2008-09-15 A pitiful story - but is it true?

The author relates the story of Sultana, a Princess of Saudi Arabia, from her childhood to adulthood. We learn of Sultana's life of unimaginable luxury with palaces, servants, and jewels but, alas, being a female she is a prisoner in her home, subject to the iron will of her father and brother.

This is a good story, but I took it as a fictional story. I never once believed that Sultana was real and that she told these stories. I know the cruelties described in the book exist, but I think "Sultana" is a combination of many nameless Saudi women. Had the author not tried to present this book as a memoir but just reported the officially-sanctioned abominations that women endure there, I would have liked it better. She tried to manipulate me into feeling pity for the poor little rich girl with tedious and amateurish fiction. None of it rang true.

The author lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years; I would have rather read an account of her experiences than this phony-sounding autobiography. It's right to expose these injustices, but the truth is enough; there's no need to embellish it with trumped-up characters.

For a moving and much better-written story of women behind the veil, I recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns.