able to obtain my (Kindle) edition and dive in.Olives is at heart a love story, wrapped in a thriller and set against the backdrop of Palestinian-Israeli conflict in current day Jordan. So it is not surprising that agents and publishers struggled to pigeon-hole it and I do worry (as a marketing man) where it will find its 'target market'. Which is a shame as it is an excellent read and deserves a wide audience.The main character is Paul Stokes, a journalist for a contract publisher who is sent to work on an in-house magazine for a Ministry in Jordan (McNabb understands contract publishing from his day job and, while it plays only a minor role in the story, writes well about it). He falls in love with a Palestinian colleague, Aisha, who is a member of a powerful business family. Both main characters are very convincingly portrayed - I fell in love with Aisha myself! The story is told in the first person from Stokes' point of view, which presents the challenge of maintaining a consistent 'voice' for the character, but McNabb manages this with aplomb and only the occasional falter (e.g. Stokes is a Middle East neophyte but unhesitatingly identifies a teaboy in a Jordanian factory as Egyptian). I found the secondary characters to be a little less convincing, and the Scandinavian neighbour Lars verges on a stereotype, but this in no way impaired my enjoyment. Stokes is blackmailed into co-operating with a British intelligence officer who is trying to influence the outcome of bidding for a water privatisation project against Aisha's family and so is pulled into a 'web of intrique' (to use a cliche that McNabb himself would avoid like the plague!). Stokes is never quite sure who is telling him the truth and McNabb twists the reader's sympathies one way and then the other right up to the shocking denouement. The Jordanian background is described in rich detail and McNabb clearly knows the country well, although I did feel that he occasionally assumed too much knowledge of Arabic mores for the casual (i.e. not Middle East based) reader. But these are minor quibbles indeed.All in all, this is a terrific first (published) novel. I read 'Olives' soon after finishing 'Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet' (to which it bears certain similarities - love story, thriller, strange land) and enjoyed it every bit as much. Which is praise indeed.

Another well plotted book. A beautiful Arab novel against the backdrop of Middle Eastern politics.The romance between the lead characters is at the heart of the book.Lynch is the intelligence operative who along with the Israeli’s manipulate events to their satisfaction, whilst everyone else pays the price.

I have been waiting patiently for Alex's first novel to come into published form and the wait was worth it. I tend to have little time and little patience if the story is not progressing quickly enough, but this did not occur with Olives. The characters were interesting and exciting and I wanted to know their story. Despite living in the middle east for many years the political aspect of the novel was interesting rather than preachy.My only gripe was that the ending was too fast to come but all in all a great first novel and I cannot wait for the next one to come out.

Great book, not what i expected, but a great read nonetheless.