If you like a love story and mysterious cloak and dagger intrigue running side-by-side with each other, Tangier is the book for you. Tangier is an old city teeming with political unrest in the slums of Dradeb to the sodomite-influenced hi-jinks of the foreigners who lived in area of Tangier called the Mountain.
Hamid Ouazzant, who clawed his way out of Dradeb to become a police inspector in charge of foreigners is caught up in the lunacy of Tangier, and, in his own way aids and abets this lunacy and turmoil. He is determined to rid the city of the blatant homosexual play-for-pay industry. Hamid is so obsessively driven that there those who believe he is actually harming the city. Robin, his informant on homosexual activates is a flamboyant gossip column writer. The friendship between the two may be odd, but it is useful for them both. Then, of course there is Hamid's fascination with the beautiful Kalinka, who lives inside a cloud of opium, and is the oriental wife of a Russian shop owner. The husband is a suspected spy. His passion for Kalinka drives him as he tries to understand why this Russian is in Tangier.
Tangier is a book of excesses of power and moral decay. The contrast between the have's and the have not's are expertly drawn. It is during the hottest part of the summer when Ramadan begins and the city, with a little gentle persuasion from agitators puts their seething rage to practical use. Add to this furious anger, the custom of not drinking or eating during the daylight hours of Ramadan adds fuel to the hostility and tempers flare in the city. On the Mountain the foreigners outdo even themselves as they go about exploiting the city to their own perversion and taste. They throw extravagant parties even as the majority of the city, the Muslim population, swelters with no air conditioning and without food or even a drink of water during the daylight hours. There is, to quote a famous say, "A Gathering Storm."
The collective storm which is merging has many subtle and not so subtle warnings, which go unheeded as this brilliantly executed book come to its stirring conclusion. There are losers and winners in the aftermath of this storm, although the winners are not so clearly defined. That is because human nature, compassion, and respect must merge within each individual character's assessment of the powerful events which come to pass in the closing chapters. I have the highest regard for William Bayer as a writer which reaches from the pages and touches the readers in a way many cannot.
This book is out-of-print, but you can purchase it at the below link. Prices run from $0.63 to $153.92 . . .
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