MUHAMMAD Abdullah Attar’s latest novel, “A Tear Drop on the Iceberg,” portrays the feverish journeys of a young Saudi in his desperate search for ways to soothe the pains of an unfulfilled love and to find a healing balm for a heart battered by shocking upheavals in his love life.

After his schooling in Damascus, Khalid, the hero of the story, continues his education at Beirut University where he first meets his cousin Ayeda. It is a turning point in his life. They are mutually attracted and soon realize that they are meant for each other. Soon his heart is broken when he learns that her father plans to marry her off to a rich but dissolute young man. She does not have the strength to challenge her parents and break loose from the grip of traditions to go with her lover. Depressed and unable to cope with the realities, Khalid leaves Beirut for London and Switzerland and later to the United States.

Constantly traveling and devoting his time to academic pursuits, he manages to forget his painful past. Moreover, he succeeds in developing a special attachment to an American girl, Ann, his colleague in London. His relations with her soon develop into a profound love and eventual marriage followed by her embracing Islam. However, calamities seem to follow him wherever he goes for he is shocked out of his happiness following the birth of their son by Ann’s sudden death. Ann’s mother Jacqueline, who also embraces Islam, looks after the baby.

Finding it impossible to continue living in London, associated as it is with Ann’s memories he soon leaves for the United States where he again finds refuge in academic pursuits. He completes his doctoral thesis and teaches at a university, writing articles and books defending Islam against the Zionist anti-Islamic propaganda.

During his busy life in the US, he is drawn to a Lebanese student, Hind. Their friendship soon develops into a powerful love affair. However, she refuses to marry him before getting her parents’ consent.

Deciding to spend his vacation in Saudi Arabia, one day he comes across Ayeda, his first love. She confesses to him that her love for him has only intensified as the years passed and now she is willing to get a divorce from her present husband, whom she cannot love, and marry Khalid if only he gives the green signal. He loses all his peace of mind because he still loves Ayeda but not as passionately as before. The passing years have healed old wounds. Yet the smoldering embers of his love have the potential of becoming a wildfire.

On the other hand, Hind is trying to persuade her parents to agree to the marriage with him. He cannot think of abandoning Hind at this point.

While flying back to the US, he has a stopover at Beirut where he accidentally meets with an old friend of his father’s. The friend invites him to a dinner where he has a surprise meeting with Hind. She happens to be the daughter of his father’s friend. Khalid tells him his desire to marry her and indeed, they marry.

They newly-weds return to the US where they have a very happy married life. Years pass in the course of which two children are born.

Several things happen during this time. Ayeda’s husband is killed in a plane crash in Switzerland and she lets Khalid know again that she is still waiting for him. In the meantime, Hind grows nostalgic and wants to visit her parents in Beirut. Khalid cannot allow her to travel at this time to Lebanon where an ugly civil war is raging. Finally, he agrees to risk a journey as she is bent on going there. His worst fears become real. She and the children are caught in a cross-fire between the warring factions. He returns to the Kingdom burdened by the memories of his tragic love but perhaps sustained by a feeble flicker of hope.

The hope is realized, for Ayeda is waiting there to welcome him. Thus the story comes to an end.

This typical melodrama is fit for a film or TV serial as it does not throw any complex riddles or challenge the reader.

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WOMEN often squeeze themselves into their tight clothes to appear slim, under the illusion that men can be deceived with such tricks. Women, of course, are free to do what pleases them. Even where they are not so free, nobody curtails their freedom to choose the type of dress they feel is most flattering.

However, the British government has another view on the matter of clothing. For the government, female dress is a national issue linked to health, employment, eating habits and the dress-making industry. The government’s view, apparently, is that since British women’s weight has risen considerably, the issue should be tackled in the open and not to be tucked under their tight-fitting clothes.

The government has taken a bold step by convening a meeting of 100 scientists to discuss the issue and recruited 14,000 volunteers in an experiment aimed at redefining the contours of the British female body. It has even allocated enough money for the study. The data provided by the volunteers will be the basis of new fashion design in keeping with the weight and shape of the average female today.

The scientists will also discuss ways to reconstruct the traditional food habits and tastes in British homes. They recommend the adoption of new eating habits that would be sustaining and nourishing, yet would keep weight down.

What would be interesting to know is what view the dress manufacturers in the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia, have about the changing dress style and the problems of size and weight in their own countries.