Gretchen McCullough

Mesmerizing storytelling.

Shahrazad’s Gift is a collection of related stories by Gretchen McCullough, the author of Confessions of a Knight Errant . It delivers with mesmerizing storytelling tales of an insider’s view of Cairo, Egypt, and several residents. The stories vary, but each paints a picture of the human condition.

The main characters of the selections are a diverse group, and some are surprising and off-beat. While some tales boast locals, many feature foreigners in the city for work or study. One woman is a belly dancer, which is not an unusual profession for an entertainer in Egypt, I’m guessing, but this one is a foreigner named Batilda, who speaks with a British Manchester accent. Another, Keiko, is a Japanese visitor learning Arabic to teach businessmen when she returns home in a month to Japan.

Another striking characteristic of the non-locals featured is how much better off they are economically. Many have an unconscious air of privilege, which stands out even as they plan to do something nice for the maid.

One outstanding feature of all the stories is the vividness of the descriptions of the characters’ surroundings. The atmosphere is complete with sights, sounds, smells, and even weather, harmonizing into an immersive picture of life in Cairo.

I recommend SHARAZAD’S GIFT to fiction readers, especially those who like reading about a grittier slice of life.… (más)

A trans-world jaunt and a giggle of a story!

Confessions of a Knight Errant by Gretchen McCullough may have literary ties to Cervantes’s Don Quixote, but this more modern adventure story will surely tickle a funny bone or two rather than conjure up nightmares of high school English class. Cairo professor Dr. Gary Watson is the reborn Quixote tilting at his own version of windmills. His mission is to stop and reverse the pollution of the Nile River. However, when his expose drew unwanted attention to the wrong people, he was accused of uploading a computer virus to his publisher and wiping out all their manuscripts, including his own attempt at a thriller, Pure Water.

Wanted by Interpol, he flees Cairo with his pal, Kharalombos, also in Dutch with the powers that be, not once, but twice, and re-enters the US with a fake passport to hide out at a Christian girls camp near Schulenburg, Texas. From the camp’s owner, whom they helped get out of Cairo during a revolution, to the pint-sized privileged campers, Gary and Kharalombos become embroiled in one weird but amusing incident after another.

At 50, Gary is still often blithely unaware of his own role in getting himself in trouble. As time passes, he sees the light, but it remains somewhat dim. For me, this state made events all the more entertaining. Kharalombos loves the ladies, and the ladies love him, and that is the basis for much of his appeal and many of his mishaps. However, my favorite Kharalombos moment concerns his relationship with Dagmar. (Many pet owners, like myself, will relate!)

I enjoyed the various settings featured during the story, all described with a nuance that made me feel the location. I could well imagine Kharalombos’s homesickness for his colorful Cairo after a sojourn in south Texas during the summer. The real town of Schulenburg is known for a couple of things, but one item, in particular, relates to this story. The small German-founded city is the site of an annual sausage festival, and the flamboyant German-born camp owner, Gudrun Grunewald, repeatedly criticizes the quality of the sausage in her adopted home.

With a vivid array of personalities and players, trans-world settings, and a laugh-out-loud string of mishaps, many brought on by funnily ill-timed or poor choices, I recommend CONFESSIONS OF A KNIGHT ERRANT to readers looking for a light read that will keep entertaining with every page.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours.… (más)