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50books_poc4. Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
Four elite young Saudi Arabian women over several years of their lives. This is chick-lit about young women primarily negotiating love with young men.
I sometimes enjoy chick-lit and initially I was engaged in the story and characters. The writing is gossipy, as necessitated by the form of the book, and not too painful. Unfortunately the pleasure in the book was overshadowed by the fact that the women were so shallow and men-focussed and the scope of the book didn't allow any commentary on feminism or the lives of anyone outside these women's class. It disturbed me to see how little agency these women had despite their education and money. I don't know if it's a fair criticism, given that this is chick-lit and given the world in which the women live.
5. The Boat by Nam Le
I recommend this series of short stories. They're touching and sometimes funny and often very good.
This is the author's first published work so there's a tiny bit where you feel a new author exercising his new author muscles learned in new author school. But in general the stories are deftly written and engaging. The subjects range all over the world and there's always emotional intensity and lovely words.
The first story is cleverly and self-consciously about a writer called Nam who's attending the Iowa Writer's workshop and is told that "Ethnic literature is hot... and important too." A friend says, "You could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins and Hiroshima orphans — and New York painters with hemorrhoids.” The disappointing this is that the author doesn't write about lesbian vampires.
It's hard to criticise the self-consciousness when it's so essential to the story. It's hard to tell how natural the choices are in the story when we've been warned about the writing course. It's tricky because his next work might be better but then it might not be so catchy.
But anyway, the author is good and so is this collection.
Four elite young Saudi Arabian women over several years of their lives. This is chick-lit about young women primarily negotiating love with young men.
I sometimes enjoy chick-lit and initially I was engaged in the story and characters. The writing is gossipy, as necessitated by the form of the book, and not too painful. Unfortunately the pleasure in the book was overshadowed by the fact that the women were so shallow and men-focussed and the scope of the book didn't allow any commentary on feminism or the lives of anyone outside these women's class. It disturbed me to see how little agency these women had despite their education and money. I don't know if it's a fair criticism, given that this is chick-lit and given the world in which the women live.
5. The Boat by Nam Le
I recommend this series of short stories. They're touching and sometimes funny and often very good.
This is the author's first published work so there's a tiny bit where you feel a new author exercising his new author muscles learned in new author school. But in general the stories are deftly written and engaging. The subjects range all over the world and there's always emotional intensity and lovely words.
The first story is cleverly and self-consciously about a writer called Nam who's attending the Iowa Writer's workshop and is told that "Ethnic literature is hot... and important too." A friend says, "You could totally exploit the Vietnamese thing. But instead, you choose to write about lesbian vampires and Colombian assassins and Hiroshima orphans — and New York painters with hemorrhoids.” The disappointing this is that the author doesn't write about lesbian vampires.
It's hard to criticise the self-consciousness when it's so essential to the story. It's hard to tell how natural the choices are in the story when we've been warned about the writing course. It's tricky because his next work might be better but then it might not be so catchy.
But anyway, the author is good and so is this collection.
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