The View from Garden City

Ok, so you're probably wondering... If I loved this book so much, why only four stars and not five... My only complaint with it was the author's often excessive descriptions of some things. I can be satisfied with one or two adjectives. I don't need a super knit-picked detail of every little thing. It seemed like she was trying to be a little too profound in her descriptions. That being said, otherwise I really liked the stories. Yeah, sure, some of them were very sad and unfortunate, but the women prevailed. I read this novel about four months ago and really found it very moving. Now that I have just returned from a trip to Cairo, I will probably read it again. I found the stories very fascinating. As one of the other reviewers mentioned, some of the stories are depressing. If I want a happy story, I'll watch a Disney movie. I didn't read this novel to be cheered up, I read it because I was curious about the lives of the people whose stories are told in this novel.

Readers will be delighted with this find. In this, her first novel, Carolyn Baugh has shown insight, talent, and sensitivity. I hope she continues to write. The View from Garden City is an unpretentious, engaging novel about the lives of six women in modern day Cairo. At times a bit flowery, she often hits just the right metaphor in a poetic description of the country, its politics, and its every day life. Without preaching or proselytizing , Baugh presents-- subtly -- the ever present paternatistic chauvanism of the culture of Egypt. With great restraint, she is able to separate Islam the religion from that sexism. This is no small feat: In the painfully ritualistic circumcision of a twelve year old, we read "Sometimes they cut just a little bit. Sometimes a lot. The gypsy, she took it all, you see. The whole clitoris. She left me nothing...I wanted to do it to Huda. It is shameful not to. I was on my way with her to Nayna's. But my husband said no. He swore to divorce me if I did it. There is nothing in the religion that commdnds this! he shouted at me. Nothing! He said no man should suffer as he had. I had disappointed him. I never made him happy. I didn't know how." I look forward to her next novel.

If you have ever wished to visit Egypt, this novel provides an utterly satisfying glimpse of the city of Cairo and the lives of the people who live there. The author, Carolyn Baugh, translates observations of both Cairo and its people into words that aroused my curiosity and engaged my senses. This is the story of an American student who studies Arabic and lives in Garden City, a district of Cairo. While she receives her formal education at the American University, she learns much more from the native women she meets and befriends. Ultimately, the stories of six Egyptian women emerge in the novel: captivating stories of arranged marriages, secret affairs, bigamy, divorces, births, deaths, love, pain, and personal sacrifices amid the unforgiving realities of a culture of female powerlessness. Yet, despite the difficulties of life in a highly patriarchal society that deprives women of power, these stories reveal a sisterhood of graceful strength. The author's keen insight and expressive ability are reflected in the following passage. The American student and her friend Meg have been invited to the wedding ceremony of Huda, a despairing bride about to enter an arranged marriage. They have been asked to dance with other guests: "I am overwhelmed. I am the most discomfited of dancers. Simultaneously, chillingly, I am certain that the wedding guests sense it to be a sad occasion, yet all are in desperate conspiracy to produce a joyful atmosphere. They dance madly. As though...as though if they were to stop, and cast a thoughtful eye on the bride and groom, the illusion would be dispelled. The party dresses and hairspray and starched collars and lipsticked lips would melt away, and all present would be left standing in the rags of Huda's despair... Meg and I join the dance, but we cannot prolong the effort for very long...We are incapable of allaying the feeling that we have just witnessed the inflicting of a perhaps fatal wound, and we, along with all present, are guilty of dancing on a blood-slicked floor." The author's clear, descriptive language, with its delightful poetic nuance, evokes the sights and sounds of modern Egypt. In the following passage, the American student describes the scene as she walks through the streets of Cairo toward the university: "Qasr al-'Ayni Street seethes with faces and bodies, and I walk it in a daze that despises the density while thriving on the sudden, forced intimacy of it all. A yellow-shirted man's arm brushes mine, leaving a film of sweat. The woman walking alongside me, her headscarf gathered at her chin by a purple plastic barrette, smells distinctly of onions frying in ghee. A peasant woman passes by with one child straddling one of her thin shoulders and another clutching at her hand in terror of losing it... I sidestep the lemon lady, who cradles a great basket of tiny green-skinned lemons on her wide lap... I am transfixed momentarily by the appeal of the heap of lemons, their skins still glist

The American female has arrived in Cairo to study at the American University. She befriends six neighbors in Garden City. First there is her Arabic Professor Afkar who introduces the foreigner to more than just the language a she introduces her to Turkish coffee while explaining she remains a pariah who was forced into marrying an abusive husband due to a teen indiscretion. Twenty something Huda marries wealth as directed by her parents though she finds her kind spouse physically repulsive instead of wedding the impoverish man she loves. Part of her acquiescence is due to her mother Karima, a female genital mutilation victim. Huda's permanently grieving grandmother Selwa gave birth to twelve children, but only three live. The wife of the building's custodian Yusriyya conceals her pain as her spouse spends more time with his second fertile wife than her. Finally Widow Samira loves her best friend's husband as she always has even when her husband was alive. This is a superb look at the life of women in Cairo as different generations of females share their loves and hates of their restrictive world with the visiting American student. The story line is more a character study series of vignettes than a novel, but is deep as the audience learns what demons haunt and restrain each of the six Egyptian women. Although the prose can get too flowery descriptive at times, fans will enjoy Carol Baugh's strong tour as the sextet provide the student and the readers with a fabulous THE VIEW FROM GARDEN CITY. Harriet Klausner