Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Book Shopping in the United Arab Emirates: What I Read This Trip!

Nearing the end of April I must say this has been a very full-on busy month for me personally and although I've kept my tweets up-to-date I haven't overlooked the impact my social life (mainly sun-lounging) has had on my blogging (less posting). I did try to write a bit on my trip but you all know how it is on holiday when you're timing is off and you've got things to do and people to see. Although various social commitments lined up by 'husband' were fab and well worth it, it did leave me with less time to do what I do best in life: Read books!

On the other hand though, I should not be complaining because it has in retrospect been a refreshing and diverse reading time. I did take advantage of my brief stay in the UAE to read books by local Emirati authors. I started with no expectations at all only to be pleasantly surprised by the plethora of upcoming talent in the country. This is a region that flourishes on stories passed on from generation to generation through its elders but the young have taken it upon themselves to record the stories albeit with modern twists and to concoct their own in ways that are insightful of the region's peoples, culture, traditions and yet plausible to its modern-day educated reader.

Again, for fear of sounding like I'd been twiddling my thumbs in between visits to Abu Dhabi's Ferrari World, Marina Mall, and The Emirate's Palace and dinners at the swanky Fairmont Hotel's Frankie's (where I had the most interesting discussion about today's young in the Middle East with a very prominent ME analyst) and the Souk at Qaryat El berri (the best Lebanese restaurant in town), I did manage to finish four works of fiction written by four Emirati female authors; Ameera Al Hakawati's 'Desperate in Dubai' (published in English), 'The Sand Fish' by Maha Gargash (published in English), 'The Night Counter' by Alia Yunis (published in English) and 'A virgin, a Guardian and a Magician' by Sarah Al-jarwan Alkaabi (published in Arabic). Reviews of all these books are one my list of to-do items and will be posted in the next two weeks. 

Looking at my choices I could be accused of being biased to female authors but it is more than that. The UAE is a modern Islamic country that boasts of multiculturalism and equal opportunities to both men and women of its society. In spite of the "westernized" facade, it remains a patriarchal country that relies heavily on its faith and traditions in solving modern-day demands. What I wanted to know is what are women in such a society in such a day and age writing about? Having personally held conversations with quite a few young and somewhat older Emirati women, they came across as educated, well- aware and out-spoken about the issues of today's world and the difficulties they face. I wanted to find out if that was reflected in what was being produced and presented as the nation's literary legacy. I do have a few points on this issue that I feel is worthy of its own post.

I also managed to finish E.L.James' trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed" on my Kindle. Boy, were they amazing getting me through the worst of my flight's turbulence. So grateful was I to have them on my eight-hour journey from and to the UK and also for my three-hour trip from Jordan to Abu Dhabi that I tweeted James and thanked her. I am so glad for the success of this trilogy and no matter what some 'literary' critics will say, I personally think it was about bloody time that this erotic kind of fiction made a come back. Where is its niche? Somewhere I gather between Mills&Boon and Smut. This is mummy porn and really quite frankly delightful.

Women authors were not the only ones to catch my eye. I was very privileged to be handed a copy of journalist, political analyst,writer and Dubai resident Suleiman Al Hattlan's recently published book "Alsharei ya fakhamat al Ra'ees". Al Hattlan also happens to be on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the soon-to-be-launched (May 6, 2012) Sky News Arabia. The book deals with the repercussions that led to the Arab Spring and discusses the Middle East's social hindrances that the Middle Eastern societies are facing and will have to address before any real possible and concrete political reformation can be established. Making peace with the past, accepting past defeats and forever forward with an eye to the distant future are main points of the book. The book's only downside is that its author has chosen to publish in Arabic only although English speakers interested in the state of the Middle East would do well to read it.

I love twitter. It has introduced me to a whole range of authors and their books. One was Paul Craig's "While You Are Sleeping" trilogy (check review HERE) and recently 'The Istanbul Puzzle' by Laurence O'Brien (in paperback as well as on Kindle); A truly enjoyable book and as reluctant as I am to make suggestions to people based on what they've read (stops people from expanding their reading options) I will will make an exception in this case and say that if you enjoyed 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown, you will certainly enjoy this book.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Sand Fish: A Novel from Dubai by Emirati Author Maha Gargash

Why do we choose to read certain books over others? Is it our mood at the time of purchase that determines what titles we are drawn to or is it a book's cover that lures us? Is it an author's name that stands out or a book's RRP? And once the choice is made should one surrender oneself completely and unassumingly to the adventure ahead or do we determine the book a success if it has fulfilled our expectations of it? Would/should an author's nationality alone be reason enough to buy a book and is it fair to burden the author with our personal expectations of how it should/shouldn't be written?

This time I admit that I chose the book for two reasons. The first being its author's place of birth and the second my curiosity of how Emiratis would have lived their life back before oil was discovered under their sands. Here is a female Emirati-born writer  (one of a handful) who has written a novel about a female protagonist living in the Arabian Peninsula in the 1950s. An era about which not much is known due to lack of documented history and the reliance on the accuracy and authenticity of word-of-mouth relay. This is an author who comes from a trading family with roots that extend way back when the United Arab Emirates was a scattering of tribes here and there. It may be fiction she's offering but my curiosity was aroused and understandably what ensued was a natural presumption that this book would shed light on an era and a private people that only few know about.

The book, in general, did not disappoint kicking off with a gripping first chapter that reveals two match makers who have come to determine Noora's suitability for marriage with a series of demeaning (albeit farcical) tests. If she passes then they are to train her to be a devout obedient wife to her new husband. The scene painfully demonstrates the woman is a mere commodity to dispense with as the male counterpart of the family sees fit. Finally Noora is married off to an older man as his third wife, forced to travel far from family and all that is familiar, and has to live under the same roof of not only an old miserly husband, but with his two other wives as well. The insight into how women such as Noora, robbed of all human decency and rights had to rely on their inner strength and resolve if not deviousness when need be to get by is amazing. It was heartbreaking to see the loss of innocence and the suffocation of Noora's mind and personality so that she ends up as she does by the end of the story. If she is accused of self-absorption, it is a reflection of her self-preservation amid the turmoil and chaos.

And then, there is the sex! Hats off to Maha for highlighting this very basic human need that discriminates not between men and women. Sure it was the 1950s in a remote seaside town whose residents were good practicing Muslims and yet they were also human. Humans with emotions and a need to love and be loved and recognized in return. Gargash's story is by her admission a work of fiction so although the reality would have been more restrictive of women's movements in that era (maybe) and that settings allowing for intimacy beyond marriage are hard to imagine (maybe), it is the author's right to choose how her protagonist will act in certain situations whether the reader agrees with her or not.

Although this book may not be one of the best to come out of the Middle East, this should in no way undermine its author's skill in telling a good story. Gargash is a woman who has spent most of her life researching the history and traditions of her region and I am sure she has much more to give. The Sand Fish is well-researched, accurate historically and is a very gripping book once you get stuck into to. Its ending though has been reserved for the realists as it does not get any more real than that.

About the book:


Seventeen-year old Noora (the sandfish) is an independent, fiery and totally sheltered girl growing up in the mountains at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Her father is a deranged old man, her mother gone, and her brother, a once happy boy turned serious and sour decides to marry her off to a rich pearl merchant. 

Third wife to an old unyielding man, she struggles to cope with her new surroundings. Like a fish out of water she struggles to breathe in her life of captivity where robbed of choice, her will not her own, she is left alone to stand up for herself in the face of a husband she loathes and his two other wives residing in the same house as hers. She soon finds out the real purpose she was selected as a third wife is to produce an heir. In all this misery she does find solace in the arms of a lover, a situation that throws Noora's life into a new kind of jeopardy.