Rituals of Memory in Contemporary Arab Women’s Writing

Gender, an issue that has been in the headlines for decades now, has naturallyalso attracted the scholarly attention of both men and women. In thebook under review, Brinda Mehta, professor of French and FrancophoneStudies at Mills College, inquires into the subject of gender from the perspectiveof a select group of leading contemporary women writers in theArab world whose compositions express the complexities of life for Arabwomen in the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq), NorthAfrica (Egypt,Algeria, andMorocco), and the United States (LosAngeles). The authors areallArabs on both sides, except forDianaAbu-Jaber, daughter of a JordanianbornArab Muslim father and an American Christian mother. The novelschosen for analysis have widely varying plots, but all reflect the place ofwomen inArab society and how they cope with difficult circumstances.The book is divided into six chapters, each devoted to one ormore compositions(novels) by a writer or two, whose stimulation to write was derivedat least in part from their own personal experiences ...