...of this book written by Philip L. Fradkin in the San Francisco Chronicle lead me to Stegner's work. Fradkin's article was not actually about the CONTENT of the book so much as the circumstances surrounding its commissioning and publication. The conclusion is stated in his review's title: that the work should have stayed "hidden", that is, not published at all, and that would have been a real tragedy.

The circumstances surrounding the work's publications are covered quite well by Thomas W. Lippman in a Foreword to the work. It is clear that Stegner was paid by the corporate predecessor to ARAMCO to write an account of the first days of oil exploration in the Kingdom. It is also clear that certain "politically sensitive" portions of his work were revised or deleted, and that his consent to this process was obtained. Like many others, I would love to have read the unexpurgated version, but the only choice is the one available, with some "punches pulled," some "sensitivities" glossed over. Ah, if there were only similar type Forewords that explained the background and biases of the numerous "Saudi-bashing" books that have been published.

In reading this book I could not help think of Edgar Snow's "A Journey to the Beginning." Snow was fresh out of journalism school, went to China for a short period, but stayed over 13 years, and in the process met, and later portrayed the creators of modern China, Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En Lai. Snow's work remains essential if one is to understand one of the most important countries in the world today. Stegner's circumstances were considerably different than Snow's, but he too had unique access, and produced a portrait of some of the characters who "were attendants at the birth of a world." (page 151). There are the delightful descriptive nuggets of a great writer, such as "...he saw all the stigmata of great hurry, great expansion, the pipeline heading our for Ras Tanura..." Stegner's assessments and conclusions concerning one of the more contentious relationships in the world today, between the United States and the very heartland of oil and Islam, Saudi Arabia is worthy of reflection and consideration: "... which is the one consistently disseminated by hostile propagandists, reflects one aspect of the emergent unrest that has turned much of the Arab world away from the United States. It must be challenged, for unwilling as a democracy may be to take its own side in an argument, and meekly as it may believe the worst interpretations of its own motives, American oil development in the Middle East has been, all things considered, responsible and fair." (Introduction xxv)

I read Stegner's work immediately after having read the "flip side" of these momentous events, one Saudi's account of the creation of ARAMCO, AbdelRahman Munif's "Cities of Salt." Both works are essential for understanding one of the most important relationships in the world today - and it would be a real tragedy if either were suppressed, as Fradkin advocates in the case of "Discovery!" Suppressing books should be something that "other countries do," not the United States.

Stegner does an incredible job of encapsulating Saudi-US history by covering a decade in these few hundred pages. His history of the region is peppered with both mundane facts and figures and in-depth characterizations that are part of Stegner's legacy. The author also focuses interestingly on the details of oil exploration and drilling and spends almost an entire chapter on how the men of the oil camp eventually learned how to cap a broken oil well that had caught fire and killed several people.

He also characterizes the people of the time in his descriptive literary way. From the college graduate men trekking through the deserts with their Bedouin guides to the wildcatters - blue collar American men experienced in oil drilling, to the King, royal family, Bedouins and unfamiliar culture and religion of Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.

What is most remarkable about the book is that it forces the reader to accept the idea that the men and women involved in Saudi Arabia's modern historical beginnings were hardworking, trusting, culturally sensitive, family-oriented people whose goal was the mutually beneficial cooperation of two peoples with very little in common.

It is easy to find any book purporting to be a "true" history of the "evil" American oil corporations and their insidious inner dealings with the Al-Saud family on any shelf of a bookstore or college classroom today, particularly after the US's frontpage "failures" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iran.

It is difficult to take such portrayals at face value without seeing their uninformed emotionally charged and frankly mainstream political agenda with its tongue in cheek references.

Drilled into everyone's base emotions today are the binary slogans: Oil company = bad. Capitalism = bad. USA involvement in the Middle East = bad. Unfortunately these statements are all put to shame under the deft hands of Wallace Stegner, whose book was written over 40 years ago.

The ease in accepting the search for Arabian oil as a well-intentioned benign project that can actually be a force of advancement (vs. exploitation say) is borne out of Stegner's careful and emotional portrayals of the personal lives of the people involved. In that small amount of space the reader is forced to reconcile his or her politics on a grand generalistic level and confront the reality of the personal space.

In accepting Stegner's vision the reader must confront his or her own political generalizations about the world and must accept it as a much more complicated beast than some simplistic pedantry regarding good vs. evil. The beauty in the author's writing is his ability to paint this complex vision of two worlds on a collision course with history in such an accessible and poetic manner, yet one which indeed fleshes out this complexity and innocence.

America and the Middle East. Who would have thought our country's future would ever be so linked to events in that troubled region? Our children's lives, our grandchildren's prosperity, our national reputation at risk?
But there was a time when Americans were welcomed and respected in the Middle East. More than 50 years ago, the late Wallace Stegner wrote about the bigger-than-life adventures of Americans involved in the pioneering search for oil in the desert frontiers of Arabia, just before and during WWII. The first U.S. edition of this book by the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist is a welcome reminder that ordinary, open-minded, hard-working Americans do have the know-how to negotiate, work through differences, cooperate and partner sucessfully with people of another culture for our mutual benefit. And in "Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil", Stegner manages to gift us with this valuable lesson from America's and Arabia's shared history in a colorful, witty and exciting tale that reads like a novel.

I enjoy very much this book that presents, well documented, all the difficulties and problems faced by the group of geologist and engineers, looking for oil, who did the initial contract, exploration and evaluations in Saudi Arabia, and the efforts and ingenuity used to solve them. An excellent consultation book for earth scientists and studious of the oil industry.

This is not a book for staid historians or energy policy wonks. Wallace Stegner's Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil is a real life adventure chronicle casting nomads, royalty, entrepreneurs and diplomats against a backdrop of the past century's most significant resource development. And were lucky it's been under wraps until now, when we can use it as a lens with which to view the next big turn in energy.

This book gives a very interesting account of the hurdles the early oil men encountered in the middle east and how they overcame them with ingenuity, perseverance and charm. It's very well written, at the same time both interesting and informative.

I got this as a gift, and I loved it. Even though I like Stegner, this isn't something I would have picked for myself, but the writing and the story had me hooked from early on. I just lent it to a friend, and so far he's giving it two thumbs up as well. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good, well-written story - even if history isn't your genre of choice.