A Woman of Five Seasons (Emerging Voices: New International Fiction Series) [Paperback]

Leila Al-Atrash (Author), Christopher Tingley (Translator), N. Halwani (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Emerging Voices | Publication Date: February 2002

The poor, the dispossessed, the opportunist -- all flock to the newly oil-rich state of Barqais in search of wealth. A Woman of Five Seasons vividly explores the relations that develop in such countries between local high officials and incoming heartland Arabs. Alongside this a second, highly relevant theme is developed: the poignant coming of age of the Arab woman as she seeks, in the face of traditionally exploitative Arab male attitudes, to win a degree of independence and fulfillment.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Al-Atrash's portrait of a young couple in an oil-rich land is a glimpse into the confrontation between European and Arab worlds. Ihsan wants to become wealthy, upstage his famous revolutionary brother, Jalal, and gain his family's and friends' respect. Nadia has given up her love of books to be a traditional wife and mother, and to help him negotiate a web of petroleum-driven politics. As Ihsan's fortune grows, their marriage increasingly destabilizes. Nadia rediscovers her infatuation with Jalal, but when he tries forcing himself on her just before his wedding to another revolutionary, she becomes disgusted with him. Seeing that Ihsan's travels occupy him more and more, Nadia decides to resume her education. And then Ihsan's infidelity with a European woman becomes fodder for blackmail when his partner decides to take control of the business. Occurring amidst political upheaval, the action of al-Atrash's short novel shows the balance of power in a traditional Muslim marriage shifting as Ihsan and Nadia move from their home culture into a foreign-influenced one. Bonnie Johnston
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

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Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566564166
• ISBN-13: 978-1566564168
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,462,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating, unusual, and highly recommended novel, April 10, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Woman of Five Seasons (Emerging Voices: New International Fiction Series) (Paperback)

Deftly translated into English by N. Halwani and C. Tingley, A Woman Of Five Seasons by Leila Al-Atrash is a unique and fascinating novel superbly written by an Arabic woman who uses a work of fiction to informatively explore women's issues in the highly patriarchal Arabic world. An open-minded wife married to a traditional yet ambitious husband is caught between loyalties and feelings in this captivating, unusual, and highly recommended novel.

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of a marriage . . ., June 19, 2010

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Woman of Five Seasons (Emerging Voices: New International Fiction Series) (Paperback)

Two stories in one, this absorbing short novel tells of the marriage of an intelligent and thoughtful woman to an ambitious man who makes a fortune for them both in a fictional oil-rich nation on the Gulf. His story is of an obsessive rise to power and of taking six- and seven-figure commissions on deals he works out between high-level government officials.

Hers is an equally complex story of yielding at first to the traditional role of an Arab wife and then slowly asserting her independence. While her husband takes an attractive European mistress, she takes up residence in London and finds a partner to go into real estate. Reading, in some ways, like a high-class version of "Dallas," the book is a well-conceived and well-plotted page-turner. It's also a feminist argument against the corrosive effects of traditional gender roles on marital relationships.

5.0 out of 5 stars Ibsen and Al-Atrah(MA Thesis), May 8, 2004

By 

Mr. Yousef M. I. Awad - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Woman of Five Seasons (Emerging Voices: New International Fiction Series) (Paperback)

A FEMINIST AND COMPARATIVE READING OF HENRIK IBSEN'S
A DOLL'S HOUSE AND LEILA AL-ATRASH'S
A WOMAN OF FIVE SEASONS

By
Yousef M. A'wad

Supervisor
Prof. Ahmad Majdoubeh

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to offer a feminist reading of two literary works that are set in two different places and two different periods of time to show how the female hero of each work has moved towards independence from her self-centered husband and from the androcentric society in which she lives. The first work is Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and the second work is Leila Al-Atrash's A Woman of Five Seasons. Though the two texts are historically separated by more than a hundred years, they deal, in a very strikingly similar way, with the dilemma of women in a misogynist society and expose the double standards of both societies in which the two female heroes, Nora Helmer and Nadia Al-Faqih, live.
Nora's deserting of her husband and children is a consequence of the prejudice and the narrow-mindedness of her husband and her society at large. The freedom she has won is a means, a preliminary step to her own self-development. Nora's daring deed is a rejection of the social structures, especially the institution of marriage and motherhood. The echo of Nora's door-slam has reverberated in the ears of Nadia and pushed her to successfully set herself up as an independent woman. Nadia has been exploited by her opportunist husband, who has used her as a means to acquire more wealth. Like Nora, Nadia has challenged all the obstacles imposed by her patriarchal society to become a financially independent and well-established businesswoman. Nora and Nadia say "no" to the injustice inflicted on them by their societies. They revoke the yoke their patriarchal societies, represented by their husbands, impose on them. Their submissiveness and yielding to the authority and dominance of their husbands transform into self-assertion and rebellion against conventions once they realize the oppressive nature of the patriarchal ideology that operates in their societies.
The study pinpoints the fact that many of the standards and conceptions about women prevalent in a nineteenth-century European society are still in force in a contemporary Arab society that Leila Al-Atrash's novel depicts. Hence, the beliefs and ideas that govern and control the lives of women in nineteenth-century Europe are dominant in some the Arab societies. The concept of the "Angel in the House" that has intellectually influenced many of the European women in the nineteenth century is still the rule that governs the life of the Arab family, according to the opinion of many Arab feminists.