Dark Desert Hot River is a study of the historical background of the Gulf War, starting with T. E. Lawrence and the development of British interests in the Middle East, leading to the emergence of the Ba’ath Party in Iraq and the rise of Saddam Hussein. The long essay on Lawrence is marbled with unexpected “connections”—vignettes of E. M. Forster, Marcel Proust, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Roger Casement, all in some way connected with Lawrence. The war journal details the six months leading up to the war and includes a picture of modern Arabia, underground gay life in the Middle East, with reports on the military situation up to the time of the author’s evacuation. Waiting out the war, the author travels to Egypt and to India—areas affected by the conflict but in many ways oblivious of it. The visits to the great monuments of Luxor, Khajuraho, Puri, travels to Bombay and Goa, are punctuated by erotic incidents with fellahin, felluca boys, adolescent draymen, young Dravidian sailors, Shiva boys and beach freaks.
