Author: Brigitte Foulke

ISBN: 1413786375

In her Prologue, Brigitte Foulke author of Nile Cruise and Beyond mentions that her son calls her a lunatic, because he could not imagine that her story actually happened to her. However, as she states, her friends believe her story to be true, but many don’t understand why she can’t wipe out those eight years and move on like nothing happened.  

From its title to its conclusion, Brigitte Foulke’s Nile Cruise and Beyond is intended as a chronicle of events where the author invites her readers to share her harrowing experiences when she visited Egypt for the first time in 1996 and her mind-boggling obsession with a tour guide for the next eight years.

The story unfolds when Brigitte booked her first tour to Egypt with a German travel company, Titan Reisen. The trip comprised Cairo, a Nile Cruise and Luxor.  Events begin to take on a sour note when upon arriving at the Cairo airport there was some trepidation when the tour guide, who was to meet Brigitte, was late, however, her anxiety was soon relieved when someone by the name of “little Abdul” eventually makes his appearance and transports Brigitte and another fellow traveler, Hans, to their hotel. They were informed that in Luxor they would be meeting with another tour guide, Abdel Salem Ahmed or “Big Abdul,” who was employed by a company by the name of Cataract.

As we eventually learn, Big Abdul turns out to be quite a sleazy scoundrel, who Brigitte physically describes as a six foot four cross-eyed Nubian. He has a reputation of constantly molesting women during his tours. Not exactly someone you would want showing you the sights of a foreign land!

In fact, he even goes so far as raping Brigitte, although I must say that when one agrees to go to a stranger’s apartment who one hardly knows in a foreign country, anything is possible and you have to question one’s judgment.

Brigitte decides not to report the rape to the police, as she is afraid they would not believe her and she would be creating more trouble for herself. She further rationalizes that she didn’t believe Abdul lured her to his apartment to rape her but rather to talk to her in private pertaining to their confusing relationship. Supposedly, our Big Abdul comes from a well-to-do family and had received his university education in German.

Brigitte is also convinced that Big Abdul is caught up with the Mafia whom she thinks own Cataract and perhaps it is even involved in the drug trade with ties to prominent Egyptian government officials, although we never do receive any concrete evidence of these allegations.

Over the course of several years, Brigitte continues to be preoccupied with Big Abdul and is constantly trying to reach him either in person or via the telephone. She confesses that she loved Big Abdul and that there was never a proper closure and that is why she continues to pursue him.  Moreover, she is convinced that her telephone is bugged, that someone is stalking her, someone is tampering with her emails, and that there are strange “happenings” in her surroundings.

The problem I have with this book is twofold. Firstly, at four hundred and two pages, it is far too long with too much going on, and here is where a good editor would cut the fat from the bone reducing the story by a third.

Secondly, Brigitte tries to pack in all sorts of travelogue detail that perhaps may be interesting and compelling if you were writing a travel narrative, however, in this case it only distracts from the principle theme of the narrative-Brigitte’s obsessive love for Abdul.

The author may have considered honing and developing the principle theme the way we play around with the various photography software as Photoshop, clarifying, sharpening, forming shades of highlight and shadow, arranging the details so that the eye is continually drawn back to the center, by a variety of techniques.

Nonetheless, Brigitte does have a story to tell that will probably stimulate a great deal of second-guessing.  Moreover, I am sure many readers will question her lack of judgment and obsessive behavior, however, who are we to judge a person we never met?

The above review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Retired Title Attorney: Editor & Publisher of Bookpleasures. Here are  Norm Goldman's Reviews       

 To read Norm's Interview With Brigitte CLICK HERE