I picked this up at a library book sale. The L.A. Times say “[One] of those rare books with the power to shake up an entrenched society.” Really? Did the critic even read the book.
Ok, the author was young and this is her first and, I think, only book. I don’t think it’s going to shake anything up.
The writing seemed very adolescent to me - and these young women, who are all in college, act like teenagers in a sitcom.
Is this really how the ‘girls’ of Riyadh act?
The only one I liked was Michelle.

Basically Saudi chick lit.

A cautionary tale about what can happen when women have absolutely no legal power in a religion-based country. It’s a work of fiction, but I’ve read that much of it is based on the realities of Saudi life. I was struck by how utterly love addicted most of the female characters were. Addiction or culture?

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea has an interesting story behind the book. It began as a type of blog. Every week, Alsanea would send out stories to subscribers about her friends, whose names were changed in the book. Each story builds to the larger story of the book, it isn’t just a collection of random stories.

The publishing group sums up the book as so:

When Rajaa Alsanea boldly chose to open up the hidden world of Saudi women—their private lives and their conflicts with the traditions of their culture—she caused a sensation across the Arab world. Now in English, Alsanea’s tale of the personal struggles of four young upper-class women offers Westerners an unprecedented glimpse into a society often veiled from view. Living in restrictive Riyadh but traveling all over the globe, these modern Saudi women literally and figuratively shed traditional garb as they search for love, fulfillment, and their place somewhere in between Western society and their Islamic home.
In each chapter, before she starts that week’s story, she responses to her readers and also provides a lyric, poetry, or line from the Quran.

This blog turned book caused quite the buzz in the media in Saudi, which can be seen in her commentary in the beginning of each chapter.

After its debut in the Middle East and the author’s tough decision, it was released in America.

It was definitely an interesting read because of the life this took on in the media.

Girls of Riyadh is more of a young adult read that talks about four friends in the wealthy or “velvet” class. These women are in their 20s and are experiencing things like marriages, school, and discrimination.

As I’ve read in reviews, it isn’t an accurate depiction of a typical Saudi woman’s life. I believe, however, it is a good book to read just for what it went though in the media and that she does real life accounts of her friends lives. It was a nice addition that at the end of the book she told what her friends thought of this project, how some of them helped, and how some of the friendships were severed because of it.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

I have carried this book around for a while. I got it from my friend Alan when we last visited him in Singapore. I needed something fun to read and this fit the bill. The author wants to tell stories of young women to address some of the contradictions of Saudi society. I guess all the recent bad press for the kingdom from killing a journalist to the humanitarian crisis from their dirty war in Yemen drew me to read it in order to connect to the people. We are all just people. Other things are happening in Saudi Arabia such as putting out music videos creatively demanding the right to drive (+ parodying Trump) and gaining the right to drive: https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/872087866266055/
A blurb said this book is Sex and the City for Riyadh. It is Sex and the City without the sex. Both this book and Sex and the City depict trying to find self-love while looking for that special someone in the context of the contradictions of their own moment and place. Having lived in the UAE, which Alsanea refers to as a more open Saudi Arabia, I just felt like these women could have been my students. They and these characters know that women need the love, openness, and confidentiality of other girls and women to survive. Romantic love would also be nice.
This is an epistolary novel told in weekly installments on a yahoo group written every Friday (Jum'ah), which is "Sunday" in the Muslim world.
She calls out hypocrisy: "May all repent for their sins after reading about them on the Internet" (57).
She depicts heartbreak particularly well: "As the days passed, she no longer listened to such songs to give herself comfort, but rather to keep herself immersed in the intoxication of grief that she had discovered after the failure of her first love. This was an experience she had in common with most lovers who have suffered loss or betrayal; a masochistic ordeal where pain becomes pleasurable. The trauma leads us to create a tent for wise thoughts in which we sit to philosophize about our life that is passing by outside" (62).
Finally, the author originally published this in Arabic with some English and then actually rewrote it to work in English which is unusual and really paid off. She uses common Arabic words and offers definitions that appear at the bottom of the page.
This is a fun read with some cultural insights.

للأسف راودتني نفسي بأن قراءة رواية قديمة تجربة مهمة، لكن رجع لي عقلي بعد ثلث الرواية.
أسلوبها سلس وممتع، أفضل بكثير مما يدعي الناس
والقصص أيضًا اعتيادية، مثل أي قصة اسمعها من زميلاتي بالجامعة
كالعادة، كراهية الناس لهذا النص لم أجد لها مبررًا سوى رفضهم لتصديق الواقع

Hmmm....it captured a slice of life in the upper crust riyadhi society and was interesting for all that it said, how it was said and what was left unsaid. However, I don't have the experience/ knowledge to comment on its authenticity.