Ebook/ 132 Pages
Contemporary/ Short Stories
By: Anna Halabi
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟
Book provided by the author in exchange of an honest review!
🌟 So this is an anthology of stories about brides and newly married women. I am not the biggest fan of short stories as I feel like always lack the proper story development. The good thing about this book that is I did not feel that, I was not confused, I could relate more to the characters and maybe that stems from my background as an Arabic guy!
🌟 Those stories kind of reminded me of the short stories we had in our school Arabic books, they are meant to be taken lightly, not too serious and sometimes there is a moral behind the story. My problem is that I am a hard to please guy and that growing up I was never a fan of those stories so you will probably like this more than I do and nothing is personal!
🌟 What came to my attention is that some of those stories felt unreal to me although the author’s note says they are stories of people she does know so you really never know! Like the story were the wife told her husband to hit her and prior to that the way he described what he did felt unrealistic to me, see this quote and tell me if men talk like this:
“I made mloukhieh[71] and rice. Your favorite,” he said nervously, trying to fill the silence. “The laundry is ironed and folded. I helped the boys wash up and tucked them into bed. They finished all their homework, ate their dinner and watched TV for only half an hour. Not a minute more. I promise.”
🌟 I don’t want to discuss each story by itself but some stories were better than the others! One story showed some racism not from the author but from the characters which is realistic specially to servants in the Arab world but I wish it was handled a bit more carefully and the closure was better in that story!
🌟 Summary: So this is a collection of short stories about Brides and it is just that, not less and not more! I think they should be taken lightly and not over-analyzed. If you are curious about marriage in the Arab world then this is a recommended read. I also liked that the Arabic worlds were used only were necessary and were an alternative wouldn’t have conveyed the same meaning.
The book prescription 