Another book from a women's studies class that we never got to read in class.

A very quick and powerful read. I'm not sure I am a fan of the repetitive prose but it was definitely a gripping tale made even more so by the fact that it was based on a true story. It'll be available until I can release it.

Sending this off to BCer ciloma as a wish list RABCK. Enjoy!

2011-09-11 => This arrived in the mail today. Looking forward to reading it. Thanx a bunch!!
2022-02-01 => Wow. Short and intense. Such a story. The philosophy belongs to all women everywhere.

On its way to MmeClinton

Just arrived in the mail, and I've already read the preface. It will be intense and intensely interesting. Many thanks, Cindy!

Review: Woman at Point Zero (Nawal El Saadawi) My wishlist kept on Bookcrossing is ludicrously long, so often I do not recall why I put any particular title on it. But I consider the books sent to me as RABCKs to be serendipity reading. This is a little jewel, albeit painful to read, as short as it is. Nawal El Saadawi is an "Egyptian novelist, doctor and militant writer on Arab women's problems and their struggle for liberation". This small novel grew out of an encounter by the author with a woman named Firdaus (it is her story which is the basis of the novel) imprisoned for having killed her pimp and due to be executed, unrepentant. The author was at the time researching neuroses in women and had been visiting the prison in which Firdaus initially refused to talk to her. In the book, her short and often miserable existence at the hands of many men, from father to uncle to forced marriage husband to prostitute by accident and by choice, is revealed in one long monologue in the hours before her death, which she welcomes as a statement of freedom. Of course, not every woman in Egyptian society has a husband who beats her or men who don't love them, but the poor suffer inordinately in life, and Firdaus' story breaks my heart. It seems to ramble occasionally, both her story and the reflections of the narrator, but then I recall that neuroses are at work, a reflection on hope and helplessness, an expression of agony in real life. As America moves backwards in its view of women's freedom, this tale does not seem so foreign. Some "Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows." The only truly good time in her life was when she had achieved relative independence by becoming a highly paid prostitute such that she never wanted for good food and culture; her education brought her nothing but low-paying jobs with just enough to survive abysmal living circumstances. Money does matter, enormously, especially for those with little or no power. Our daughters need desperately to learn the economic truth of independence, and I hope all of them will only deal with good men (or women) in their lives, those who respect and genuinely love them and will go to bat for the freedom every human being deserves.

on the bench near the entrances