A review by ohnoitscoco
I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops by Hanan Al-Shaykh

4.0

A very enjoyable collection of short stories from the Arab world. Most of them involve the relationship dynamics of the Arab culture--men/women, marriage, conservative/liberal dress, Europeans/Arabs, etc. Many of them also talk about how Western culture has snuck in and what people think of it--some become obsessed and totally abandon their own culture only to find later they've denied themselves, some reject it totally, some in between. An interesting look at women, veils, sand, and what happens behind closed doors. (August 2009)