Nine Parts of Desire

There are a few notable things about our first piece of truly modern literature on the Middle East. I don't think it's a small thing that the author is a woman or that the focus of the book seems to be on the women of Islam. I also think it is interesting that this is the first book we've been requested to read in its entirety. It's hard not to wonder why this book deserves a more thorough examination, although I have my suspicions.

We've only read four chapters so far. The author introduces the reader to the modern Middle East by relating a story about her own experience as a modern Western woman travelling alone through Saudi Arabia. The tale leaves a rather sour impression. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it reinforces the Western view of the supressed Muslim woman. The most interesting thing about this little story is how she ends it: "I couldn't check myself into a Saudi hotel room in the 1990s because thirteen hundred years earlier a Meccan named Muhammad had trouble with his wives." (p. 3)

What a nice way to introduce the Prophet to a Western audience! (Yes, that is sarcasm.)

I know we're supposed to be determining whether or not our current author-de-jour is working under an Orientalist influence, so it's hard not to view Geraldine Brooks' book with a critical eye. Perhaps this need to identify the Orientalist attitudes in the writing has made me blind to the non-Orientalist portions of the writing, but I can find little in this book that doesn't seem to carry a condescending tone. She's clearly puzzled and disturbed by the status of Muslim women.

However, I do think her history lesson in Chapter Four was actually very good. I think I really started to grasp where the division in Shiite and Sunni Islam originated. Of course, this doesn't mean I can competently relate the complicated history of the Prophet, his wives, and his political opponents.

I'm very interested to see what the rest of this book holds. I'm really not sure where she's going with this, what her ultimate goal is other than to offer a glimpse into modern Islam and Muslim culture.