Girls of Riyadh
Girls of Riyadh, or Banat al-Riyadh (Arabic: بنات الرياض), is a novel by Rajaa Alsanea. The book, written in the form of e-mails, recounts the personal lives of four young Saudi girls, Lamees, Michelle (half-Saudi, half-American), Gamrah, and Sadeem.
 | |
| Author | Rajaa Alsanea |
|---|---|
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Fig Tree (an imprint of Penguin Books) |
Publication date | 5 July 2007 |
| Pages | 300f |
Plot summary
The novel describes the relationship between men and women in Saudi Arabia. Girls of Riyadh tells the story of four college-age high class friends in Saudi Arabia, girls looking for love but stymied by a system that allows them only limited freedoms and has very specific expectations and demands. There's little contact between men and women—especially single teens and adults—but modern technology has changed that a bit (leading to young men trying everything to get women to take down their cellphone numbers). The Internet is also a new medium that can't contain women and their thoughts like the old system could, and the anonymous narrator of the novel takes advantage of that: she presents her stories in the form of e-mails that she sends out weekly to any Saudi address she can find. Sex is described in this novel and the various ways it is thought of before and after marriage. Engaging in pre marital sex in the novel has negative consequences for some of the characters who face rejection as a result. The novel also features instances of arranged and failed marriages and discusses the gamble a Saudi women takes when entering into one.
The novel is written in a relatable, confessional style of writing which critics have likened to a global style of chick lit.[1][2] However, Rajaa Alsanea does not define the genre of her novel and states that she is happy to have created her own kind of genre with Girls of Riyadh.[3]
Character Description
Gamrah
Gamrah finds herself entering an arranged marriage unprepared and naive to the type of husband she has committed to following halfway across the world to Chicago. Gamrah's story discusses the gamble a Saudi woman takes entering into an arranged marriage and the consequences a Saudi woman faces when it doesn't go according to plan e.g. divorce, single parenthood.
Sadeem
Finding herself in a seemingly idyllic engagement, Sadeem is abruptly abandoned by her soon to be fiancé and is challenged by the unrealistic expectations the men in her life have for a bride to be. Like Michelle, Sadeem struggles to find a sense of place as she travels between London and Riyadh and avoids the places she has come to associate with her heartbreak. Sadeem's story focuses on creating a life for herself that is entirely her own before accepting love into her life, rather than altering her life to fit someone else's.
Michelle
Being a half-American and half-Saudi girl, Michelle is frustrated by limitations her western heritage imposes on her choices in love in Riyadh as her boyfriend's Saudi family gets in the way of their relationship. Michelle brazenly settles on defying these limitations and pursues her own professional goals in the wake of her relationship.
Lamees
Focusing on her studies in medical school, Lamees arrives late to love and only to discover the rules relationships are far more complex than she first may have thought when she falls for a Shiite Muslim boy.
E-Narrator
The narrator of the novel is the fifth member of the friendship whom the reader does not know the name of and whose story is relatively unknown compared to the other four girls. A well read, red lipstick wearing Saudi girl, the narrator sends a new email once a week after Friday for a year disclosing the secret lives of her friends.
Controversy
Originally released in Arabic in 2005, Girls of Riyadh was immediately banned in Saudi Arabia due to controversial and inflammatory content. Rajaa Alsanea faced criticism and speculation on whether she had the help and influence of a man in the novels writing, given its success. Alsanea carried out many interviews in Lebanon proving her authorship in response. [1]Some critics accused the novel of pandering to western ideals while others applauded Alsanea's novel for its refreshing stance on the Middle East that pushes back against inaccurate stereotypes and also condemns the existence of others in Saudi culture e.g. forced marriages.[1]
Black-market copies of the novel circulated and Girls of Riyadh has been a bestseller across much of the Middle East.[4][5] The book has attracted high-profile endorsement such as celebrated Saudi author and former ambassador to the UK Ghazi Al-Quasaibi, who wrote the prologue and praised it as 'worth reading'.[6]
As of January 2008, English copies of Girls of Riyadh are openly available at major bookstores in Saudi Arabia. The book, published by Penguin Books, is available in the English translation, but has some changes due to difficulties of re-creating the effect of using different dialects of Arabic.
The book is widely distributed, being sold in stores from U.S. to Europe.
The English translator, Marilyn Booth, expressed dissatisfaction with the end result of the translation project. According to Booth, the publishing house and author interfered with her initial translation to the detriment of the final text.[7][8][9]
Notes and references
- Ommundsen, Wenche (2011). "Sex and the Global City: Chick Lit with a Difference". Contemporary Women's Writing. 5:2: 113–115 – via Watermark.
- Al-Ghadeer, Moneera (2006). "'Girls of Riyadh: A New Technology Writing or Chick Lit Defiance Banāt al-Riyāḍ [Girls of Riyadh], Rajā'al-Sāni'". Journal of Arabic Literature. 2: 296–302.
- "Girls of Riyadh Reader's Guide". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- Alsanea, Rajaa. "Review: Girls of Riyadh". www.bookreporter.com. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- Adil, Alev (3 August 2007). "Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea, trans. Marilyn Booth". London: The Independent Books. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- Williams, Sally (29 June 2007). "Sex and the Saudi". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- Owchar, Nick. "Author versus translator", Los Angeles Times, 4 October 2007. Retrieved on 16 August 2009.
- Booth, Marilyn. "Letters to the Editor, 'Girls of Riyadh'", The Times Literary Supplement, 27 September 2007. Retrieved on 2009-08-16.
- Booth, Marilyn. "Translator v. author: Girls of Riyadh go to New York", Translation Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 2, July 2008.