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A review by patchworkbunny
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
2.0
Cited as a Saudi Sex and the City however all it has in common is four central female characters and the theme of relationships. None of the sex or humour that makes SATC work.
This book would have you think that all they think about is men, men, men. I'm sure more goes through the average Saudi woman's mind than that and these are supposedly educated and worldly (at least in an Islamic sense) women. The families are all obsessed with marrying their kids off into the right family...what was amusing in Jane Austen's writing just gets a bit annoying after it is brought up time and time again in this book. Make the point once and carry on.
Saying that, I do know that the translator was unhappy with the translation due to inference from the author. A bad translation can kill a book and maybe that's what's happened here. Also the author was quite young at the time of writing and admitted to only really knowing the upper class society of Saudi. A well translated book on the average women of Saudi might be worth a read.
This book would have you think that all they think about is men, men, men. I'm sure more goes through the average Saudi woman's mind than that and these are supposedly educated and worldly (at least in an Islamic sense) women. The families are all obsessed with marrying their kids off into the right family...what was amusing in Jane Austen's writing just gets a bit annoying after it is brought up time and time again in this book. Make the point once and carry on.
Saying that, I do know that the translator was unhappy with the translation due to inference from the author. A bad translation can kill a book and maybe that's what's happened here. Also the author was quite young at the time of writing and admitted to only really knowing the upper class society of Saudi. A well translated book on the average women of Saudi might be worth a read.