Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
This novel provides a view into life inside Saudi Arabia for a select group of upper class women in their twenties. Banned in Saudi Arabia, the work follows the lives of four friends and their search for love and marriage. Ms. Alsanea is in her twenties herself and this is her first novel.
The novel is presented as a weekly series of emails in what seemed to be an interpretation of the Sex and the City format. The narrator “fluffs her hair” and puts on her bright red lipstick before telling her tales.
The four young women, Sadeem, Gamrah, Michelle and Lamees, abide in the highest echelons of society and have every material advantage, but struggle to reconcile their Western notions of romantic love with the strict society and culture they abide in. While alluding to issues of religiosity and the status of women, the work never overtly attacks Saudi men or the society.
The book is fast paced and kept my attention, but I did find some of the writing a bit immature and more suited to a soap opera than a work of serious fiction. These women, with their designer name-dropping, and obsession with the opposite sex, came across as superficial at times. Nevertheless, it is an interesting look into life in Saudi Arabia, and provides an alternative view of the region.
More information from Amazon: Girls of Riyadh: A Novel
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