Keeping up with my former monthly reviews, here's my July's blog.
This novel is brand new, having just been published this year by Arabic female author, Randa Jarrar. It was on the "new books out" shelf at my local library. I really enjoyed it but have to categorize it in the "female niche" section. It is filled with humor and honesty. It's an easy, fast read about a young girl born in the States, moves to Kuwait with her family (she's "mixed race"; her dad is Palestinian and her mom is Egyptian/Greco), escapes when the Persian Gulf War breaks out, goes to Egypt and finally she and her family land back in the U.S. in Texas by the time she is 14.
Nidali (the narrator/heroine) wants to write and is quite a rebellious kid who always pisses off her nasty-tempered father who wants her to avoid boys at all costs. He smacks her all the time and dictates her life, telling her to study and get her Ph.D. one day. All she wants to do is write, write, write and dad finally acquiesces and "allows" her to finally escape the prison of her family when she's 17 whereupon she chooses to go away to college in Boston which is where the story ends.
It's very amusing and witty. Though I'm not Arabic, I can relate to this young girl who feels not whole, but half, and is confused and undergoing puberty, all the while living in the Middle East during war time.
A four star read.
