Alsanea, Rajaa "Girls of Riyadh"

Alsanea, Rajaa "Girls of Riyadh" (Arabic: بنات الرياض‎ Banāt al-Riyāḍ) - 2005

What a fabulous story about life in a part of the world so unknown to us. The Girls of Riyadh are all friends of the author. Sadim, Kamra, Michelle and Lanis let us take a glimpse into their world.

I have grown up in a Western country. Even though in my times girls didn't have the chances they have now - and I don't want to say they have equal chances, they just have more in modern times - we were never as limited as those girls in the novel. I was allowed to go to public dances as a teenager, I was allowed to go to parties in homes that my parents didn't know. And I don't know anyone who couldn't marry the guy they wanted to marry. Well, I know some cases, where the parents weren't happy with the choice but that doesn't mean they could prevent a marriage.

I myself couldn't imagine marrying someone I don't know, someone I didn't choose myself. It's hard enough as it is, so many divorces tell us that it's not easy to keep up a relationship but just getting hitched to someone your parents chose, just sounds impossible to me. And all the other restrictions, those girls can't decide much about their own life. How sad.

An interesting book.

I quite like the cover of the Arabic edition, little emojis. How cute.

We discussed this book in our international online book club in May 2019.

From the back cover:

"When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women - their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture - he caused a sensation across the Arab world.

Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home."

May, Karl "Through the Desert"

May, Karl "Through the Desert" (German: Durch die Wüste aka Durch Wüste und Harem) - 1892 

Karl May is a famous German author who wrote books about half the world without ever having travelled there himself. I have seen several of his stories as a play and on televeions but had never read any of his books even though my husband has most of them since his childhood. A couple of friends convinced me that I really should give them a try. And I did.

This is the first of his many books, the Arabian ones. He is also famous for his Native American exploits where we meet the famous Chief of the Mescalero tribe of the Apache, Winnetou.

In the Arab countries, the author calls himself Kara Ben Nemsi (Karl, son of the Germans) in this book. He travels with his friend and assistant Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawuhd al Gossarah through half of Afrika and Arabia and meets several explorers or other adventurers as well as many local tribes and their leaders. It is a typical adventure story but we learn a lot about the people from the time, the Islam religion and the languages used in that part of the world. Contrary to his North American stories, he has visited the Middle East and seems to draw a lot from his experiences there.

A real adventure story, very worth reading.

From the back cover:

"Karl Friedrich May was one of the best selling German writers of all time, noted mainly for books set in the American Old West, (best known for the characters of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand) and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East. In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America. May also wrote poetry and several plays, as well as composing music; he was proficient with several musical instruments. May's musical version of 'Ave Maria' became very well known."

Trojanow, Ilija "The Collector of Worlds"

Trojanow, Ilija "The Collector of Worlds" (German: Der Weltensammler) - 2006

A wonderful description of life in different worlds at a different time, India, Arabia, Africa. The author has lived in those cultures himself and knows a lot about it.

Description:

"'The Collector of Worlds' is a meditation on the extraordinary life of infamous explorer Sir Richard Burton. The first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, he also discovered the source of the Nile with Speke. His translation of the 'Arabian Nights' is one of the great moments in the encounter between Islam and the West, that scandalised his contemporaries with its salty eroticism. Troyanov's novel does full justice to this great, controversial mediator between cultures. The book imagines his encounter with India as a young officer, and brings to life his trials and travels through the eyes of his Indian servant, the Sharif of Mecca and the former slave who guided Burton to the Nile."

Some of our members didn't like the book, they found it too difficult or boring, to start, too many details (which is what I loved.) Some weren't interested in India or colonialism.

However, quite a few liked it, and I was one of them. It is a wonderful book trying to explain how to understand people in depth. Okay, we might not have liked Richard Burton personally, but I really admire what he did, how he could immerse into the different characters, different cultures, how easily he learned all those different languages, he certainly can be described as enigmatic. You get such an insight into so many different cultures, it's so captivating, fascinating. (The translation was also praised, apparently, the translator did a fabulous job, kept the beauty of the language and the words. I cannot judge this because I read the German original.) The author writes very descriptive, picturesque with humour, the book is beautifully written.

If you enjoy books where you immerse yourself into a book, this is for you. It is incredibly eventful. I never heard of Burton before and was quite intrigued about finding out more. He remains such a mysterious picture.

The questions also came up how much of Richard Burton was the author? Who is Richard Burton? An undiscovered continent, he takes on every type of culture, brilliant man. He was looking for God in all the different religions.

We discussed this in our international book club in April 2010.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2023.

If you want to know more, there is a wonderful non-fiction book with a lot of illustrations and pictures, available in German only, unfortunately:

Trojanow, Ilija "Nomade auf vier Kontinenten. Auf den Spuren von Sir Richard Francis Burton" [Nomad on Four Continents. In the Footsteps of Sir Richard Burton] - 2006