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The Ruins Of Us (2012)

by Keija Parssinen(Favorite Author)

3.61 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0062064487 (ISBN13: 9780062064486)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Harper Perennial

review 1: by Susan Abraham Not a review at all but just a few quick thoughts. Deeply moving. The novelist, Keija Parssinen, writes in a style that makes her writing voice kind to the spirit, no matter the difficulty or complications of a family, cultural, religious or social situation. This is literature especially relevant today as it reflects inner knowledge of the way negative religious influences may worm its way around the darker, quieter corners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This, no thanks to the controversial sermons of questionable 'leaders' that condemn the ordinary, secular lifestyles of the modern-day foreigner or expatriate. The novel is important because the reflects the complex sensitivities that surround the baffled emotions of innocent families who suddenly find ... morea child having escaped to an extremist call and the humane compassion and understanding needed to conquer this failing. It also shows off the potential dangers that met the expatriate working in the Gulf after 9/11. Then there is also the primary plot of an American woman, the protagonist in Rosalie, who discovers after living for 27 years in Saudi Arabia; that her husband has secretly taken a second wife in a younger, beautiful Palestinian woman named Isra. Keija Parssinen handles her psychological study of this 'shocking' development with mastery.
review 2: I loved this book for many reasons. It’s the first book I’ve ever read set in Saudi Arabia, and it was absolutely fascinating. The political, cultural and natural settings mix to create a world so rich and complex and yet so tangible. It feels like I have actually been there. What Parssinen does even better than setting, however, and she does that superbly well, is relationships. She covers the muck and beauty of marriage, the sharp and dull pain of divorce, the scorching and tender love between parents and children. The chapters are narrated by different and individual characters until the final chapter when their thoughts and actions merge painfully, beautifully, desperately. But can the characters remain intertwined? Or must truth be sought individually--in the letting go for some, or staying put for others, in the crossing of borders, in the unknown as much as the known, in ruins as much as kingdoms? I can’t think of a single person I wouldn’t recommend this book to. It is a compelling love story as much as it is the epic story of a country as much as it is the immediate story of a family. less

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