Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★☆ (4.2/5)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction, Epistolary Novel

Book Review:
Rajaa Alsanea's ''Girls of Riyadh'' is a fascinating and eye-opening read, a novel that pulls back the veil on a world that is often hidden from view. It's a ''Sex and the City'' for Saudi Arabia, but with much higher stakes and a much deeper sense of cultural tension. The novel is structured as a series of emails sent to an internet mailing list by a woman who calls herself ''Seereh.'' She tells the stories of four young women from Riyadh's elite families: Gamrah, who marries a man who immediately leaves her; Sadeem, who longs for romantic love; Michelle, a half-Lebanese woman with a more liberal outlook; and Lamees, a medical student who is the most grounded of the group. Through their intertwined stories, Alsanea explores the immense pressure these women face. They are expected to be modern in some ways—educated, stylish, technologically savvy—but they are also bound by centuries-old traditions. They fall in love, but their marriages are often arranged. They have desires, but they must hide them. They drive fast cars and use cell phones, but they cannot live alone or date openly. The novel was banned in Saudi Arabia for its frank discussion of sex, love, and the challenges faced by women. And it's easy to see why. It doesn't condemn the culture, but it does expose its contradictions and the pain it can cause. The writing is sometimes a bit uneven (it's a debut novel), but the stories are so compelling and the world so vividly rendered that it's easy to forgive. ''Girls of Riyadh'' is a vital, important book that gives a voice to women who are rarely heard. It's a story about love, loss, and the struggle to find happiness in a world of constraints. A must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Middle Eastern culture.