A review by marilynsaul
the yakoubian building by Alaa Al Aswany

1.0

I started this book with great hopes. It soon became apparent it was a soft-porn (very soft) book for guys. When the author declared that the women were all so happy to be appreciated in a sexual way whenever their husbands wanted sex, I thought "how can this guy speak with such assurance as to how the women felt??". My experience from living in the Middle East is that women, especially in a society that disavows modern birth control, are more concerned about yet ANOTHER pregnancy and are not at all happy about having to have sex whenever their husband demands. In my reference to "modern" birth control, in the village in which I lived, my adopted "Um" instructed me that in order to prevent birth, I had to piss on an anthill under the full moon. This is definitely a guy book, and I can fully understand how it became a best seller in Egypt; but I'm quite sure everyone who bought and read it was male.