es on one young Palestinian man whose lover has been killed by Jewish terrorists. This makes Jabra's and Dammaj's novels alike in their focus on one individual, rather than the town of Harran which actually serves as the focus of Munif's novel. That town---along with the village of Wadi al-Uyoun---personify the culture threatened and radically altered by the coming of the Americans. It is not that Munif is not concerned with the individuals and families of the little Arab community, for he certainly is, portraying their suffering with great feeling and detail. However, Harran and Wadi al-Uyoun just as importantly serve as the embodiment of the culture at risk. It is not merely a few Arab individuals whose existence is threatened, but an entire culture, and that is what Munif is most concerned with.
Nevertheless, the three books are far more alike than different from one another. Again, they all deal with cultural disruption and political and socioeconomic inequities and the impact of that disruption and those inequities on individual human beings. Each author seeks to portray these inequities as a way to protest against them and to draw out the reader's rage against them and compassion for the victims. The three authors' books together formulate a complete picture of the Arab dilemma in the modern world. Munif's novel tells the story of what happens to a small, poor,
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