Customer Reviews

Cinderella in Arabia: A Cross-Cultural Autobiography

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is Katie. I'm an English girl and I have read two of Jean Sasson's books. (Princess and Daughters of Arabia) and while I admired the heroine, Princess Sultana, I was so depressed after reading the second in the series that I would not read the third. After reading these two books, I borrowed Cinderella in Arabia from a friend who once lived in Kuwait. I read the book with interest and felt badly for the "heroine Monika," but really, I couldn't admire her--she is a bit too abrasive and angry tempered for me. I would have thought she would have met one decent Kuwaiti in all the years of living in Kuwait, but according to this book, every Kuwaiti is less than human, so obviously she did not meet an admirable Kuwaiti, which is shocking, just on the face of it. After reading the book, I came to this site to express my opinion and encourage the writer Monika to rethink her hatred of Kuwaitis as the world has enough hatred without a writer hating the father and family of her own children. Then I read the honey kitty review of 04 29 10 and was intrigued by the accusation against Mrs. Sasson, since I had read two of that author's works. Over a course of several weeks I did some research. This is a report of my findings for the sake of honey kitty who I now know is obviously repeating rumors without shaking a leg to do research. Tragically, it appears that the author of Cinderella might well be delusional. She is the person who is responsible for endless lawsuits and accusations. She is the person who sued Mrs. Sasson. The final court records show that the judge (or jury) can't remember which, fined the author of Cinderella in Arabia for bringing a frivolous lawsuit to the courts. After reading the document, I researched the archives of several newspapers and I discovered that The Guardian ran a piece where Mrs. Al-Amahani (aka Adsani) claimed that not only did Mrs. Sasson steal from her but that Deborah Moggach, an English writer of fiction, also stole from her. When researching I found that Mrs. Adsani and one of her sons had sued the Kuwaiti Government and then sued the British Government (unsuccessfully both times from what I could find)
What am I to make of this? From my research, it seems that Mrs. Sasson was not sued by anyone but Mrs. Adsani. Since the Princess books are still selling, it would appear that no one has won a court case against Ms. Sasson or she would no longer be published. I also found other print documents where newspapers and or magazines shamefully printed accusations voiced by Mrs. Adsani without doing research to see if the accusations had any basis in fact. It appeared that the pieces were written long before the case was heard by the courts, before the accusations were found to be false, and the author Sasson was completely cleared. Quite clearly what honey kitty wrote is simply untrue. Add to my findings that the author of Cinderella appeared to hate everyone in her world, from her in-laws to her husband, to other people she met. Something serious is wrong when a person cannot find one redeeming quality in anyone around them.
In case you are curious, I am a research clerk in judicial chambers, and I have knowledge of how to find facts, rather than rumor, and I am passing on the facts to the readers in order to neutralize reckless rumors that have no place in the world of the internet or anywhere else, for that matter.

It is people like Monika Adsani that should not be allowed to write, sorry, write?I dont think she can write, throughout her book all I got was hatred and a very unstable personality. I have read J. Sassons books to compare, 5 starts,thats a writer.
DO NOT READ THIS BOOK...its full of hatred, anger and self pitty. We need to unite and try to understand different cultures, not put them down so cowardly.

I am Kuwaiti so I purchased this book with the idea that I would hear the story of a Western woman's adventures and enjoyment of a foreign culture. I have lived to regret it. I am now thinking in shock that any publisher would publish a book that is so racist against all Arabs... This author has insulted every living Arab. This account of a woman who only thinks of herself and considers herself a grand beauty and every Arab male a panting dog after her and every Arab woman jealous of her looks and skills and talents! While it is true that every blonde woman gets looks in the Arab world, this woman talks as though she was Miss World come to our country.

This book is nothing but a Western woman talking about nothing but how every Arab she meets is filthy and does not know how to eat or behave in public and have filthy homes that makes her sick. She talks ugly language in this book with language that a man would freeze one shocked position to hear a woman speak.

This book is a disgrace to the Arab culture and every living Arab man and woman walking the face of the earth. I do not think any person with feelings would think this is a book to be read.

It's obvious that Ms. al-Amahani is no writer. Given her experiances in Kuwait, it is understandable that she dislike the Muslim culture and Arabs in general, but it's not an excuse. Over and over in the book, she tells the reader what a pretty, talented woman she is, while being surrounded by fat ugly women and an unfaithful husband.
Signs of narcissistic personality disorder are:

Reacts to criticism with feelings or rage, shame or humiliation
Takes advantage of others to achieve own goals
Self-important
Exaggerates achievements and talents
Preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, beauty, intelligence, or ideal love
Unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment
Requires constant attention and admiration
Lacks empathy

Al-Amahani show all these symptoms

I read this book to see how similar it was to Sasson's Princess books. The common themes were (1)women are oppressed in Arabic countries, and (2) mothers-in-law are jealous of their daughters-in-law. Other than that, the books are quite different. "Cinderella" relates horrible tales of oppression at the hands of her in-laws and husband throughout the entire book, unlike Princess Sultana's short run-in with her mother-in-law which resolves early in the book. Cinderella's distaste for Arabs in general colors much of the book, and her high opinion of herself is at times embarrassing (unlike Sultana's frequent self-criticism). Cinderella relates her experiences from the viewpoint of a middle-class freeborn woman. She is not afraid of hard work (cleaning up her inlaws' filthy residence, starting a restaurant), unlike Princess Sultana who doesn't cook or clean--she has servants at her beck and call. The Cinderella book is long and full of fantastic tales of abuse that go on and on until you don't see how anyone could take so much abuse without losing their mind.

I feel bad that Monika had a bad marriage to an Arab, but I found her book to be extremely insulting to Middle Eastern men. I found her constant observation of how incredibly attractive she was and how foul Arabic women are, hard too stomach.

Monika obviously had a bad experience and harbors a great deal of bitterness, but I feel that her story could have been conveyed in a more professional manner, without being so vulgar, insulting and sarcastic. Her ex-husband doesn't represent all Arab men.

I had a hard time being sympathetic with her character (author) because her ex-husband had proven to be unfaithful from day one (huge red flag) and he had also allowed her the opportunity to open several businesses in Kuwait (he can't have been that bad??).

I commend her for taking the time to write the book, but I think that her message/story would have held more weight if the narration was written differently. The poor narration made it hard to respect Monika, in addition it presented Monika as a scorned and bitter woman.

This is a plain simple hate book, and the writer clearly shows that she DOESN'T know how to write at all. This book seemed too unbelievable to be true, I highly recommend to read Princess by Jean P. Sasson.

Poorly written, inflammatory trash.

It is obvious the "author" is no writer, it reads horribly. The author also appears to have a massively high opinion of herself and seems to justify bad attitude and behaviour as being ok?
This lady really has no idea of how to behave, and also of what other people want to read.

I'm glad I bought this second hand so none of my money lines the pockets of this unlikeable woman!

A dear friend of mine was recently getting rid of a box of books and she invited me to take anything I wanted before she donated the rest to the library. That's when I came across "Cinderella in Arabia." My friend told me that the book was lousy, but she insisted that I take it because she felt that even the library probably wouldn't want it as a free donation.

They say "don't judge a book by its cover" but in this instance I really should have. The book is choppy, poorly written, includes a rather indecisive subject matter and the main protagonist is an extremely unlikable individual.

The book is very hateful, the author, Miss Al-Amahani attacks everyone. Her ex-husband, her in-laws. No one is off limits. And nothing is explained as to why the author has so much acrimony towards these people in even the least bit of cohesiveness.

Perhaps most disturbing is how the author writes about the Kuwaiti people. She writes about them as if she has met every single Kuwaiti. If one could take every stereotype of a Middle Eastern Kuwaiti, and put it in a blender, this is the sludge that would come out.

I also got the feeling that Miss Al-Amahani despised all Arabs. She felt as if she was superior to them because her writing resonated a type of emotion that is truly filled with hate. The author never bothered to explain why she felt this way, other than the fact that she was superior to all Kuwaitis. She wrote as if everyone in fact, in the Middle East was so incredibly beneath her.

Another thing that I noticed is that the editorial content was incredibly poor. The author's writing is amateurish, at best. There are very basic punctuation mistakes and many other errors. She should have gotten a good editor and a ghost writer to help her because it was obvious that she needed as much assistance as possible.

The book is equally filled with Anti-Semitism and Anti-Everybody-Else, especially Arabs. The author seems to have so much hate towards Arabs. I don't know why though because she lived there, yet never describes anything in a coherent pattern.

I don't know how a book like this can get published. It amazes me that something so incredibly sub-par could find a home on bookshelves. In any event, I can think of one good quality of this book. It makes a wonderful birdcage liner.

I carefully read all the reviews and I am in the middle regarding my opinion of this book. This is not a great book by any stretch of the imagination, but the author obviously worked hard to tell her life story so I give her credit for her determination to expose the hideous family she married into--they do sound absolutely dreadful--and I feel sorry for this poor European woman who found herself stuck in Kuwait with a bunch of people who appear quite uncivilized. I only wonder why she did not leave the first year when she discovered the kind of life she would have to live. And, I wonder how her sons (thank goodness she did not give birth to any females) have fared being a part of such a unhappy situation.

Even though not a literary kind of read, I think it is worthwhile since it is a unique in that there is not another one like it that I know of--the life story of a European woman living in Kuwait. There are a large number of books written from the Arab female perspective, but none that I know of from the European female perspective.

Therefore, I take the middle approach. If you are interested in hearing about the life of a European woman married into a Kuwaiti family then it might be worth your time and effort. Just be prepared to plow through some tedious writing to get to the heart of the matter.