Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Feelings
Review: I wish I could give a 2-part review of this book. For writing, I'd give it a 4. Well written and interesting.For content, I would give it a 2. I am a woman, and I have spent time in Middle Eastern countries. While I have not lived in Saudi, I must agree with other readers that she gives a valid yet exaggerated picture of life there. It is valid because things can be like that. Yet it is exaggerated because they are also not that way. Any culture (as every American knows) can be viewed through the lens that portrays it as venal, banal, empty. Or it can be viewed as rich in possibilities and adventure if you approach it from where it stands. To be fair, I think the character of Fran tries to do that. And yet, the people she is with remind me of one set of people I know in Dubai. And they are a handful of empty-headed Brits and Aussies who would rather drink than do anything else. And yet I know Brits, Aussies, Americans, Indians, Arabs, Pakistanis, and Persians in the city who have endlessly enriched my life through what I've experienced in my time there. Also, the explanations of Islam are annoyingly one-sided. For once and for all it is NOT written in the Koran that women must cover themselves. It says only that they must be modest in their dress, and the definition of modest is what changes from culture to culture and from generation to generation. I feel that Mantel never really tries to show us the rich complexity which would make the odd alienation Fran feels that much more profound, nor does she give any insight into why certain people would stay for years. As a final note, if nothing else the book obviously works on one level, because so very many of its reviewers are responding so strongly and passionately to what lies therein. The author has done a good job of touching something for all of us. For a richer understanding of the life of a woman in the Middle East, read Ahdaf Souief's books. She is phenomenal.
Rating: 
Summary: Mantel is unduly negative about life in Saudi Arabia
Review: I, too, am a woman who lived in Saudi Arabia, although for a longer time than Mantel. While I found her book riveting, I also found it unduly negative. Certainly restrictions were irritating and, initially, disconcerting; however, I quickly learned to adapt. My husband and I, after all, were guests in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government was paying his salary and giving him a good job--which was more than he was able to attain in the U.S. What Mantel leaves out are the breathtakingly beautiful moments of living in the Middle East--the morning prayer call; the nights in the desert under a brilliant sky; the thrilling juxtaposition of tradition and modernism; the stunningly beautiful buildings in Riyadh. Mantel has allowed her paranoia to take over. Did she make an effort, for example, to meet Saudi women? Those I met were unfailingly pleasant and polite and, interestingly, content with their lives. There is no point going to another country and criticizing everything you find there. Mantel would have us believe that her protagonist tries to be positive about Saudi Arabia and tries to dismiss the ever-prevalent gossip; however, in the end Frances Shore falls prey to the paranoia of the ignorant which she criticizes in other characters. My life there was exotic and exciting. I read children's stories on Radio Riyadh; I was able to use the (men's) university library to work on my Ph.D.; I camped far out in the desert; I traveled to Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Turkey, Greece and England. These were all things I could never have afforded to do back here and I am grateful I had the opportunity. Mantel leaves out of her novel the beauty of Saudi Arabia--the lift of the heart that comes with the crisp, clear air of early morning winter sunlight. I remember Riyadh with delight and am saddened by the negative emphases of Mantel's book.
Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric Suspense
Review: Like certain pieces of music, this book was strong on creating a vivid atmosphere, while being almost entirely free of "hooks" -- i.e., the momentum of a plot. Yes, something does happen at the end, but we don't know quite what, and in a wierd way it doesn't really matter. I don't have such a problem with the lack of plot that other reviewers did, but what did bother me was that Frances was such a blank. Why did she leave England? Why did she fall in love with her husband? What makes her tick? We don't know, it's almost as if the author wanted to put a blank, generic, white educated middle class Englishwoman down and just watch her interact in this excellently rendered alien environment. Sorry, but I want a three dimensional protagonist. It would have helped if she'd had some kind of back story, after all, no one is a complete blank. While I can understand that one might feel like a blank after several months of nearly solitary confinement, such as Frances experienced, she began the novel seeming that way to me. That was the only weakness of the book. The strength was the excellence of the writing,and the detailed eye that summoned up the locale to perfection. While I was rather disappointed with this as a novel (I gave it four stars instead of three, because the writing style is so much more intelligent and superior to almost any American writer's)I highly value it as a cultural study. When a friend of mine was considering moving to Saudi Arabia for a year, I said, Don't make your decision until you read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Without a Compass
Review: One of the frustrations [and benefits] of going to live in a foreign culture is that the standards and norms used, usually unconscientiously, for "sizing up" people no longer valid. So how do you determine who is your friend and who is using you? How do you determine what is friendship ad what is mere politeness? How do you determine what you "believe" is truly your belief and what is your cultural conditioning? How do you determine what is virtue? How do you determine which "cultural traditions" should be observed out of politeness and which should not? LIving in a foreign culture is challenging, not only because of external adaptations you may be asked to make, but because of the internal self-examinations you will require of yourself. Hilary Mantel is a keen observer of human character, human fraility, human environments, and she describes the environment, emotions and atmospheres with a crystal clarity. Frances and her husband Andrew go to Saudi Arabia, where Andrew, an engineer, has signed a contract to construct a building. They live in an apartment building on Ghazzah Street, where Frances makes friends with the wives there [a Saudi and a Pakistani], and encounters some mystery, as there are sounds coming from a supposedly empty apartment. Mantel carefully builds up the story, horror replacing the stifling boredom of the place as she progresses. Excerpts from Frances' diary are effectively interspersed in the text. The tension slowly rises, to the mysterious end. Mantel paints the varied expat communities (and the ugly corporations that do business there) very well, her opprobrium doled out equally to natives and foreigners alike. The novel is written as an "entertaining read", in a page-turning style -- you are interested in the characters and events. Yet it is a substantial work, addressing important themes: good versus evil, do our choices make a difference, the cost of cultural misunderrstandings, the loss of faith, how any sense of security is an illusion. While entertaining, Mantel is not afraid of the artist's obligation to tell us unpalatable truths about ourselves. My one complaint is that the ending was unclear and unsettled.
Rating:
Summary: Without a Compass
Review: One of the frustrations [and benefits] of going to live in a foreign culture is that the standards and norms used, usually unconscientiously, for "sizing up" people no longer valid. So how do you determine who is your friend and who is using you? How do you determine what is friendship ad what is mere politeness? How do you determine what you "believe" is truly your belief and what is your cultural conditioning? How do you determine what is virtue? How do you determine which "cultural traditions" should be observed out of politeness and which should not? LIving in a foreign culture is challenging, not only because of external adaptations you may be asked to make, but because of the internal self-examinations you will require of yourself. Hilary Mantel is a keen observer of human character, human fraility, human environments, and she describes the environment, emotions and atmospheres with a crystal clarity. Frances and her husband Andrew go to Saudi Arabia, where Andrew, an engineer, has signed a contract to construct a building. They live in an apartment building on Ghazzah Street, where Frances makes friends with the wives there [a Saudi and a Pakistani], and encounters some mystery, as there are sounds coming from a supposedly empty apartment. Mantel carefully builds up the story, horror replacing the stifling boredom of the place as she progresses. Excerpts from Frances' diary are effectively interspersed in the text. The tension slowly rises, to the mysterious end. Mantel paints the varied expat communities (and the ugly corporations that do business there) very well, her opprobrium doled out equally to natives and foreigners alike. The novel is written as an "entertaining read", in a page-turning style -- you are interested in the characters and events. Yet it is a substantial work, addressing important themes: good versus evil, do our choices make a difference, the cost of cultural misunderrstandings, the loss of faith, how any sense of security is an illusion. While entertaining, Mantel is not afraid of the artist's obligation to tell us unpalatable truths about ourselves. My one complaint is that the ending was unclear and unsettled.
Rating: 
Summary: Gross exaggerations
Review: Saudi Arabia is extremely difficult for Westerners to live in. It is restrictive. However, most of the information about Saudi Arabia is grossly exaggerated. Women cannot drive but they are free to take a taxi alone at any time. Western women don't bother covering their hair and they often allow their abbays to hang open. The book is a shallow adventure story that plays on people's ignorance of the East in order to create tension. The characters are flat and the environment is lacking in authenticity. Take a pass on it.
Rating:
Summary: Gross exaggerations
Review: Saudi Arabia is extremely difficult for Westerners to live in. It is restrictive. However, most of the information about Saudi Arabia is grossly exaggerated. Women cannot drive but they are free to take a taxi alone at any time. Western women don't bother covering their hair and they often allow their abbays to hang open. The book is a shallow adventure story that plays on people's ignorance of the East in order to create tension. The characters are flat and the environment is lacking in authenticity. Take a pass on it.
Rating:
Summary: Dull Story - Interesting Cultural Study
Review: This book had amazing potential to be a real page-turner but it failed miserably. The characters were not only shallow and uninteresting, but they were unlikable as well. I especially found it hard to like Fran's husband, whose unbelievable self-centeredness and arrogance angered me at every page. After moving to Saudi Arabia for a job that he wanted, he proceeds to treat his wife almost as condescendingly as the Saudi's treat their own women. They move into a depressing housing complex where they have a depressing apartment and depressing neighbors who sit around drinking coffee and discussing cultural differences. These discussions were, in my opinion, the most interesting part of the book because they taught me about cultures I knew very little about. Mantel attempts to bring intrigue and mystery to the story by introducing an empty apartment in the complex that is veiled in secrecy. Is it a love nest? Do illegal events take place there? Unfortunately, we never learn the whole truth and this in and of itself was VERY disappointing. It's like there was no payoff for trudging through this story.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, creepy; great female protagonist in exotic locale.
Review: This is a briskly entertaining read. It is creepy and funny by turns, with a well-realized female protagonist and an interestingly exotic locale. The plot is intentionally opaque, and this adds to the tension; there may (or may not be) murders, kidnapings, and other skullduggery in and around the heroine's hermetic apartment building, and we may (or may not) find out.The vividness of the place (Saudi Arabia) brought to mind Graham Greene's African novels. (Why are the Brits so good at this?) Mantel's style takes a bit of patience, but it pays off quickly. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Transported me to another world!
Review: This novel transported me into another world and into the mind of a woman who inhabited it. I think it is irrelevant that we never know exactly what happened--we are able to better understand the unravelling of Francis Shore. I loved this work so much that when I was halfway through the novel, I stared over. I didn't want it to end.
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