Having just reviewed its predecessor, taking place around 1979, "Among the Believers," I thought that this, from Naipaul's follow-up to not only Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Malaysia in the early '90s but some of those he interviewed in his first travels, would pull me in deeper. As he mentions, he tried to listen to the stories of those he encountered, more than analyzing the shifts to Muslim belief and Islamic power. These, as he reiterates, leave these Middle Eastern and "South Asian" (the latter term not yet in vogue outside the Commonwealth when he penned these books) adepts cut off from their own morals and tradition, to elevate Arab icons, sites and language above their own way.

That lesson unfolds in narratives of militants, peasants, entrepreneurs, and politicians. It's not very interesting, unfortunately. My highlights this go-around tally fewer. The insights are less arresting.

It's dispiriting to grasp the decline of Iran and Pakistan under their militaries and mullahs. And to see the devastation wreaked across the Malay and Javanese domains. But I can't say that I benefited from a lot I wouldn't have generally grasped in shorter pieces. Naipaul's skill is never absent when he summons his perspicacious acumen to apply to geopolitical change and psychological impacts on fragile mentalities, family ties, and personal ambitions thwarted by maturity, oppression, inequality and fervor. However, this isn't as highly ranked as his Indian trilogy, charting similar paths therein.

Naipaul has an amazing ability to get people to reveal intimate details of their life stories - and then to thread the stories together to reveal deeper truths about a particular society. The section on Indonesia (where I live) was good, but the sections on Iran and Pakistan were particularly thought provoking and kept me reading late into the night.