The English Harem [Paperback]

Anthony McCarten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

In this hilarious, provocative, and highly topical story of food, love, and Islam, Anthony McCarten exposes the flaws inherent to a multicultural society, and explores the nature of racism from a startlingly original angle. Supermarket checkout girl Tracy Pringle has a very lively imagination indeed. In front of her, as she blip-blips herself into a daydream, she walks past not boring housewives with screaming children or tired office clerks, but the likes of Lord Byron, Lawrence of Arabia, and Princess Leia. It comes as no surprise, then, that she turns a blind eye when Her Majesty herself pops a pack of tarts into her purse without paying. Obviously, the management sees it differently, and Tracy is fired on the spot and forced to find herself another job. But nothing can prepare her for the new life that awaits her at the Taste of Persia restaurant, where she is flung headlong into a clash of cultures, languages, dinner plates, religions, and a rather tricky domestic arrangement.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"McCarten's novel hovers between indignant satire and engaging comedy of manners while sounding a clarion call against the bigotry and intolerance in our society."  —Sunday Times

"Everyone who reads McCarten’s generous, humane, funny, and moving novel will come away enriched."  —Timothy Mo, author, The Redundancy of Courage

"Anthony McCarten dares to speak of English multiculturalism in the satirical tongue that most native writers keep mute."  —The Observer

About the Author

Anthony McCarten is the author of Death of a Superhero and Spinners. He has also written 12 stage plays, including the worldwide success Ladies’ Night, which won France’s Molière Prize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Alma Books (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846880637
• ISBN-13: 978-1846880636
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad, bad book, July 19, 2006

By 

Charles Pooter "C.P." (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The English Harem (Paperback)

The English Harem started out well - Tracy seeing Literary figures in her supermarket customers was delightful, but that proved to be the only highlight of this disaster. I am always astounded by writers who manage to personify the opposite gender well, making their characters completely believable, but this author is hopeless. One wonders if he knows any women at all. Remember, he is supposed to be writing about Western women agreeing to be part of a harem (where the second wife is taking on the man who accidentally killed the love of her life!!) -really, what is their motivation to do this? The book is a long, drawn-out male fantasy, with glaring inaccuracies about Islam as well. It is a bad straight-to-video movie of a book; the author needs to get out more, meet some real people and some real muslims.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Slightly ridiculous in places, December 5, 2005

By 

Ms. T. Pattni "Toral" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English Harem (Paperback)

I really can't say I enjoyed this book much, and finished it more in the name of morbid fascination than general interest. Its a promising subject matter that could have been interesting, but instead was dealt with in a slightly ridiculous and melodramatic way which left no room for character development or further exploration of the key ideas. It would have been nice if the writer had gone deeper into Sam and his East-West conflict, or the real reasons behind Tracy's obsession with exoticism. Yes, there were points where I wanted to know what would happen next but I was mainly counting the pages to the end, where things turn out to sadly resemble a made-for-video matinee film.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A multicultural adventure, March 10, 2005

By 

Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: English Harem (Paperback)

A young London working class girl becomes one of three wives of a middle aged Persian. Superb characterizations; funny; touching; a novel about goodness (in a totally unmawkish way) in the midst of lack of understanding and (for a few pages) of unbearable wickedness; full of unexpected developments until the very last page.