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A review by inherbooks
The Consequences of Love by Sulaiman Addonia
3.0
Reading this is what I imagine it’d be like to encounter a dementor and having it suck all the colour and joy out of your life. While the pages are completely dry and not tear-stained like I expected, it really brought me down.
"The Consequences of Love" by Sulaiman Addonia is about an Eritrean named Nasir living in Saudi Arabia as a lifelong foreigner who falls hopelessly in love with a veiled girl. Their love grows through love notes tossed in passing, fleeting moments. Think Romeo and Juliet but setting: Saudi.
This book is a very strong commentary on the *culture* in Saudi Arabia that is often mistaken for Islam, but shouldn't be. While I was reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder if this book is banned in KSA. The story takes place in the late 80s/early 90s where religious police patroled the streets to enforce the religious law making sure no one loitered (especially when prayer was about to begin – can’t be found outside of the masjid), boys and girls didn’t look at each other, even for a second, no music, no tv, and women were dressed from head to toe (gloves included) and so on. That is all stuff most of us might already know or have heard about but what took me by surprise was the way men resorted to other means to fulfill their desires, given every door was closed otherwise, and discusses sexual assault and trauma without going into detail. This book was out of the box in describing the male experience more in depth as most books set in Muslim countries talk about the female struggle and I found it to be very different from Sulaiman Addonia's other novel, Silence is My Mother Tongue. It makes me feel uneasy that a part of me doesn’t doubt that this is a very close depiction of reality.
Would I recommend it? I don’t know. It’s definitely going to ruffle a few feathers, bring your mood down etc. When I would put myself in the main character’s shoes, I felt suffocated. It’s like trying to breathe through a paper bag and passing out from too much CO2. I really need time to recover from this one.
"The Consequences of Love" by Sulaiman Addonia is about an Eritrean named Nasir living in Saudi Arabia as a lifelong foreigner who falls hopelessly in love with a veiled girl. Their love grows through love notes tossed in passing, fleeting moments. Think Romeo and Juliet but setting: Saudi.
This book is a very strong commentary on the *culture* in Saudi Arabia that is often mistaken for Islam, but shouldn't be. While I was reading this book, I couldn't help but wonder if this book is banned in KSA. The story takes place in the late 80s/early 90s where religious police patroled the streets to enforce the religious law making sure no one loitered (especially when prayer was about to begin – can’t be found outside of the masjid), boys and girls didn’t look at each other, even for a second, no music, no tv, and women were dressed from head to toe (gloves included) and so on. That is all stuff most of us might already know or have heard about but what took me by surprise was the way men resorted to other means to fulfill their desires, given every door was closed otherwise, and discusses sexual assault and trauma without going into detail. This book was out of the box in describing the male experience more in depth as most books set in Muslim countries talk about the female struggle and I found it to be very different from Sulaiman Addonia's other novel, Silence is My Mother Tongue. It makes me feel uneasy that a part of me doesn’t doubt that this is a very close depiction of reality.
Would I recommend it? I don’t know. It’s definitely going to ruffle a few feathers, bring your mood down etc. When I would put myself in the main character’s shoes, I felt suffocated. It’s like trying to breathe through a paper bag and passing out from too much CO2. I really need time to recover from this one.