Running on an Arabian-tale high, I picked this one up after reading Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, and Girls balanced the weighty after-effects of Princess quite well. I knew that Princess had a deliberate, slightly outdated outlook, and I wanted to read something more current, balanced, and varied.
I found Girls of Riyadh sitting valiantly on a front-row shelf in the Mid-Manhattan NYPL. I already had the books I wanted: I passed it. I walked back. I picked it up. I smiled: Just what I was looking for!
The Rundown
Country: Saudi Arabia, 2005 (Saudi Version), 2008 (English Version)
Author: Rajaa Alsanea
Genre: Novel
Languages: English & Arabic
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 300
Love it or Hate it? Love it!
Synopsis in A Sentence: An anonymous writer reveals the escapades of her 4 girlfriends, Sadeem, Gamrah, Lamees, and Mashael (Michelle) through weekly-emails.
Think: Gossip Girl meets Sex and the City
The Good: A fun read! It’s extremely enlightening and insightful: light-hearted, yet politically heavy. It’s the kind of book you’d read to take a break off everything serious, only to realise that you’re actually reading something serious!
The Bad: The tone may be a bit too bubbly and vivacious for some male readers, but if you’re bold enough to pick this up, you’d be too engrossed in the story to be bothered by the tone… and it’s a fun tone too!
The Verdict: 4.5 Stars- A complete guilty pleasure! Much fun!
Memorable Quotes:
1. “Ladies and Gentlemen: You are invited to join me in one of the most explosive scandals and noisiest, wildest, all-night parties around. Your personal tour-guide—and that’s moi—will reveal to you a new world, a world closer to you than you might imagine. We all live in this world, but do not really experience it, seeing what we can tolerate and ignoring the rest…”
2. (After quoting a poem from Nazir Qabbani) “Right you are Nazir Baby! Your tongue be praised, God bless you and may you rest in peace. Truth be told, though you are a man, you are indeed ‘the woman’s poet’ and if anyone doesn’t like my saying so, they can go drink from the sea!”
3. “My hair is now fluffed and teased, and I’ve pained my lips a shameless crimson red. Beside me rests a bowl of chips splashed with chilli and lime. Readers: prepare yourselves. I’m ready to disclose the first scandal!”
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