The one I read was called 'The Night of the Miraj'. This is indeed the author's first novel. The crime and its discovery story are very tedious and repetitive to follow. But what makes this book most valuable is the tension introduced by religious piety on a culture. All women have to veil and the men have to take pains not to even glance at them for fear of becoming impure. This is Wahabism of the extreme quality. Just one gem of an example in the book. The hero and heroin go out on a date with the heroin's minder who is basically someone required to keep the religious police away. They want to buy ice cream and eat it while sitting in a closed compartment of a ferris wheel which is three minutes of walk away. Simple anywhere else in the vile and corrupt world, but in the righteous Kingdom of Saudi Arabia apparently not so. Why, because of the fact that the heroin has to lift the veil in order to eat the ice cream the she cannot do so publicly. Therefore the owner of the shop has to provide an icebox which is then used to carry the two measly ice creams to the privacy of the ferris wheel before they can be eaten.
If the author wanted to portray Arab Bedouin's as some sort of hero status than she is failed miserably to convey this message to me. After reading this book I have further begun to dislike the Saudi culture I am afraid.
No comments:
Post a Comment