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A review by sanango
Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
This book was pretty insufferable but I did feel compelled to finish it - even if just for some redeemable moment that never came or a level of character development that made everything make sense.
The obsession with sex and seemingly having to make sure that every character, regardless of perceived religiosity, was extremely contradictory was really irritating and ironically quite boring. The prose was completely unrealistic and the incessant need to show all the Muslim characters as “sinful” eg drinking wine, being blinded by sex, was overplayed and felt like it was written for the wrong type of audience. Definitely not for the people the book is actually about. Shaymaa who appears to be the model practicing God-fearing Muslim woman in the book’s eyes becomes hypnotised with sex, as do a lot of the characters in a completely unbelievable way.
There are some redeeming factors - and I did become attached to some of the characters and their storylines - with some underlying humanity clear throughout - but that’s just not enough for this to be a good book.
The obsession with sex and seemingly having to make sure that every character, regardless of perceived religiosity, was extremely contradictory was really irritating and ironically quite boring. The prose was completely unrealistic and the incessant need to show all the Muslim characters as “sinful” eg drinking wine, being blinded by sex, was overplayed and felt like it was written for the wrong type of audience. Definitely not for the people the book is actually about. Shaymaa who appears to be the model practicing God-fearing Muslim woman in the book’s eyes becomes hypnotised with sex, as do a lot of the characters in a completely unbelievable way.
There are some redeeming factors - and I did become attached to some of the characters and their storylines - with some underlying humanity clear throughout - but that’s just not enough for this to be a good book.