Girls of Riyadh in Around the World

Apr 09, 2012 Angela rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world-in-52-books, saudi-arabia

I enjoyed the Girls of Riyadh. It is not the most literary piece of work, but it is a fun read. It gives you a glimpse of the dating scene, or lack thereof, in Saudi Arabia. The book is a series of emails written by an anonymous young lady about her four friends, Michelle (Mashael), Gamrah, Lamees, and Sadeem. The story goes through the trials and tribulations of their love lives. You have one who tried and failed at the arranged marriage, and had to live life marked as a divorcee, which apparen ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Daisy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: arabia

Blech.

Burger King-loving, label-conscious, heavily made-up, materialistic girls looking for love in a culture where women are less than second class.

(Please also see Shoshanapnw's review. She gave it more thought than I could and says it better than I did.) ...more

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Apr 26, 2010 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary, fiction, novels, romance, chick-lit, literary-fiction

This can be described as Sex in the City in Riyadh. Chicklit with a Saudi Arabian accent. That show is even referenced in the book, about four friends, young women of the wealthy and educated "velvet class," trying to find love in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Originally written in Arabic, the author helped translate it into English. She writes about the difficulties of adapting the story for a Western audience in an Author's Note and admits that her story isn't that of all Saudi women, but says sh This can be described as Sex in the City in Riyadh. Chicklit with a Saudi Arabian accent. That show is even referenced in the book, about four friends, young women of the wealthy and educated "velvet class," trying to find love in contemporary Saudi Arabia. Originally written in Arabic, the author helped translate it into English. She writes about the difficulties of adapting the story for a Western audience in an Author's Note and admits that her story isn't that of all Saudi women, but says she does "hope by the time you finish this book, you will say to yourself: Oh yes. It is a very conservative Islamic society. The women there live under male dominance. But they are full of hopes and plans and determination and dreams. And they fall deeply in and out of love just like anywhere else." In other words, they're nothing like me, yet very much like me.

Mission accomplished.

I've seen this described as an epistolary novel, but doesn't really read like one. The bulk of the book is written in the common third person perspective. But each chapter begins with comments framing the story, which is supposed to be composed of emails from a mail group, seerehwenfahda.net. The unknown narrator teases her readers. Is she one of the women whose stories she will tell? She speaks of the reactions she's getting from readers--and the author seems prescient because I can see all those reactions in reviews of the book on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

The book begins and ends with a wedding. It opens with he wedding of Gamrah Al-Qusmaji and Rashid--celebrating an arranged marriage doomed from the beginning. We'll then meet Sadeem Al-Horaimli, who finds herself divorced before there's even a wedding. In the marriage contract, her husband was asked for a signature--she was asked for a thumbprint. There's the ambitious Michelle (Mashael Al-Abdulrahman) whose first love drops her because his family doesn't approve of a potential wife whose mother is American. And there's the sophisticated Lamees Jeddau, a medical student; she's arrested by the religious police for sitting in a cafe with someone of the opposite sex.

There are times reading this novel when I'm swept away by how alien Saudi culture is, a society steeped in Sharia law and that seems so repressive that I imagine only North Korea or Cuba could be worse. The way women are often treated seems so horrendous (they can't make contracts, can't legally drive a car) the only thing comparable I can think of was what it was like for a black in pre-Civil Rights Movement America. But then I find myself identifying with one or the other of the girls, and think of some of the Neanderthal things I've heard come out of the mouths of people here about women and relationships, and I can't say I feel that comfortable a distance. Gamrah is the most traditional in her values and most trapped and passive in her circumstances and Michelle by and large rejects the ways of Saudi Arabia. The other two, Sadeem and Lamees, struggle to find a way to keep what they value in their culture and yet pursue happiness. I particularly felt for Sadeem and her experiences with love and seeing past it and through it. I ended the book sorry to say goodbye to them. This wasn't the kind of book that impressed me because of the writing, but one I will never forget because of the experience of reading it, and how it made me think.

The book is banned in Saudi Arabia. ...more

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Apr 19, 2011 Priya rated it it was ok

Shelves: other-cultures, young-adult, chic-lit

Here’s what we’ll do: we’ll take Sex and the City. Replace New York with Riyadh. Take out the American culture and in it’s place, let’s have the culture of the elite classes of Saudi. And the 4 gorgeous ladies? That would be 4 University students from Riyadh – Gamrah, Michelle, Sadeem and Lamees. What do you get now? Right. Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea.

Girls of Riyadh is an inside peek into the lives of these four educated University students and the book unfolds as a series of e-mails sent Here’s what we’ll do: we’ll take Sex and the City. Replace New York with Riyadh. Take out the American culture and in it’s place, let’s have the culture of the elite classes of Saudi. And the 4 gorgeous ladies? That would be 4 University students from Riyadh – Gamrah, Michelle, Sadeem and Lamees. What do you get now? Right. Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea.

Girls of Riyadh is an inside peek into the lives of these four educated University students and the book unfolds as a series of e-mails sent out to a yahoogroup, chronicling the events from the lives of each girl. We know the writer of the emails has to be one of these four girls, but we do not know who! The story begins with Gamrah’s wedding to a well-do-to Saudi boy, and branches off giving us a brief history of their lives and culture.

Gamrah is the less ambitious of the four. She gets married to a seemingly nice boy, and has this dream of the perfect wedded life, starting with their honeymoon in Italy. Does her dream come true? Is marriage all that it’s cracked up to be, for Gamrah?

The beautiful Sadeem is Gamrah’s best friend, a management student and is soon engaged to be married to a handsome, almost Prince Charming like Waleed. Her courtship starts off like a fairy tale, but will it end in a nightmare? Did she get too carried away in her affections for Waleed?

Michelle is Mashael Al-Abdulrahman’s pet name. She is the least conservative of the four, owing to the fact that her mother was American. She refuses to get pulled into the constricted perspectives and lifestyles of the other girls in the University and tries to be the same she would have been, had she been in America. Would she fall in love with a Saudi boy, who can adjust with her open mindedness? Will it work?

Lamees is a straight-As student and is on her way to becoming a doctor. She’s the tom-boy of the four, smuggling video tapes of movies to school (banned by law). After a particularly bad incident involving her friend’s brother, she retreats into herself. She then meets Nizar, a fellow trainee at a hospital and Cupid strikes. Does Lamees get the fairy tale ending that the other girls so wanted?

Girls of Riyadh would probably fall under the chic-lit genre. And that’s not such a bad thing, no. The prose is effortless and what I enjoyed personally was the little glimpses we get into the culture itself. It’s such a low cost way to travel to Saudi, isn’t it? Personally, once in a while, I end up craving such books when I’m in middle of some heavy reading like Coelho or Kafka. Something to take my mind off, something easy-going and smooth.

Pick up the book if you want a soap opera’ish story, with a couple of twists and turns. If you’re a culture aficionado like me, you’ll enjoy it. Only thing to remember? Chic-lit. ...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Sue Kozlowski added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 196-countries, z-196-read-saudia-arabia

I read this book as part of my quest to read a book written by an author from each of the 196 countries of the world. The author of this book is from Saudia Arabia.

My first reaction to this story was that I was surprised how much freedom Saudi women are given. I know that is ironic, given how the book describes how much restriction is placed on women. I was under the impression that Saudi women could not hold jobs or work outside the house. Obviously, my exposure to Saudi culture and experience ...more

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Jun 26, 2013 Jenna Garrett rated it liked it

Shelves: around-the-world, middle-east

A 2.5 read for me- an extra 1/2 star because of the cultural insights.

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Aug 22, 2008 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: middle-east, 52-books-atw, 2012, non-fiction, memoir

I am giving this books a preliminary 4 stars, but am looking forward to discussing it in the MENA group and may adjust my rating a bit pending that discussion. I want to get a getter handle on how true to life the picture she has painted really is. That being said, the story was interesting and she discusses many issues of Saudi life, but does it in a light hearted way. I definitely enjoyed reading it.

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Feb 24, 2009 Hardcover Hearts added it

This is pure pop lit/ chick lit. I normally don't go for that type of book, but what made this one interesting was the locale and characters- young Muslim women living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was interesting to hear our version of the chick lit genre from another perspective in a culture very different from the US. ...more

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