Picture in the Sand

The core of this story was interesting, but some of the execution was lacking. For starters, Picture in the Sand starts with a frame narrative that I hated. College graduate Alex has been indoctrinated into a terrorist cell and he is emailing his grandfather about how his family will never find him. His grandfather had randomly suspected this might be a problem way back when Alex was younger and decided to write his life story -which he has never told anybody, even his son, Alex's father- and just kept on the off chance it would one day be relevant exactly to Alex's life. Sure.

I don't love this, but to get a story going, sure. But what I really didn't like is every single email from Alex throughout this story. What a one note, unrealistic, mouthpiece of a “character”. So Alex's grandfather emails him the file for the book, and every few pages, Alex stops reading to email his grandpa again about what he's read so far. It's THE DUMBEST EMAILS. I would have much rathered little interludes where Alex just thinks about what he's read before, but his emails are the worst part of this book. It'll be like:
actual story “so I met a girl, and she was beautiful.”
-email “wait, so this is grandma? I totally understand why you think you wanted to tell me this, but I am still not coming back, you'll never see me again, take care of yourself, I'll still read more when I have time though.
~three more pages take place, another email ~

I'm exaggerating but it's hard to explain just how jarring and ridiculous I found these emails. And the past-Grandfather story is supposed to be teaching Alex lessons, and so we get emails about his life too, and...it's just a very unnuanced portrayal of why people join terrorist groups. It's basically “white rich people are bad...wait, maybe they aren't ~all~ bad?!”

Anyway, onto the actual meat of the story. It was decent. It revolves around a film shoot in Egypt from the film Ten Commandments, Grandpa Ali is hired to work on the film and has dreams of being a successful actor. He sees Yul Brenner and Charles Heston and all these big movie stars and is swept away in the magic. But his brother recruits him into a terrorist sect that wants to use the spotlight of the big film to do something to make a statement. Ali feels drawn to his brother's cause, but doesn't want to make trouble. The crux of this story is good, although I think this section of the book could have used another ~50~ pages, because the book was pretty short. The ending of the book was okay, but I was left wanting a bit more from it all.

I switched between audio and physical and the audiobook was very good. I probably would have DNF'd otherwise.

I finished reading Picture in the sand by Peter Blauner and here is my review.

Alex has it all. The family, an Ivy league college acceptance but after a misunderstanding with the FBI, a misunderstanding that was racially motivated, Alex feels disenchanted with the Egyptian-American dream and suddenly disappears from his home leaving a note behind. He has run off to become part of a holy war.... A war his grandfather knows more about than he lets on.

Alex, refusing all contact with his family, does answer an email from his grandfather and in it, his grandfather weaves the story of his own life and what led up to him living in America. A story of a young man with a dream of working in motion pictures and it all starts on the set of the Ten commandments.... During a time in Egypt where the people revolted against their King but a new dictator took the reins instead...

A story so compelling and dangerous that spans 50 years yet the story is eerily similar.

I finished this book a few weeks ago and I got the worst writer's block ever. I don't usually not have the words to write a review but this book left me speechless. The writing was so hypnotically beautiful that I read the whole thing in one sitting. I loved how the story was told from the grandfather's perspective and Alex came through via the emails he sent to his grandfather.

Alex literally left because he felt America had disrespected his family and that the reason for it was because they tried to assimilate to a place that would never accept them. He gets himself into a situation he can't understand and doesn't fully appreciate the trouble he is in but his grandfather sharing his story helps him immensely.

The story made me cry so hard at the end. I felt truly invested in Ali during his time in Egypt as a young man and the tale he weaves of meeting Mona and landing a job on a real movie set in hopes that one day, he can move to the land where dreams come true. Egypt is in upheaval and Ali spends his time trying to navigate his precarious position between the Americas filming and the Egyptian activists that want to take their country back by any means necessary. You can truly feel his fear for his grandson for getting himself into the predicament he is in.

Loved the descriptions of Egypt but I am biased because I am a lover of Cairo and one day I will make it back there again. The connection between the two men was tangible and raw which I found so enchanting and relatable.

This book ticked every box for me and it is definitely a book I would reread again one day.

5 stars. If you are looking for an intergenerational book then look no further because it really will hit you in places you didn't know you had.

Thank you St Martin's Press for sending me my review copy!