The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

In a very narrowly focused novel Rajaa Alsanea gives us a look into Arab culture. The view is skewed because it is all about people of means, and pretty much ignores everyone else. It seems that upper class girls in Saudi Arabia have just enough freedom to get into impossible romantic entanglements. When the subject of marriage arises, both the men and women are forced to knuckle under to the demands of an ancient culture as enforced by their parents. Alsanea blames men for this situation, but it is often the mothers of the men who insist on a marriage that confers social status on their sons. The Girls of Riyadh centers around four girls and their intriguing stories. The only annoying thing about the novel is its structure of being written in emails; each chapter starts with the author's remarks to her electronic audience and this seems entirely superfluous.