EIGHT MONTHS ON GHAZZAH STREET: Hilary Mantel

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My husband, our two young sons and I lived in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 1991, almost the same time-frame as Hillary Mantel lived in Jeddah on the western side. On the book's American publication in 1997, one reviewer described it as "a bold, searingly honest and uncompromising novel"; [5] while another praised "Mantel's knack for leavening her weighty themes with seductive narrative strategies. It was an interesting read – and I also found the reactions of the group interesting when we met to discuss it. As in UK, Arab expats or immigrants are intrusive and nosy, so the story is actually about Western expats in Arab countries.

Third, this novel seemed written to make a point - always a bad idea for a novelist, especially when the point is so meaningless. The story is modeled after "Turn of the Screw" by Henry James and, as such, leads to a suspenseful ending.My disinter lived in Abu Dhabi for many years, and while that emirate is certainly more westernised than Saudi, there are parallels, especially in expat life.

Continuò a scriverlo anche durante la permanenza in Botswana con il marito, alla fine degli anni Settanta ma uscirà soltanto vent'anni circa dopo l'inizio della stesura.I'd read somewhere, in a satirical critique of Mantel's work, that she is overly fond of a semi-colon; scatters them about like confetti I was led to believe. A large part of the pleasure of reading the book is the virtuosity with which she controls the crescendo. When it comes through early, she joins him in an apartment on, you guessed it, Ghazza street where they were not surrounded by other British expats. Much of the book is about the difficulty of coping with Saudi customs or, in the case of the old hands, how they have managed to find their way around the system.