A review by zoolmcg
Love in the Kingdom of Oil by Nawal El Saadawi
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
As a big fan of El Saadawi's works, I was really excited to get stuck into this one. I quickly found, though, that surrealist fiction still isn't quite for me, and so for that reason, I didn't really enjoy this one. The premise and the blurb had me hooked, and the first thirty or so pages were amazing. But after that, I was only gripped occasionally, and a lot of it lend itself to being vague, skim-able description.
Core themes in El Saadawi's work include women and their oppression, especially in Egypt and within Islam. The previous two works of hers I had read - Memoirs of a Woman Doctor and Woman at Point Zero - managed to display these themes wonderfully, in emotive and well written story. But this didn't feel so much as a story, but as a dream or a hallucinatory sequence, chopped up with sparsely used dialogue and repetition. The woman's profession and passions were deeply interesting, but by making the story so detached from her for the sake of social commentary, I couldn't really connect with her as much as I did with protagonists of her other novels.
I really don't have that many thoughts on this one as I wish I did. Most of the things that happened were forgettable and lacked impact. Characters blended together, and most of the time I couldn't tell who was where and what was really happening. I think, in part, this is my fault as a reader, and I just haven't really adapted to this style of writing very well. Perhaps I'll give it another go in the future, but I can say right now, it won't be a very near future.
Core themes in El Saadawi's work include women and their oppression, especially in Egypt and within Islam. The previous two works of hers I had read - Memoirs of a Woman Doctor and Woman at Point Zero - managed to display these themes wonderfully, in emotive and well written story. But this didn't feel so much as a story, but as a dream or a hallucinatory sequence, chopped up with sparsely used dialogue and repetition. The woman's profession and passions were deeply interesting, but by making the story so detached from her for the sake of social commentary, I couldn't really connect with her as much as I did with protagonists of her other novels.
I really don't have that many thoughts on this one as I wish I did. Most of the things that happened were forgettable and lacked impact. Characters blended together, and most of the time I couldn't tell who was where and what was really happening. I think, in part, this is my fault as a reader, and I just haven't really adapted to this style of writing very well. Perhaps I'll give it another go in the future, but I can say right now, it won't be a very near future.