0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 5 out of 5
A Little Review, Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Having read a few books about T.E.Lawrence and his own tome I found Michael Asher's book easily the most enjoyable of the lot. Any man who took the time to physically visit the routes Lawrence (claims) to have made, has something to say. A very worthwhile book.

Sands of Death: An Epic Tale of Massacre, Cannibalism, and Survival in the Sahara

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 4 out of 5
Lawrence: the Eccentric, Uncrowned King of Arabia, Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Whether or not you truly want to delve into the life of Lawrence of Arabia and this particular biography depends, I think, on whether you want to preserve the dynamic image of him as portrayed in the movie Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean or want to dig deeper into the eccentric world of the real T.E. Lawrence. I myself am no Lawrence scholar and have something akin to a passing interest in him as a sort of mythological figure like Wyatt Earp or Daniel Boone. This particular book was picked up randomly at a library book sale for a quarter to supplement my knowledge of T.E. Lawrence beyond the movie and to help me prepare to read his memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which I've heard is quite literary and even difficult without a bit of background on Lawrence and the Arab revolt.

As a writer and a scholar, Asher is reasonably capable and has adequate credentials to tell his tale. What has been mentioned in other reviews and which I'll echo here is that he unfortunately wants to interrupt the flow of Lawrence's biography by interjecting his first-person accounts of his travels around the same areas Lawrence traveled. Although this story-telling technique doesn't ruin the book, it slows down the pace and adds little if anything the reader needs or wants to know. To me, it serves as an annoying distraction. It's typical also for Asher to want to pick apart the mind of T.E. Lawrence and give some debatable theories about the motives behind Lawrence's actions. Certainly, Asher appears to do his homework and his assumptions about Lawrence seem well supported, but what is hard to take is the unequivocal nature of Asher's assertions. He himself never doubts his assumptions.

However, if the reader can accept that Asher's views are valid, then the reader should also be prepared to discover that Lawrence was more than a little eccentric, something bound to undermine the beautiful myth around the man. Aside from the details given about Lawrence's truly weird need for self-debasement in the form of flagellation as well as his decision to spend his adult life after Arabia as an enlisted man in the military, what bothered me most about Lawrence as discussed by Asher was his tendency to play with facts, an inclination apparently noted by other biographers. Given the reality that reality is often subjective, I do like to know the facts as accurately as they can be reported. Apparently, Lawrence seems to have appreciated the value of propaganda and chose to exploit it to achieve his ends, which are not terribly clear. Therefore, it's hard to know the whole truth about what happened during the Arab revolt, and Asher finds numerous holes in Lawrence's story. I'm happy to report that Asher does make clear that Lawrence accomplished much of what he claims to have accomplished, so Lawrence was indeed a dynamic fellow and the right person at the right time to do what he did, but he also makes clear that there are bizarre, masochistic motives that drive Lawrence. Therefore, if you want to truly know the man behind the myth, read on. If you want to preserve a myth, watch the movie, and then read an encyclopedia for broad details about Lawrence's life and the Arab revolt.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 3 out of 5
A Good Introduction, Thursday, July 13, 2006

I am by no means a Lawrence scholar. I picked the book up at a discount because at the time I was preparing for a deployment to Iraq and was reading everything I could on the recent history of the Middle East. I found the book well written and fascinating. Historicaly accurate? Who knows? But it was a great introduction to a Western icon closely tied with the rise of the Saudi kingdom and the current map of the Middle East. After reading this I read Lawrence's own "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and who knows what the absolute truth was regarding Lawrence and his exploits. All I know is that this book made for a good reading. I appreciated Asher's insights into Arabic culture and customs. Certainly as we struggle to win the "hearts and minds" of the people in Iraq, any scholarship that helps us to understand how a Westerner can succesfully interact with the Arab peaple is a welcome read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 3 out of 5
An uneven book about a fascinating man, Thursday, July 31, 2003

This is a large and invovled biography of T E Lawrence, written by an author who starts out as an admirer, and remains so to the end, though to a much lesser degree.

Though there is a lot of information about the battles in the desert, i found this book most interesting when the author explores Lawrence's psyche and personality, and attempts (not always successfully or believably) at the truth behind the myth. He tests a lot of the claims about the great man, and mainly finds them wanting. This book is especially strong when it admits that it comes to no definate conclusion - rather, the author presents the facts as he sees them and lets the reader decide.

This book is probably one of the better Lawrence biographies out there at the moment (though i would not say nearly the best) as it delves into the contradictions of the man and the myuth, and isn't afraid to 'pull punches' and not make excuses for the more troubling aspects of Lawrence's personality.

I finished this book wondering why such a genius felt compelled to fabricate so much about his life, but also seeing him as more ' three-dimensional' than the common myth.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 2 out of 5
Lawrence deserves much better, Tuesday, February 18, 2003

This book fails in many ways. The reason it gets 2 stars instead of one is that it's hard to discuss Lawrence without some fascinating things coming through.

First, Asher makes himelf part of the biography. He discusses his own personal travels in a manner that add absolutely nothing to the reader's understanding. The final paragraph of the book begins with "I." Further, the frequency and manner in which he interjects himself in the book is highly annoying.

Second, there are numerous factual problems with the book. At one point Asher refers to Turks shooting their rifles at Bedu who are over two miles away. Even a trained sniper with modern equipment wouldn't take that shot. Further, his description of Lt. Junor's plane crash is at odds with other accounts. Asher says the plane erupted in flames even though there are published photos of the crashed plane that show otherwise. Lastly on this point, Asher doesn't use Tunbridge's writings on Lawrence's days in the RAF as reference material. It's a surprising omission.

Third, as other reviewers noted, Asher writes extensively about Lawrence's psyche. This would be sensible if Asher was either trained in psychology or referenced studies by those who are; unfortunately, neither is the case. Instead there are a few bibliographical references to works on psychology, but none specific to Lawrence. Asher's vehement discussion of Lawrence's mother makes the reader wonder whether the author or the subject had the greater maternal relationship issues.

Fourth, is Asher's style, or more accurately, styles. At times he uses the contemporary jargon of British soldiers, whereas at other points he writes in a very stilted manner adding unnecessary Latin phrases to the text. His best writing is when he's providing background or contextual material such as the discussion of British military actions elsewhere in WWI.

Lawrence was one of the most fascinating personalities of the 20th century. He deserves a much better biography.