{"id":5186,"date":"2009-12-03T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=5186"},"modified":"2009-11-30T17:27:14","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T23:27:14","slug":"right-of-thirst-by-frank-huyler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/right-of-thirst-by-frank-huyler\/","title":{"rendered":"Right of Thirst by Frank Huyler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"right<\/a>After\u00a0his wife’s death,\u00a0successful cardiologist Charles Anderson volunteers to assist with earthquake relief in an unnamed and impoverished Islamic country in Right of Thirst<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0At the relief camp, he joins\u00a0a young German woman doing DNA research\u00a0as well as a local\u00a0soldier assigned to them, presumably\u00a0because he speaks excellent English.\u00a0 Though they wait patiently and try to keep busy\u00a0preparing,\u00a0the\u00a0refugees\u00a0never come.\u00a0\u00a0 However, the volunteers\u00a0do visit a local village where they find a young girl with a mangled foot, which Charles\u00a0later amputates.\u00a0 This scene is particularly credible, perhaps because the author is\u00a0himself an\u00a0emergency-room physician.<\/p>\n

The fact that the author, Frank\u00a0\u00a0Huyler,\u00a0has also lived extensively abroad (including\u00a0Iran, Brazil, Japan and\u00a0\u00a0the U.K.)\u00a0\u00a0seems to\u00a0serve him well in\u00a0describing cultural differences.\u00a0\u00a0For example, one\u00a0character explains that\u00a0giving water to travelers is one of oldest laws in their religion. They call it the “right of thirst”, and that is\u00a0why\u00a0offering\u00a0tea is an obligation, not simply a social pleasantry.<\/p>\n

The book’s plot takes a sudden turn when artillery fire is heard along the country’s\u00a0border. \u00a0It’s assumed that spies have mistaken the relief tents for army ones, so a quick\u00a0escape is planned for the relief workers, traversing\u00a0 dangerous mountainous\u00a0terrain.\u00a0\u00a0A tragic accident occurs, further tainting the doctor’s good-will\u00a0expedition.\u00a0 This is a book that will make you think; \u00a0it may\u00a0also make you a bit sad, or perhaps it just might make you question\u00a0relief efforts in general.\u00a0 It also qualifies as a good choice for a book discussion group as there are ample opportunities for opposing viewpoints, such as the doctor’s role in his wife’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After\u00a0his wife’s death,\u00a0successful cardiologist Charles Anderson volunteers to assist with earthquake relief in an unnamed and impoverished Islamic country in Right of Thirst.\u00a0\u00a0At the relief camp, he joins\u00a0a young German woman doing DNA research\u00a0as well as a local\u00a0soldier assigned to them, presumably\u00a0because he speaks excellent English.\u00a0 Though they wait patiently[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[933,935,934],"class_list":["post-5186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-refugees","tag-relief-efforts","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-1lE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5186"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5194,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5186\/revisions\/5194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}