This review actually combines two books on the same subject: the fall of the Egyptian dictatorship last year. It's about 1500 words long, so just a little bit longer than you are allowed for your assignment. Still, there are some useful lessons.
Notice, for example, how the first paragraph does not offer a thesis statement, but instead invites the reader into a particular mental space:
Autocracy has been one of the abiding themes of the Egyptian novelist Alaa Al Aswany’s bestselling books, which tend to culminate in confrontations between ordinary Egyptians and latter-day pharaohs. There was the Big Man in The Yacoubian Building who demanded a 25 per cent cut on the income of any big businessman who wanted to run for the Egyptian parliament. When one aspiring candidate dared to complain, the Big Man, speaking from behind a screen like the Wizard of Oz, explained the system with a scarcely veiled threat: “We protect you from the tax office, the insurance office, the safety standards office, the audit office and a thousand other offices that could bring your project to a halt and destroy you in a flash”. “The president” put in an appearance in the climax of Aswany’s second novel, Chicago. Bearing the smile he had decided twenty-five years earlier looked photogenic, with his jet-black dyed hair and face “covered with layers of fine makeup so he would appear younger in photographs”, the seventy-five-year-old president was described with such precision that Aswany did not have to mention Hosni Mubarak by name.This approach is probably too elusive for your assignment, but it is not necessarily bad form. It provides atmosphere instead of a litany of cold facts.
Only in the fourth paragraph do we get a basic summary of the first book being reviewed:
The essays are grouped into three sections: The Presidency and Succession; The People and Social Justice; and Free Speech and State Repression. Aswany deploys all his talents as a creative writer, inventing fictive dialogues and novel scenarios to get his point across. He rages against hypocrisy and defends the rights of women and minorities in Egypt. He is particularly sharp in recovering Islam from the hands of Islamist extremists. With his trademark signature line at the end of each of his columns, “Democracy is the solution”, he effectively trumps the Muslim Brothers, with their slogan “Islam is the solution”, reminding Western readers of the importance of secular, or at least non-Islamist, political activists in the Arab world. It was, after all, liberal reformers who spearheaded the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011.The author's transition from one book to the next includes information from outside both books, something you are welcome to incorporate into your review:
Recent polls in Egypt, taken since Mubarak’s overthrow, have highlighted the greater importance average Egyptians placed on economic grievances over political issues or human rights, in seeking the fall of the Mubarak regime. As Samer Soliman conclusively demonstrates in The Autumn of Dictatorship, his recent study of the political economy of Mubarak’s Egypt, the people were entirely right to be concerned about the parlous state of Egypt’s economy.The author also describes efficiently both the style of the writing and the thesis of the book in question:
While the academic tone of his book might put off general readers, Soliman’s thesis is simple and persuasive. Since the mid-1980s, Egypt has been living beyond its means. Reliant on rents from Suez Canal revenues, the state’s limited oil resources and foreign aid, Egypt has in recent years experienced a decline in these sources of revenue, resulting in a prolonged fiscal crisis that has left the country with large budget deficits and chronic indebtedness. The Mubarak regime responded to the rapid and steep decline in state revenues by increasingly authoritarian means.The conclusion does not really address the future of the Egyptian revolution but rather the nature of the publications under review:
Both Alaa al Aswany’s essays and Samer Soliman’s study reveal how much Western readers stand to gain from Arab scholarship. As the events of 2011 demonstrate the continued thirst for knowledge on a rapidly changing Arab world, it is to be hoped that more English and American publishers will commission important works of non-fiction from across the Arab world.There are many potential lessons from this review.
First, note the ways in which the reviewer condenses information so that not only are two books reviewed in 1500 words, but there is still room for a prosaic opening paragraph that does not introduce the thesis of the review. Obviously, a considerable amount of information from the books is being excluded by this review. However, the reviewer still manages to produce a coherent review with significant material from the books.
Second, the style of the writing and the audiences for these books are noted but only briefly.
Third, the conclusion is moderate. Do not feel as though you have to make some grand pronouncement about the IT industry, Google, or the future of computers, in your review.
Of course, the best practice for learning to write comes from reading. Have a look at some other reviews on the above website.
