On Arab memoirs, again: I just finished Riyad Ar-Rayyis' memoir. This former journalist turned publisher was a well-known Arab correspondent. He is the first roving correspondent in the Arab world, and was the first Arab journalist to cover (on the ground) the Vietnam war. His father was a successful publisher in Syria who edited Al-Qabas newspaper until the Ba`thist lousy nationalization (the Ba`thist version of nationalization was lousy and not nationalization per se) came to Syria. In the 1960s, when the Ba`thists began their nationalizations in earnest, they would open the phone book and whichever business had the word "company" was nationalized. They did not know that even small grocers in Lebanon and Syria like big fancy names. Even small shops in villages, would sometimes be named "Abu Hasan Export and Import Trading Company". The memoir is melancholic, representing the frustrations of a dynamic journalist who wanted to break through the world of Arab censorship and oil publishing but largely failed. He made important contributions especially in his short-lived An-Naqid magazine which published very critical and daring articles against Islamic fundamentalism, and Rafiq Hariri-yes, that Rafiq Hariri--banned the magazine and wanted to put Rayyis in jail to please his Saudi masters--back then, the King permitted, nay encouraged, Lebanese kissing of his hands. Rayyis also was persecuted by Hariri and the obscurantist Sunni mufti for publishing the classics of Arab erotica, including the Perfumed Garden. Riyad AR-Rayyis became one of the best and most active publishing houses in the region, although I heard that Oman's Sultan Qabus supported Rayyis, but I don't know. I met Rayyis once when we discussed the project (of Habash biography) and I thought that he was hilarious and very interesting. His memoir was reserved and held back; he did not want to break all ties, I felt. He would criticize right-wing publisher Ghassan Tuwayni and would then praise him, and on and on. His book is a melancholic chronicle of the sad world of contemporary Arab journalism, and the effects of Arab oil. Crude oil was the real editor of the Arab press, said Rayyis--I think it was Rayyis who said that.