Helpful Score: 2
My book club just read this book and we were lucky enough to have a chat with the author. Most of the women in the book live in the same apartment building in Cairo and are related. According to the author, the six middle-class women in the six main chapters are acually composites based upon various women the author met while studying Arabic in Cairo. Even the last chapter about a woman's long adulterous love affair was based upon a story told by someone she met.
When we asked what writing classes she had taken, the author said "none" and it shows in that the writing can be a bit "stretched" at times. I want to say flowery, but that's not the right word. In spite of this, the book is very readable, and the women's stories are facinating and more than just a glimpse into the world of Muslim women in Egypt.
When we asked what writing classes she had taken, the author said "none" and it shows in that the writing can be a bit "stretched" at times. I want to say flowery, but that's not the right word. In spite of this, the book is very readable, and the women's stories are facinating and more than just a glimpse into the world of Muslim women in Egypt.
