Since I enjoy reading novels set in other countries, it was natural that “Girls of Riyadh” by Rajaa Alsanea (Penguin, 2007) caught my eye when I first saw it.  My interest was piqued further when I read in the inside flap that this novel “was released in Lebanon in Arabic in September of 2005.  The novel, recounting forbidden details about the private lives of four young women from Saudi Arabia’s upper classes, immediately became a sensation all over the Arab world”.  At the time, the author was only 24 years old and she practically became an overnight celebrity.  This novel even got banned in Saudi Arabia.

Then, when I added the title to  my LibraryThing , I saw it being compared to “Sex and the City”, and being “Arabic chick-lit”.  Having never watched an episode of “Sex and the City” (or much else of anything on TV), I can’t vouch for that comparison.  I occasionally read chick-lit, but not enough to compare it to the genre in general.  So, my thoughts and opinions on this book are based on the book alone, not compared to anything else.

First of all, I will say that “Girls of Riyadh” is a fast and relatively light read.  However, it goes deeper than the fact that there are four young and wealthy college-age women (some are attending college, some not) who have problems finding their own ”Mr. Right”. 

Each chapter starts with an anonymous female character telling stories about these four friends, via e-mails to an ever-growing subscriber list of an online yahoo group.  It could be that this anonymous character is actually one of these four women, but we are kept guessing. 

 We are told the story of Gamrah, who is married off to a man who already has a mistress. After they divorce, she is considered “spoiled goods”.  We are also told the story of Michelle, daughter of an Saudi man and an American mother.  Michelle falls in love with Faisal, but because Michelle is not considered to be part of an true Saudi family, has to see him end up marrying someone else.  There’s also Sadeem, who gives herself up (losing her virginity) to the man that she is contracted to be married to.  In between the signing of the marriage contract and the finalization, he decides to break it.  Sadeem falls in love again, but will it work out for her?  Finally, there is also Lamees, who doesn’t seem to play a major part in this book (perhaps because she does find someone she is happy with), but through her we also find how Saudi women are affected by Saudi culture.

All this may seem soap-operaish, but I think it serves to show that even today, there is still many places in this part of the world where women have little say in their own lives, even if some of them become doctors or dentists (the author was a dental student at the time she wrote this book).  Yes, we read books like “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini, that show the gritty lives of women in Afghanistan; but “Girls of Riyadh” shows that even women who are wealthy and on the surface have everything that they ever could want — including college educations — still are restricted, especially in matters of love. 

One of the girls, Lamees, is taken to a police station after she is seen having coffee in a cafe’ with a male student.  In Saudi Arabia, women can only be seen in public with male relatives (including their own husband if they are married), or if they are in a car, with their driver (women are not allowed to drive on their own).

“The thought of finally mixing with the opposite sex was a grand dream for many, many students — guys and girls alike.  Some joined these colleges primarily for that reason, even if the mixing that they anticipated so eagerly was heavily restricted.  Male doctors taught female medical students and male students were allowed to examine female patients, but it was not allowed for male and female students to share a classroom or a lounge.  Contact with the opposite sex would never go beyond some coincidental and transient encounter in the breaks between lectures or at prayer times (facilitated by the fact that the male students tended to pray in the prayer area close to where the female students habitually were), or quick glimpses and stolen glances while about the hospital or riding the elevators.  Still, it was better than nothing”.

In the introduction of this book, Ms. Alsanea states:

“I hope that by the time you finish this book, you will say to yourself: Oh yes, It is a very conservative Islamic society.  The women there do live under male dominance.  But they are full of hopes and plans and determination and dreams.  And they fall deeply in and out of love just like women everywhere else”.

This novel was primarily translated into English by Ms. Alsanea herself, with footnotes here and there.  Interestingly, although there is no credit on the front cover, inside there is credit going to a co-translator, Marilyn Booth.  I happened across an article online, written by Ms. Booth, which seems somewhat angry and bitter.  Apparently, Ms. Booth felt that her translated version was adequate (and better), but that Ms. Alsanea took it out from under her (Ms. Booth’s) nose and changed it to a poor translation.  All I can say is that, yes, there is often a foreign tone (and not always smooth) to how these girls talk and relate their stories, but to be honest it seems more authentic to me.  Too American/English, and it would seem more like just any other novel.  I am sure that this novel is better in its’ native Arabic, though.  I also feel that everytime someone reads and discusses translated works, there is always opinions of how it could be improved, done differently, and so on.  Maybe Ms. Booth’s version is actually better, who knows.   Here is the article  “Where is the Translator’s Voice?”   if you want to read it — Ms. Booth also discusses the problems of being a translator, in general (not getting adequate credit, etc).

So, anyway, if you are curious about Saudi Arabian culture from the female point of view and want to read it in novel form, “Girls of Riyadh” is a good place to start; without too much investment in your time (it’s 281 pages long). 

Any thoughts and recommendations on readings about this culture?  How about your thoughts on translations? 

Disclosure: “Girls of Riyadh” was purchased by me.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 11:33 AM and is filed under authors, book review, books, controversy, multicultural, novels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.