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W Kraju Niewidzialnych Kobiet (2013)

by Qanta A. Ahmed(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Wielka Litera

review 1: Interesting content, but badly written and some disturbing views of humanity... author appears obsessed with beauty, looks and MONEY.Here we have a honest, straight up-and-down account of a young, female "Westerinsed Muslim" doctor's experiences working in the Saudi Kingdom. The content is interesting. She arrives, is shocked by the cultural differences, but makes friends and starts to understand the Saudi people until she is confronted with her colleagues' hatred of the US. She seems to come to the conclusion that all Saudis hate jews and Americans, which even I know is not true (even though some definitely do; but then, she hasn't really tried to understand why this hatred exists in some Saudis). These kinds of generalisations really disturb me; it is like saying that al... morel we Nordic people are nazi terrorists because of Breivik and his mates. I also can't help wondering how much she really tried to get to know her Saudi friends when she didn't even bother trying to learn Saudi Arabic.Further, she says how terrible she thinks her male colleague is when he talks about this hatred, but in almost the next sentence, she finds him irresistably sexy and will miss him so much when she leaves.. how does that one fit together??? Feels like "he is racist but he is so hot that it doesn't matter". I was also disturbed by her description of "latent homosexuality" (that expression just screams homophobia!!). Finally, the book is NOT well written at all, which is really frustrating; many sentences don't make any sense, as other readers have said here. And why all these excessive descriptions of how luciously beautiful the women are, and how expensive their clothes were? Yes I am sure they are stunning but it was just WAY over the top; made me feel that she is obsessed with looks, money, fashion and expensive accessories, particularly as she also picked on women whose "legs looked like they had never seen a stairmaster", etc.... The one thing I didn't agree with was the fact that many ppl who have reviewed this book thought her description of Mecca was tedious; I didn't think so at all, actually. For me, that was probably the most interesting part of the whole book, but then, I am used to read detailed travel description (Ella Maillart, Robert Byron, Colin Thubron) and love them.I recommend this book if you are interested in Saudi culture, but if you read it, remember that this is just one individual's account of the Saudi Kingdom and yours might be entirely different if you actually went there.
review 2: Don't judge a book by it's cover. In this case it's true. The cover seduced me with it's beautiful image and intrigue. The content however, proved to be a different story,(or lack of it).Try as I might, I couldn't get past the purple prose. It was way too flowery and verbose.By the middle of the book, considering the yawning effect it had on me, I began to question what was the purpose of writing this book? If it was to share her experience and give insight to the Saudi Kingdom, it was not executed well. I didn't really get an insight into HER experience because she didn't give much away in the emotionality department. She drivels on and on superficially and it became clear that this Dr has some serious narcissistic tendencies, hence the over use of a thesaurus showing us how clever she is. The foot notes also directs us to how educated she is. (So she can do her home work - well done Dr.) She insists on airing her knowledge and tries too hard to be poetic, at times contradicting herself within the same sentence, and her observations have an air of arrogance, all hallmarks of a narcissist!Not to mention the ramblings of fashion and her naive expectations.She mentions her own name too many times as though this is how other woman address her, forever lecturing her about their ways. I am not buying it. I couldn't venture further into her deluded world of self importance. Nice cover though... less

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Reviews (see all)

shoshy

Oh.My.Gawd. Terrible! I would not recommend this torture for anyone! One thing the book does do well is portray the author's personality as overly judgmental and even hypocritical. So many statements made about people, their thoughts, lifestyles, etc are mere presumptions. She also finds a way to over exaggerate the simplest of things and frustratingly over describes almost every person she comes across right down to their teeth and nails!! Her experiences of Saudi Arabian people and society were interesting but the crappy writing made this one a BADREAD!!

Meg

This memoir of a British/Pakistani female doctor who spends two years working in Saudi Arabia was an interesting look at life in a bizarre culture, horribly restrictive to woman and even unkind to the men who live in its grip. I felt that the author could have been more concise in talking of her personal social relationships. But this was a revealing look at how a Western Muslim woman found a way to exist (thankfully temporarily) in a extremely fundamentalist world.

Skillz

while this book dragged at times, I really enjoyed the insight to the culture.

gmail

very interesting look @ Saudi Arabia. Most especially her story of the Hajj.

kanshu

Hmmmm......

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