The Burning Veil [Paperback]

"The Burning Veil" is a contemporary love story between two people with conflicting cultures. The two main characters--Dr. Sarah Moss of Wisconsin and Ibrahim Suleiman, an engineering student from Saudi Arabia--meet and fall in love in Wisconsin. They are both easy going and open minded, but each of them has been conditioned by a different culture. Ibrahim feels it would be a betrayal of his country if he decides to live in the US, and Sarah is uncertain how she would fit in a society in which women are kept veiled and restricted by their male relatives. She needs reassurance that her marriage to Ibrahim would not come at the expense of her independence. To ease her concerns, they decide that she should visit Saudi Arabia before making her final decision. With Ibrahim's help, she secures a temporary position in a hospital in Khobar, the city of his birth and where his family lives. As Sarah becomes acquainted with Ibrahim's family, she discovers that her decision has become even more difficult to make. She is delighted with his father and sister, but has difficulty dealing with his fierce mother and his brother Shaheed, a committed Islamist who hates America. Religion, which is intertwined with all aspects of life in Saudi Arabia, becomes another concern for Sarah. Although her parents are devout Christians, she, herself, is an agnostic for whom religion has been irrelevant. As she watches how the lives of Ibrahim's family are affected by Islam, she is both attracted and repelled by that religion.

In a direct and entertaining style, "The Burning Veil" deals with all the concerns and contradictions that Sarah and Ibrahim face. Their frustrations and hopes are presented honestly, in vivid details and with great sensitivity. The novel also deals with the issue of women in Saudi culture, how they are treated now and what hope they have for the future.

Although much has been written about Saudi Arabia since the horrible events of September 11, 2001, contemporary life in that country, and in particular the importance of family ties and the roll of religion, remains somewhat of an enigma to most westerners. Some of the recently published novels by both American and Saudi writers --for example "Finding Nouf" by Zoe Ferraris and "Girls of Riyadh" (In Arabic, "Banat el-Riyadh") written by Rajaa Alsanea and translated into English by the author and Marilyn Booth--help fill this gap. Yet, good as these novels are, their characters are either members of unusual Saudi families or, as one critic puts it, "upper class Saudi girls (who) might wish to escape their luxurious designer cages." In "The Burning Veil," Jean Grant offers us a fascinating glimpse into Saudi society that is both complete and real. The strength of her novel is in the vivid and lively details with which she presents her characters. Her story moves along at a page-turning pace while it deals seriously with complex issues like religion, women rights, and conflicting cultures. Some parts of the book--like her description of the effects of the events of 9/11 and the fire at the girls' school--are very moving and soul wrenching.

This is not a book for men, I thought. So how come I was still reading it? It seemed little more than a well written, literary version of chick-lit. Why couldn't I put it down? Why did I ignore all those other things that I should be doing to keep turning Burning Veil's pages?

Twenty-nine year old Sarah Moss is a successful emergency room doctor. She's independent and cautious of relationships having been dumped when she became pregnant, a pregnancy which ended in her seeking an abortion. Sarah's experiences at the ER and in her life have guided her to a staunch agnostic belief system. Her parents remain at arm's length, as they are Limbaugh listening, 700 Club watching, proselytizing Christians.

Sarah's life changes when she meets a friend of her brother Pete, Ibrahim Suleiman, who has come to Wisconsin on a Fulbright Scholarship. Ib is a wealthy young Saudi hydrologist, whose father owns and runs a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
Predictably they fall in love, and against her parents protestations she decides to take a six-week ER exchange position in Ib's father's hospital. Sarah wants to see if she can live in a Muslim country with radically different customs, one that both elevates women and severely restricts their freedom.

Veil's plot moves along predictably, and also predictably Sarah's ER stint in the Saudi hospital leads up to September 11, 2001. Here's what kept me reading:

Debut author, Jean Grant's story is chock-full of fascinating people, ones with foibles, serious ones. Some are intensely likeable, some aggravating. There's Malika, Ib's mother, a stern matriarch in a patriarchal society; Ib's brother Shaheen, is as unbendingly fundamentalist in his Muslim faith as Sarah's parents are in theirs, cousin Tisam, an unfortunate closet lesbian in a country that stones them to death, and Ib's sister Layla, a warm, loving follower of fashion where fashion for women may not be worn in public.
Author Grant gradually ramps up the cultural chasm between Sarah's upbringing and Ib's. The pressure builds like a really fine horror film, we know the bad stuff lurks just around a corner but which one. Grant allows the tension to ebb and flow until we wonder if things will turn out fine after all.

They don't.

In its way, Burning Veil is a top-shelf thriller. And Grant allows westerners inside access to Saudi-style, middle-eastern Muslim culture, its graces as well as its warts, and she touches on the fundamentalist fringe that brought the world Osama Ben Laden. Good stuff.

In addition to a riveting storyline, I was fascinated to read about life in Saudi Arabia - especially for women. It made it all the more meaningful when the author has spent over 20 years in the Middle East.... so she wasn't just making things up. Although life there seems so "foreign" and shocking to someone living in North America, the author was able to instill an understanding of the culture as well as an appreciation of the people and their society. This book demonstrates the meaning of tolerance...
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it to others.