THE GIRLS OF RIYADH

Last week I read another marvelous novel. The novel which was based on true story. Well, I guessed. Because the novel mentioned it. GIRLS OF RIYADH is being referred to as "Saudi Arabian-style of S** and the City". A secret look into the lives of professional women as they search for love. But this love story is set in the conservatively Islamic Riyadh as opposed to the melting pot of Manhattan. Riyadh girls dance, eat McDonald's and shop, but only with each other. Their link to the male world is through cell phones and online chat rooms, and even then they are not allowed to choose with whom they can spend the rest of their lives.

Rajaa Alsanea's book follows the storylines of four fictional women, which is a style found in many contemporary novels. In all of these books, four women's lives interchange throughout the pages. Some are more conservative, some are more liberal, some are bold, some are shy, but all represent different faculties of the feminine experience. When each set of four is taken as a whole, the female reader is more apt to be able to identify with at least one of the characters.

In this particular novel, Gamrah is the most conservative, Sadeem is the hopeless romantic, Michelle brazenly questions her society's restrictions, and Lamees is the one who succeeds in getting exactly what she wants. At first it's hard to keep the characters, and their various love interests, straight. But as time goes on and the characteristics of the individual personalities are revealed, their intertwining story becomes clear and fascinating.

What makes this so much different from the chick-lit that has come before is the setting. Alsanea holds her own as a writer, but her background is what sets her apart. As Americans we are generally unfamiliar with the goings-on of the Saudi Arabian elite. Even some of the elite themselves aren't very familiar with what goes on behind closed doors, or at least they aren't open to talk about it freely. Thus, while S**AND THE CITY blazed a trail for American women to be open about s**, GIRLS OF RIYADH blazed a trail for not just openness about s** but about love, religion and the limitations presented by family and society.

The only thing that feels disjointed about GIRLS OF RIYADH is the unnamed narrator, who tells the story about her friends through emails sent out to a mailing list every Friday after prayers. The narrator doesn't seem to serve much purpose, minus responding to hate mail and praise that she receives after every post. It is as if Alsanea wants to show how controversial her book is to someone who might question that fact, but the story alone educates the reader as to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Instead, the narrator's responses seem only to break the pattern of the story itself and provide an unwanted interruption to its flow.

And I amazed with the story. And I guessed, there is undercover Saudi Arabian girl. Yeah..........

Free Template Blogger collection template Hot Deals SEO