Ammera Al Hakawati is the writer nom de plume, only God knows who she is as she does not appears anywhere nor does she promote her book in public. No book launches, no book signing events, no book tours, no TV interviews. I guess it is easier to write hiding behind a computer and a nom de plume! This just proves that even though United Arab Emirates presents itself to the world as not only the playground of Middle East neighboring countries but also a modern open-minded country, it is still frown upon for a woman to use freedom of speech without being worried about reprisal!
Anyhow; This book was a fast read I must say and entertaining to a point. The author tell us the story of 4 different women in Dubai. Leila, a Lebanese woman who emigrate to Dubai in order to find a wealthy husband. Nadia, a Moroccan woman who gives up her life and moves to Dubai in order to support her husband career. Sugar, an Indian woman who is running from England and her past mistakes. And finally Lady Luxe, a wealthy rebellious Emarati heiress who is stuck between 2 cultures (Emarati and British) and hence lives a very privileged double life in Dubai.
Even though the book was entertaining and fast paced, (due to the fact that she got “inspired”by the Desperate Housewives TV series), I must say that the way she tells the story of those four women is unfortunately based on a lot of typical stereotypes!
As I was reading through this book, I could feel her condescending attitudes and views toward emigrant women from other country (ie,India,Lebanon, Morocco) and it gave a negative vibe to the book.
In my opinion, she tried too hard to recreate a replica of Desperate Housewives with a middle eastern flair and the result for me was mediocre . On top of this, she somehow in the middle of her narrating stories, find a way to impose her point of view about prostitution in UAE and how UAE woman view and rate other woman who emigrated to UAE. It was at this particular moment that you can feel the subtle masked anger that she abhor towards some nationality!
To sum up, I liked how the book started and how it was going until her personal point of view was imposed subtlety, and that ruined it for me!
I will give this books a 3 stars/5 for effort! would’ve been so much more!
3/5 Stars
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