Sunday, February 14, 2010

By Reviewed by John French

"Finding Nouf"

Zoô--ë Ferraris

Mariner Books

$13.95 (paperback)

'Finding Nouf" by Zoô--ë Ferraris is a murder mystery set in Saudi Arabia. I had not read a murder mystery in at least 40 years but "Finding Nouf" was my wife's book-group assignment so, as is often the case, we read it aloud together.

This is Ferraris' first novel and she writes well. Her images are vivid and she knows how to sprinkle suspicious people and events through her story to keep the reader's interest piqued. Also, because Ferraris lived in Saudi Arabia with her then-husband and his extended Saudi-Palestinian-Bedouin family, the reader can feel comfortable that her description of Saudi life and customs is authentic.

The book's title, "Finding Nouf," is not to be taken literally because Nouf is dead before the opening scene. Her body is quickly discovered but the living Nouf is found only figuratively as the unfolding story reveals her conduct and her dreams.

At first separately, and then in an uneasy partnership, two amateur sleuths doggedly piece together the facts of the life and death of Nouf ash-Shrawi, a 16-year-old member of a Saudi family of great wealth, influence and prestige who is days away from being married. The first of these is Nayir al-Sharqi, an insightful Palestinian desert guide whose help is sought by a friend in the Shrawi family. The second is Katya Hijazi, a woman in a society that disfavors education for women who has somehow earned a PhD and obtained a job as a laboratory technician in the Jeddah coroner's office. She is drawn into Nouf's case because she is engaged to marry Nouf's brother and Nayir's friend, Othman al-Sharwi.

If you are a mystery fan, there is plenty in "Finding Nouf" for you to enjoy. Nayir plays "Mr. Outside," finding clues and interrogating suspects. Katya plays "Ms. Inside," analyzing clues in her laboratory microscope.

Indeed, there are so many clues -- Nouf's shocking pregnancy, a suspect's hair sample, a large bruise above the eye of the camel-keeper's daughter, a camel that has been stolen and recovered, a truck that has been stolen but not recovered, a blanket found in an abandoned zoo -- that the reader is repeatedly called upon to distinguish between genuine evidence and red herrings.

For me, though, the most intriguing aspect of the book is its exposure of the social and sexual relationships of the Saudi people. Foremost is the rigidly enforced segregation of men and women. Hijazi's education and employment suggest the beginnings of change but only the beginnings. Women must wear the burka. The only difference in this regard in the attitude of Saudi men is that liberals are satisfied if the woman's hair is covered but the orthodox Arab insists on covering the woman's entire head and face.

No woman may venture outside her home without a male member of her family or a male escort hired by the family to accompany her. There are religious police who are free to approach any man and woman seen together in public to inquire about their relationship. If they cannot prove they are family, say brother and sister, or produce a marriage certificate, they may be subject to imprisonment and even hanging.

In this respect it took me a long time to warm up to the book's hero, Nayir. For much of the book, he is a religious prig, often nervously discomfited by the sight of a woman's eyes or ankles. Though he is portrayed as a good man, not an extremist, I found his thoughts, which are described in detail, to be the Muslim equivalent of puritanical. Katya, on the other hand, while respectful of tradition, is willing to push the envelope as far as it will bend. By the closing chapters of "Finding Nouf," Katya has, with difficultly, succeeded in making Nayir a sympathetic character.

Katya also impresses because she wanted to work and overcame serious obstacles to find a paying position. In contrast, the Shrawi women lead lives that involve no employment at all, not even domestic tasks in the home, because non-Saudi servants are hired for that work. To one brought up in a Western culture, it is an unattractive picture.

It is likely that Nouf, had she lived, would have followed Katya's path into educational and professional independence. Perhaps predictably, her imaginative and rebellious spirit brought her down, which, in the repressive Saudi society, comes as no great surprise.

What does surprise is how she is brought down, and by whom. To me, this aspect of the story is improbable and unconvincing. People one would expect to honor the most conservative principles of Saudi life instead behave unethically and immorally even by the loosest of Western standards.

But perhaps I am too harsh. Perhaps one of the djinns that populate Ferraris' book has simply transformed me into a judgmental, disapproving Arab.

By the way, my wife's book group loved this book and devoted at least a full half-hour of a two-hour meeting to discussing it, which they claim is probably an all-time record.

("Finding Nouf," first reviewed in these pages by Jennifer O'Lear when originally published, is of such pertinence to current events that we feel it deserves this further review from John French.)