Customer Reviews

Beduins Gazelle

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was neither extravagantly wonderful or treacherously boring. In fact at the beginning it was exciting and then as the story progressed it became bland. And then there was a sudden turn at the end of the book, where the sheik handed over Halima to Atiya.The story didn't go through smoothly. I can see how some people would like the book, but I would not recommend it.

The love story between Atiyah and Halima is told in beautiful language and with much suspense. When Atiyah is forced to go study in Fez, then Halima is lost in the desert, you wonder "will they ever see each other again?" I liked this book more than the Ramsay Scallop.

I read this book when I want a good laugh. It's like the author wrote it after watching soap operas taped over the movie "Hidalgo". When I see a book that promises adventure, romance, and a bit of good historical fiction and it falls short-- I can't help but wonder what was going through the author's mind (or the editor's mind for that matter)!

That aside, the story started well. I enjoyed the creative story-telling language. And some of the cultural references were interesting, albeit confusing at times.

But I was greatly disappointed by the characters, which seemed to be drawn well, but lacked personal conviction. Halima was, in the end, just a damsel in distress (and very resigned to it too, I might add). This would have left a perfect opportunity for her boyfriend Atiyah to step up and be the valiant hero, but instead his friend Etienne does most of the action. Atiyah is the most exciting when he is reciting poetry, but that is all. This is a book of secondary characters: the kind where you wish the author would chuck the first prototypes out the door and start over with the support crew in the lead.

After I was finished it, I wondered why I had wasted my time. The ending seemed too easy, and there wasn't really any climax to Halima and Atiyah's romance. Not to mention that their friends were the only ones who thought up any kind of plan to keep them together...whilst they were sighing over the inevitability of their separation.

To conclude: don't spend your time or money on this book unless you like this sort of thing, or you want to chuckle over the weak plot. The poorly made picture on the cover basically says it all.

the book was beautifully written and shows exaclty how even bad people can have goodness in them to do the rigght thing. the book is a bout Halima(a girl slim and strong as th e date palm, fleet-foted as a gazelle) and the boy she is in love with, Atiyah(a boy of promise and hope, whose name means Gift of God). Atiyah has been sent away as a political pawn to study in Fez. As Halimas tribe moves to a new camp she is lost in a sandstorm and captured by an emeny tribe. The sheikh wishes to marry her in 3 moons time, the only way for that not to happen is if Atiyah comes to resue her.

The Bedouin's Gazelle - Even the name tastes of poetry. This lyrical story of young Halima and Atiyah is a magnificent word-picture of desert living in 1302 AD (680 of the Hegira according to the Muslim culture) - a place where "wool gathering" indicates molting camels as well as daydreaming, and nomadic tribes follow the rain. Temple's metaphors and expressions consistently reflect the environs; they're exotic imagery that the reader pauses to savor. I have delighted in reading and rereading this book, "dancing in the desert among flowers."

This book is aweful! Who wants to hear about a girl dreaming of her lover who leaves to go to college, and he will return in 2 months?