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A review by bluelillybooks
One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan Al-Shaykh
3.0
To be honest, I had no idea there were so many issues of (re)translation, retelling, Orientalism, sourcing etc with the stories of Arabian Nights. I’m not quite the expert in Arabian literature unfortunately, but after doing a little research I think that Al-Shaykh’s collection is true to the original stories (in so far that is possible). It is written very accessibly so that lays like myself can easily acquaint themselves with the stories that really make up the mythology and folklore of One Thousand and One Nights. I’m happy to have read what I believe is an authentic rendering of the way these stories would’ve been told and embedded in a night of storytelling.
The first half of the book, I was shocked by the violence and brutality of this ancient society. Arms and heads are cut of at a whim and most of the characters are solely drive by sex and revenge. Still, it makes sense that in an oral setting, characters would have to fall in love quickly -like, marrying after seeing each other for 2 seconds quickly- because a storyteller simply wouldn’t have had the time to develop an intricate romance. As a result, characters are mostly typical and easily interchangeable with a couple of exceptions. Although I didn’t really enjoy most of the stories because of their insistence on gender binaries and cruelty, I did find myself turning page after page. And that’s exactly what the magic of Shaharazad is all about, isn’t it?
The first half of the book, I was shocked by the violence and brutality of this ancient society. Arms and heads are cut of at a whim and most of the characters are solely drive by sex and revenge. Still, it makes sense that in an oral setting, characters would have to fall in love quickly -like, marrying after seeing each other for 2 seconds quickly- because a storyteller simply wouldn’t have had the time to develop an intricate romance. As a result, characters are mostly typical and easily interchangeable with a couple of exceptions. Although I didn’t really enjoy most of the stories because of their insistence on gender binaries and cruelty, I did find myself turning page after page. And that’s exactly what the magic of Shaharazad is all about, isn’t it?