I Want to Get Married!: One Wannabe Bride's Misadventures with Handsome Houdinis, Technicolor Grooms, Morality Police, and Other Mr. Not-Quite-Rights by Ghada Abdel Aal, Nora Eltahawy (Translator)

 

Summary:

 

The rules may differ from country to country, but the dating game is a universal constant.

After years of searching for Mr. Right in living-room meetings arranged by family or friends, Ghada Abdel Aal, a young Egyptian professional, decided to take to the blogosphere to share her experiences and vent her frustrations at being young, single, and female in Egypt. Her blog, I Want to Get Married!, quickly became a hit with both men and women in the Arab world. With a keen sense of humor and biting social commentary, Abdel Aal recounts in painful detail her adventures with failed proposals and unacceptable suitors. There's Mr. Precious, who storms out during their first meeting when he feels his favorite athlete has been slighted, and another suitor who robs her in broad daylight, to name just a few of the characters she runs across in her pursuit of wedded bliss.

I Want to Get Married! has since become a best-selling book in Egypt and the inspiration for a television series. This witty look at dating challenges skewed representations of the Middle East and presents a realistic picture of what it means to be a single young woman in the Arab world, where, like elsewhere, a good man can be hard to find.

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 160 pages (Paperback)

Source: Toronto Public Library

Available Formats: Print

Publication Date: October 15th 2010 by Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin       

 

After having this book on hold for over a year at the library (I'm still baffled as to why it took so long to get the shipment in and have thee books go into circulation) I was finally able to read it in October. I suppose my tardiness in finally writing a review for it makes sense seeing as how long I waited to read it.

 

This was my read for Egypt for Around the World challenge last year and I'm really glad I gave it a try. I'm always interested in learning about other cultures and I  love learning the customs behind seeking a husband or a wife so this one suited me quite well.

 

I loved Ghada's quirky, up beat sense of humour and I think the translator did a reasonably good job of translating the text from Arabic. I completely understand that somethings are bound to get lost in translations but I was really glad that the author's voice shined through the translation as well as it did.

 

While I was reading this I found myself laughing at least 90% of the time and 10% of those laughs resulted in me laughing so hard I had tears. Ghada's many trials and tribulations on the marriage market were hilarious to read about.

 

Many people may not agree with the way that marriages occur in other places in the world but I thought this book based on Ghada's blog gave an interesting look into the life of a would be bride and I really enjoyed reading her stories. I loved getting to know her friends and family by reading the book and you can tell that there is a lot of love and mutual respect in her family and you can totally tell that she's a Daddy's Girl (rather like I still am).

 

Despite the fact that I really liked much of the book the fact that it was made up of blog posts was both a positive and negative. The negative was that the book didn't flow all that well and I found myself reading it in spurts not straight through but that's just me and I'm sure others would have no problem with this aspect.

 

Overall, I found that the book was a good read, interesting and pretty informative. The laughs it held were hilarious and I would recommend this to anyone wanting a fun read that will allow them to experience life in another culture.

 

 Liked It!
★★★ 1/2

 

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