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Anathema on Foreigners. Tampering with history, Novelist Schiemer brings his officers' revolt to a bad end, and with it Dirk's romance. The bloody mob riots that result in the burning of Shepheard's Hotel lead Major Khaled and a few other hothead officers to try an overnight coup. Dirk is jailed briefly and ordered to leave the country. When Aziza and clan hear of his disgrace, he gets an even quicker brushoff. As Aziza screams her parting words, they seem almost like an Egyptian anathema on all foreigners: "Son of a dog! I'll find an Egyptian ten times better than you!"
Author Schiemer sometimes clumps through his plot in Hollywooden shoes, but redeems himself by capturing the sights and sounds and smells of Egypt with the freshness of a documentary filmed on location. Like Paul Bowles's more accomplished novel, The Spider's House, set in French Morocco, The Cry of the Kite is a blend of the harsh and the exotic, and an entertainingly readable way of catching up on one's global homework.