flori_faith's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
greeniezona's review against another edition
5.0
This book is so lovely that I might have bought it no matter what it was about. But then -- it's the first English translation of what is the earliest known collection of Arabic stories, at least a thousand years old, some of which made their way into The Arabian Nights, but many never read in English before.
I bought this book pretty early in my djinn obsession, but I'm very glad that I waited to read it. Even as I was reading these stories, and enjoying (most of) them, I kept thinking that I probably would not have been ready to deal with these a year ago. Stories so old are just different, no matter what culture they're from, and had I not some familiarity with this form, particularly from Al-Shaykh's One Thousand and One Nights retelling, I think I would have been at a loss. You know, with the horrific racism, and the "oh, well, he raped her, but he married her!" and "well, she cheated on me, so I cut off her nose." That stuff.
So, knowing what to expect, I found this peek into the history of storytelling delightful and fantastic. There was only one story that was all prophecies and god-bragging and this tribe shall defeat that tribe until this tribe is defeated by that tribe that was a slog all the way through and never had a moment of magic. It was work, of course, to read, but I felt duly rewarded for the work.
I bought this book pretty early in my djinn obsession, but I'm very glad that I waited to read it. Even as I was reading these stories, and enjoying (most of) them, I kept thinking that I probably would not have been ready to deal with these a year ago. Stories so old are just different, no matter what culture they're from, and had I not some familiarity with this form, particularly from Al-Shaykh's One Thousand and One Nights retelling, I think I would have been at a loss. You know, with the horrific racism, and the "oh, well, he raped her, but he married her!" and "well, she cheated on me, so I cut off her nose." That stuff.
So, knowing what to expect, I found this peek into the history of storytelling delightful and fantastic. There was only one story that was all prophecies and god-bragging and this tribe shall defeat that tribe until this tribe is defeated by that tribe that was a slog all the way through and never had a moment of magic. It was work, of course, to read, but I felt duly rewarded for the work.
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